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  Shiva Darshan

  Chicago

  “Based upon the poem I wrote of my travels through India and Nepal, ‘Shiva Darsan’ is as much a video poem and mystic story, as it is an experimental, ethnographic documentary on Hinduism, holy men, spirituality and transcendence. Shiva is the Hindu lord of procreation and death. Darsan is sacred perception. Darsan is as much to see, as it is to be seen by that of the worshipper and the deity, holy person or sacred place. It is as much the spiritual that yields to be grasped, known, touched and experienced, as it is the worshipper who is there to receive the divine. This piece is also a personal reflection on the Shivaratri Festival at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, the birthday celebration of Shiva at one of his most important pilgrimage sites in Asia and at the most sacred of Nepalese shrines.

  ‘Shiva Darsan’ the first tape produced for ‘In Celebration of Life…. In Celebration of Death…’, my series of experimental, ethnographic documentaries shot during my fourteen month sabbatical and Chicago Artists Abroad Artists Residency in Asia, the Mid-East and Africa. This series reveals the religious, cultural and philosophical beliefs of indigenous people from various cultures by exploring their rituals, dance, music and daily activities that revolve around life and death. From birth to death, special rites and celebrations mark the important events of one’s existence, assuring a symbiosis of body and soul with the divine. This deep relationship between the people and their gods are reaffirmed through daily activity. At times, the person symbolically becomes god; strengthening their own sense of sacredness and self-respect.”–Barbara Sykes

• A Great Day In Harlem

  Uncategorized

  A documentary about the day in 1958 when Art Kane, then an aspiring photographer and art director for Esquire magazine, arranged for a group photo (which was titled “A Great Day In Harlem”) of almost every prominent jazz musician in New York City to be taken in Harlem; among the many musicians are many jazz giants, including Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, and Gene Krupa.

• Utopia Cafe, Episode 2: Self Image

  Uncategorized

  This episode of the Canadian show Utopia Café examines self-image and different forms of image modification; including different clothing styles, plastic surgery, tattooing, and skin branding. The show seems to copy the quick-cut MTV style of editing.

• Utopia Cafe, Episode 6: Death

  Uncategorized

  This episode of the Canadian show Utopia Café examines death. We talk to a man who has died many times, a doctor who explains organ donation, a man who has made a suicide awareness comercial, and a religion expert who outlines the differing visions of the afterlife for the world’s major religions.

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  [Tom on Vermont Avenue]

  American Way

  Raw footage of Los Angeles examining the up and coming area on Vermont Avenue.

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  [Vermont Avenue: Extra Large Clothing Store, Y-Que]

  American Way, Skip Blumberg, Tom Weinberg

  Raw footage of Los Angeles examining the up and coming area of Los Feliz on Vermont Avenue. Cameraman Skip Blumberg focusing many of his questions on the recession. Also features an accidental run-in with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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  [Rostenkowski’s vacated office and news reports] – [smoking interviews]

  Chicago, Chicago Politics, Dan Rostenkowski, NHPRC, Politics, Tom Weinberg

  Footage collected outside of Congressman Daniel Rostenkowski’s vacated office at 818 W. Fullerton. Rostenkowski was indicted on corruption charges and forced to step down in the mid-nineties. After this portion of the tape, there is about an hour’s worth of raw footage of the videomaker’s son, Jesse Weinberg, collecting interviews for a documentary on teenage smoking.