Folk art, with its deep expressions of cultures, values, and traditions, reflects experiences of communities and artists in an increasingly connected world.

A collaborative project between the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market and CCA, our 2013 film series presents the beauty, challenges and inspiration woven into folk art. Join us in a celebration of cinema that reflects traditional cultures from around the world.

The series is produced by the International Folk Art Market – Santa Fe, with films curated by Emmy-winning writer-producer Kirk Ellis (JOHN ADAMS) and CCA Cinematheque Director Jason Silverman.

April 17 • Opening Night Party! — Devi (The Goddess)

5:30 p.m.  Tickets: $20

“Ray’s feeling for the intoxicating beauty within the disintegrating way of life of the 19th-century landowning class makes this one of the rare, honest films about decadence.” –Pauline Kael

Celebrate Indian culture with appetizers and chai from India Palace, a traditional Indian dance performance, an inspirational video message from Market participant Reema Nanavaty of India’s Self Employed Women’s Association, and a rare screening of Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece. Devi follows the story of Kalikinkar, an aging patriarch who dreams that his daughter-in-law Doyamoyee is an incarnation of the goddess Kali. After Kalikinkar insists the villagers worship her, Doyamoyee miraculously heals a sick child. Believers line up, and Doyamoyee begins to believe in her own powers. Despite its anti-establishment message, the gorgeous, haunting Devi won the prestigious President’s Gold Medal in 1961. (India, 1960, 97m, digital video courtesy of Janus Films)

May 15 • The Story of Qiu Ju

7 p.m.  $12

“Mr. Zhang’s keen and universal view of human nature raises his work far above its own visual beauty and into the realm of timeless storytelling.” –New York Times

Zhang Yimou, China’s greatest living filmmaker, tells the story of a young village woman (the radiant Gong Li) living in traditional ways. After a local official insults her husband, she travels to the big city in search of justice, navigating the baffling modern world. Zhang has created one of the most striking films about the challenges of contemporary China, featuring a keen sense of its rhythms and landscapes and providing a miraculous balance of the absurd and the poignant. (China, 1992, 100m, 35mm print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

June 12 • Central Station

7 p.m.  $12

“A richly tender and moving experience … Salles, like De Sica and Renoir, displays a pure and unpatronizing feel for the poetry of broken lives. His movie is really about that most everyday of miracles: the rebirth of hope.” –Entertainment Weekly

In Rio, the callous Dora (the legendary Fernanda Montenegro, nominated for an Oscar) writes letters for a parade of the poor and the illiterate. After hearing the story of a recently orphaned nine-year-old boy, she decides to take him on a search through the countryside for his father. In this Golden Globe-winning road movie, Walter Salles (MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, ON THE ROAD) shows us the peoples and cultures of Brazil—both traditional and modern—as you’ve never seen them, and celebrates our potential for rebirth. Followed by a pre-recorded Skype interview with director Walter Salles. (Brazil, 1998, 113m, 35mm print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

All films will be shown at the CCA Cinematheque

Advance ticket purchases encouraged online, these shows are likely to sell out.
1050 Old Pecos Trail • 505.982.1338 • ccasantafe.org

Members of the Market community attended the formal launch of the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise at the U.S. Department of State, hosted by and in partnership with The Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, November 27, 2012.

As a founding member of the Alliance, the Market proudly joined with our fellow 22 founders and global stakeholders to announce the launch of this important, new public-private sector led alliance designed to support and grow artisan enterprise, improve livelihoods, sustain craft communities, preserve cultural heritage and contribute to sustainable economic and social development.

Over the last six months, we have been privileged to be involved with the initial planning and launch of the Alliance. Members of the State Department’s Office of Women’s Global Issues traveled to Santa Fe for the 2012 International Folk Art Market to meet with our staff, observe our Artist Training Programs, visit with artisans and learn more about our ten years of work with folk artists from around the world.  Joining the Alliance as a founding member was a natural extension of our mission to provide opportunities for folk artists to succeed in the global marketplace.

