Marina Decristoforo

Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com Marina Decristoforo Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:46:59 +0000 https://marinadecristoforo.com en Home https://marinadecristoforo.com/Home Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:46 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/Home Marina Decristoforo  ︎Anthropologist, Writer, Filmmaker ︎   <img width="4326" height="2195" width_o="4326" height_o="2195" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7d8dd53e7e1820de411b874c0acc43306f814950cede16ed40c660808a8440d0/201604067443.jpg" data-mid="99556726" border="0" data-scale="100" alt="photo by Lasha Bedenashvili" data-caption="photo by Lasha Bedenashvili" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7d8dd53e7e1820de411b874c0acc43306f814950cede16ed40c660808a8440d0/201604067443.jpg" />(photo by Lasha Bedenashvili) Follow: ︎︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ About https://marinadecristoforo.com/About-1 Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:48 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/About-1 <img width="2048" height="2400" width_o="2048" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6180c3c635b4f4f59f555ab9320a585031760e518d9c30c68a57659a2921df28/202108031278-2.jpg" data-mid="178657766" border="0" data-scale="36" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6180c3c635b4f4f59f555ab9320a585031760e518d9c30c68a57659a2921df28/202108031278-2.jpg" /> ABOUT MEI hold a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. My dissertation, which is a result of several years of dedicated fieldwork in Georgia (the country, not the state), explores how power, preservation, and death — both semiotic and literal — coincide, intersect, and diverge in the Georgian folk singing communities.In 2019-2020 I directed and produced my first documentary film, Life in Three Voices, which follows a group of Georgian singers on tour in the US, as well as in their native Georgia, and focuses on the vocal polyphonic tradition that brings together the most unlikely combinations of people from around the world. Since then, I have been involved in a number of film projects in Georgia, Austria, and the US. With my partner, I am the co-founder of Pillusion Film Festival, an independent international film festival that takes place in a repurposed barn in a 1000-inhabitant village in the Tyrolean Alps, and seeks to create a welcoming, collaborative, diverse environment for local and international filmmakers and facilitate a better creative and cultural infrastructure for all, especially young and aspiring filmmakers from the surrounding small towns and villages, who have very limited options for learning about film and showcasing their work. In addition to my academic and cinematic pursuits, I also have the pleasure of acting as a US manager/producer for an incredible group of singers, called Ensemble Adilei.During previous lives, I worked as an adjunct instructor, and got an MFA in poetry from Columbia in 2010. Prior to moving to New York City in pursuit of said MFA, I lived in Tucson, Arizona (where I attended U of A and played/sang in a lackluster band).  I am fluent in Georgian and Russian, and am striving to improve my currently-intermediate German. Various hobbies include singing (with Supruli Georgian Choir, Giedula Lithuanian Ensemble, and in the past, Ukrainian Village Voices), hiking/camping, distance running, swimming, and cooking. I've been known to make a mean quiche. Feel free to get in touch with me via: email ︎  ︎ Note: some of my published work, as well as my PhD dissertation, appears under the name “Marina Kaganova.” Projects https://marinadecristoforo.com/Projects Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:46:59 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/Projects Current/Recent/Recurring Projects: Pillusion Film Festival – Co-founder/Co-directorLocated in the Tyrolean Alps, Pillusion is an independent international film festival, looking to show a wide variety of documentary and fiction films that reflect each year’s chosen theme.  We are honored to have received been awarded a TKI Open grant from Tirol Kulturinitiativen for our 2025 edition! Music Workshop – Advisor for the West Asia music curriculum (Georgian music). The new, free course on the music of West Asia is forthcoming!  Music Workshop creates educational world music programming geared for K-12 students that teachers can use in their classrooms to supplement their lessons.  Sound Bridge Music Residency  – Tour Manager. Sound Bridge is a collaborative music residency for musicians of all genres from Türkiye, Armenia, and Georgia, set in the mountains of Svaneti, Georgia.  US Concert & Workshop Tours for Ensemble Adilei  –Tour manager I organize US tours for Adilei, a wonderful Tbilisi-based ensemble of folk singers. Film https://marinadecristoforo.com/Film Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:47 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/Film My film work includes narrative shorts, documentaries, visual anthropology projects, and music videos. I have worked as a Director, Producer, AD, 2nd AC, and sound tech on a number of projects, and am always looking for interesting new endeavors. Selected Directing Samples Narrative Shorts Rabbit Hunt (USA/Georgia, 2023) Meditations on the Pope (USA/Georgia, 2023)Music Videos Picobello “Autotune” ( Vienna, 2022) Ensemble Kimilia & the Chamgeliani Sisters, “Erzha Barghash” (Tbilisi, 2021) Ensemble Adilei 2017 Tour Fundraising Video (Tbilisi, 2016)    Film resume    IMDb Documentary Films/Segments Trailer for Life in Three Voices (USA/Georgia, 2019-2020) Ukraine-Slovak Border Crossing "Vyšné Nemecké", (Slovakia, 2022) Rioni Unchained Short Documentary Segment (Lechkhumi, Georgia, 2021)Field Recordings Trio Shalva Chemo, “Shavi Shashvi” (Guria, Georgia, 2014) Trio Shalva Chemo, “Shalva Chemo” (Guria, Georgia, 2014) Ensemble Aznash, Pankisi Valley, Georgia (2013) Writing https://marinadecristoforo.com/Writing Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:46 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/Writing   Verse: Psychoanalysis Over the Phone [paperbag 6] Unimortal [failbetter 52] Where I See Myself in Ten Years [failbetter 52] I Will Ride the Beast Into the Structure [The Saint Ann's Review Sp 14] Three Poems [elimae 04/2012] These Here Are Scoundrels & Latitude Allowed for [La Vague 01] Other poems have appeared in: 6 x 6 # 25; No, Dear # 12; Tammy # 7, and Enizagam #12.  Essays The Uncanny of Sleeping Bags [catapult] Whose Ghosts Are These Anyway? [Ulbandus Review No 17] Music https://marinadecristoforo.com/Music Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:46 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/Music Folk music performances (an incomplete list): With Supruli, the NYC Georgian Choir (1st, 2nd, 3rd voice, k’rimanchuli (yodeling))     Notable appearances: • Ragas Live Festival, Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY, 2023) • Concert with Tenores de Aterue, Spectrum (Brooklyn, NY, 2018) • Ukrainian Village Voices Album Release Concert, 2018 (New York, NY)• Benefit Concert for Razom with Supruli Georgian Choir, May 21, 2015 (West Park Church, New York) • Zlatne Uste Golden Festival 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020 (Grand Prospect Hall, Brooklyn, New York) With Adilei  • 2017 & 2019: Guest performer at concerts scheduled during the US tour. With Giedula Lithuanian Ensemble: • 2017-2019: SLA Gallery (three art show openings) (New York, New York) • The Embassy of Bangladesh, 2018 (Queens, New York) • The Lithuanian Church of Williamsburg, 2018 (Brooklyn, New York) • Lithuanian Picnic, 2019 (Brooklyn, New York) • Lithuanian Society Annual Celebration, 2019 (Hartford Connecticut) • Bread & Pupper Theater pre-show performances, 2018, 2019 (Glover, Vermont) With Ukrainian Village Voices: • Kolyada ritual performances 2015, 2017, 2018 (East Village, New York, NY) • Jalopy Theater Roots & Ruckus Series, January 2018 (Brooklyn, New York) • St George Festival, 2014 (East Village, New York, NY) Original Sound collages CV/Academic https://marinadecristoforo.com/CV-Academic Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:46 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/CV-Academic Rooted in ethnographic data from the provinces of Guria and Svaneti in Western Georgia, my research focuses on how the growing popularity of a musical practice shapes the worldwide discourse and local policies around it. I explore how power, preservation, and death — both semiotic and literal — coincide, intersect, and diverge in the Georgian folk singing communities, and what happens when rigid institutional power structures are imposed onto a fluid, improvisational tradition that is pre-disposed against them.     Academic CV // Resumé  ადილეი • Adilei https://marinadecristoforo.com/adilei-Adilei Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:11:47 +0000 Marina Decristoforo https://marinadecristoforo.com/adilei-Adilei Ensemble Adilei hails from the republic of Georgia, and consists of nine members, who can be found singing absolutely everywhere, all the time. While all of them have chosen different professions (from medicine to computer science), what they have always shared is a passion for the Georgian polyphonic tradition. The ensemble is based in Tbilisi (Georgia’s capital) but most of the singers have roots in the province of Guria (in Western Georgia), which is why a big part of their repertoire comes from there. Guria is home to a complex and colorful form of Georgian polyphonic folk singing. Gurian songs devote equal ‘attention’ to all voice parts, providing them with non-parallel, unique lines of melody that come together at certain points only to diverge again. Guria is also famous for  the unique technique of Krimanchuli, a rhythmic yodel, which (like all the other voice parts) can vary and change as much as each singer wishes during any performance. In 2017, I organized Adilei’s first-ever tour to the Unites States. Over the course of January 10-February 13, the group performed, lectured, and gave workshops at Dartmouth, Yale, Wesleyan, and Columbia Universities, the New England Conservatory, Jalopy theater, Music Vilage NOLA, University of Louisiana, and a dozen other venues on the East coast.  In 2019, Adilei went to the US once more, this time, however, I also brought their friends, the Chamgeliani Sisters from Svaneti (a Northwestern highland region of Georgia with its own language and a particular, powerful singing tradition). This time, the tour included both coasts, with workshops with the renowned Kitka ensemble in San Francisco, and concerts at Eristavi Winery, Yard Theater, Frontier Home Series, Center for World Music,  performances (and often lectures) at Bard, Brandeis, New England Conservatory, Loyola Marymount, Indiana University, Univeristy of Illionois Champagne-Urbana, a series of events for the Lotus Outreach Program (Bloomington), and culminating in a sold-out Show for the Live @365 Concert Series by Live Sounds at Elebash Hall.