Hmong musicians in America
Description
This 58-minute video tells the story of two senior musicians from Laos who play instruments and sing for a variety of American audiences, adapting their presentations for Hmong and non-Hmong listeners of all ages. The first-person narrative by U.C.L.A. ethnomusicologist Amy Catlin interweaves footage from Rhode Island, Fresno, San Diego, Santa Ana, and Laos, including: Hmong New Year festivals, courtship dialog songs, Lao lamleuang folk opera, Lao mohlam folksong with khen accompaniment, school classrooms, and a TV sitcom representation of a Hmong healer in an American hospital. A social history of the Hmong from China to Laos to America unfolds, illustrated by Hmong music, drawings and embroideries, archival photos, maps, and interviews. Subtitles translate song texts and illuminate Hmong "thought-songs" played on free-reed pipes, mouth organs, jew's harps, banana leaves, flutes, and fiddles. The story concludes by returning to the deceased musician's children and grandchildren after an eleven-year hiatus, to give them copies of the original footage. The family members reflect on their experience of "generation loss" in Hmong music and culture, and express the hope that Hmong music will continue in America.
Runtime
62 minutes
Subjects
- Immigrants (223)
- Refugees (138)
- Musicians (142)
- Hmong (Asian people) (8)
- Music (926)
- Hmong Americans (4)
Geography
Genre
Database
Alexander Street
Direct Link
Similar Films
Derailroaded. Inside the Mind of Larry "Wild Man" Fischer
On the rumba river
Bono. God's Favorite Son
How he fell in love
Beatles
Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg's accompaniment to a cinematographic scene
Interview with Anise Hadeed
The concert man
Illinniq. Inuit musical expression. Season 7, Episode 13
Frederic Chopin. Famous People, Incredible Lives
Kalter und krieg (classical music and cold war)
Jupiter's dance
Robert Shaw. Man of Many Voices
People of the Orient
Illinniq. Susan Aglukark and Mary Poisey. Season 7, Episode 9