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Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro, IFAM Executive Director

The International Folk Art Market begins a new chapter in its 10th Anniversary year with a new Executive Director, Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro.

Shawn joins us in Santa Fe from San Diego, California where, for the past eight years, she has worked with Project Concern International (PCI), a leading health and development organization. Her passion for art and her experience working in the developing world led her here, to the International Folk Art Market.

While at PCI, Shawn launched “Women Empowered”, a savings-based empowerment program designed to help the most vulnerable women in the world. She also led the organization’s re-branding effort and its 50th Anniversary celebration.  She recruited an impressive list of collaborators and influential supporters for PCI including: famed Peruvian economist Fernando de Soto; Kenneth Kaunda, the first democratically elected president of Zambia; Kenyan activist Wahu Kaara; musician and activist Bonnie Raitt; Zimbabwean international recording star Oliver Mtukudzi; and Mohammed Yunus.

Shawn finds inspiration in the incredible people she has met while working in the developing world – like William Kamkwamba. William created a windmill made out of found objects on his farm in Malawi and wrote the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.   Her proudest accomplishments have been the life-long friendships she has forged with beneficiaries like Tobias Tembo – a former street child from Zambia and now a graduate of the University of Zambia – and Pintuk Jha, the first graduate from PCI’s shelter home, who is now a student at a technical college in Delhi, India.

Shawn was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and is an alumna of the University of California – Santa Barbara where she earned a bachelor of arts in history with a Latin American emphasis and a certificate in Global Peace and Security. She also holds a certificate in fundraising from UCLA. She began her career with the American Red Cross as a field representative in South Central Los Angeles and served as the public information officer and shelter manager during the civil unrest following the Rodney King beatings.  From there she went on to a fundraising positions with White Memorial Medical Center, the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation and the Ocean Institute.

A self-described sufferer of “wanderlust”, Shawn continues to travel with her young family.  In fact, she’s been known to empty her suitcases to make room for folk art and other treasures found during her travels.  Her husband and two daughters will be following her here to New Mexico on her next big adventure. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming them to Santa Fe!

 Janet Nkubana tells the amazing story behind Gahaya Links Collective

Nearly two decades after the Rwandan genocide, women of the formerly warring Hutu and Tutsi tribes are sitting down together to weave baskets for the Gahaya Links collective. “[It's] really amazing to see how a small piece of work, how culture can restore values in people, how healing comes through a small basket,” said Janet Nkubana to CNN in an interview this week. Read her amazing story and watch her fascinating interview [here] to find out how, against all odds, Nkubana helped to organize women in Rwanda and found the Gahaya Links collective.

The collective started its operations in 2004 and has grown from 47 to over 4,500 weavers.  At past Markets, Janet Nkubana has been the representative for Gahaya Links. This year, her sister Joy Ndungutse, will be in Santa Fe.

Joy Ndungutse will represent Gahaya Links at this year’s Market.

Joy is a native Rwandan whose story begins in a Ugandan refugee camp; there she grew up with her mother and sisters and it was in the camp that she first learned to weave baskets. Luckily for Joy, she received an education and later had the opportunity to come to Washington D.C. where she helped found the Ugandan Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO) Washington Chapter. When she later returned to her native Rwanda after the genocide, she and her sister saw the devastating aftermath of the tragedy on many women in the country who, after their husbands were killed, were left as the sole breadwinners of the family. Basket weaving is a common craft taught to Rwandan women, and it was Joy and Janet’s dream to see the handiwork of these women turned into a method of making income for their families.

Today, thousands of formerly impoverished women are earning money from their art. “Once you earn an income,” said Nkubana to CNN, “you are economically empowered. You are given a voice, you can argue your values, you can argue your point, you can argue your rights.” One way to support the women is to check out their work at the Santa Fe International Art Market this year and meet the co-founder of Gahaya Links, Joy Ndungutse at booth number 78.

By Emilou Kinsella

Guest blogger, Emilou Kinsella is a Montreal ex-pat living in the Bay Area who loves people’s stories, be they told in person or through podcast.