Santa Fe Film Festival 2009

In 2007-08, Eric Maddox spent five months living and working in Dheisheh Refugee Camp and Ramallah in the West Bank while completing his graduate research in International Conflict Resolution. Eric’s travels in Israel and the West Bank coincided with the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel, an event that has come to be known amongst the world’s Palestinian communities as Al Nakba or “The Catastrophe”. With around $300 in petty cash and no formal film training, Eric borrowed a recreational camcorder from his interning organization, Defense for Children International, and traveled to numerous Kibbutzim and Refugee Camps throughout the region, collecting the family narratives of Jews and Arabs who experienced the events of 1948 first-hand. ’48 Generations represents a street-level effort to document the lived realities and human consequences of the ongoing regional conflict. Eric hopes that this small project will mark the beginning of a career in “Conflict-Documentary Film-Making”, and hopes to hitch-hike across Iran with a camera and a list of questions gathered from ordinary Americans after completing his current project on immigration issues in New Mexico.

Cowtown Ballroom: Sweet Jesus is a documentary film about Cowtown Ballroom, a legendary concert venue in Kansas City, Missouri. It opened July 16, 1971 and closed September 16, 1974, but in its short life span established an incredible musical heritage. The hall itself was a former jazz club named the El Torreon Ballroom which opened in 1927. It was a home to the likes of Cab Calloway, Count Basie and even Red Skelton. Its next reincarnation was as a roller skating rink, which lasted for many years.In the summer of 1971 Cowtown Ballroom opened with a concert by The Flying Burrito Brothers. During the next three years it featured an eclectic mix of musicians including Frank Zappa, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Van Morrison, B. B. King and Linda Ronstadt.