FROM BELLA COOLA TO BERLIN DOCUMENTARY DVD They were known by many names. Volkershau. Ethnic shows. Human zoos. For Carl Hagenbeck, founder of Hamburgs Tierpark Hagenbeck, they were a lucrative business venture. He brought more than 50 groups of indigenous people from every corner of the globe to Germany between 1870 and 1932 including Nubians, Laps, Singhalese, Inuit, Sioux, Patagonians, Somalis, Samoans, Massai, Dualas, and Bella Coola Indians. They came to Europe for many reasons to escape poverty and colonial suppression, immerse themselves in Christianity and make money. From Bella Coola to Berlin is a one hour HD documentary that explores the story of one of these groups, the Bella Coola Indians of Canada. In 1885, Hagenbeck hired a Norwegian artifact collector named Fillip Jacobsen to travel to the Northwest coast of North America to find a group of Indians to perform in his zoo in Hamburg and in other cities in Germany. Fillip and his brother Adrian found a group of nine Bella Coola Indians who were looking for work, and they offered them a job performing their traditional dances in Germany. Their contract required them to exhibited themselves before the public in the performance of Indian games, the use of bows and arrows, singing and dancing, speaking and otherwise in showing the habits, manners and customs of the Indians. The tour was a financial disaster. The promoters could not convince the German public that the Bella Coola dancers were authentic North American Indians. German audiences, it seemed, preferred Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, who they viewed as real Indians. The academics of the day, however, considered Bella Coola Indians to be an extraordinary example of cultural authenticity. Today, Bella Coola Indians are known as the Nuxalk First Nation. For a number of compelling reasons, the oral history of the nine men in Bella Coola has faded from the memories of the oldest community members. In Germany, however, the dancers left a historical trail from Hamburg to Aachen to Berlin to Leipzig. Historians and ethnologists have discovered an extensive archive of photographs, newspaper articles, letters and artifacts relating to the dancers. Several renowned academics have authored papers on the men, including Franz Boas, Carl Stumpf, Rudolph Virchow, Wolfgang Haberland and Hilke Thode-Arora. In the documentary From Bella Coola to Berlin, the descendants of the nine dancers reflect on how this historical journey continues to influence the Nuxalk Nation today, as its members strive to preserve their language, dances, songs, art, and ultimately, their identity in the modern world. 054547------------------------39.95
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