Films

Communion

This 10-minute puppet film describes a spiritual journey through symbols and sounds. What happens when we release rigid beliefs, and open to other truths? What traumas did my ancestors experience, in the expansion of Christianity? How can I hold and heal these ancestors’ stories?

Created with mentorship, support, and funding from Monkeybear Harmolodic Workshop.

Minneapolis, MN, USA

Screenings:

Detroit Puppet Company’s Puppetry and Poetry Festival (2023)

Monkeybear Harmolodic Workshop Filmmakers cohort Presentations (2023)

the creature

I combined Butoh dance and shadow puppetry with poetry and music to create the footage for this film. How are we infected by patterns of oppression, and how can we consciously change them? In the wake of the 2020 Uprising following the murder of George Floyd, I meditate on racism, white supremacy, and other patterns of oppression that we enact and recreate generation after generation.

“the creature” A Poem-Song and Puppet Film by Malia Araki Burkhart

Created with Funding and Support from: Monkeybear Harmolodic Workshop

Special Thank you to Chamindika Wanduraluga for making this piece possible.

Mentor: Masanari Kawahara

Cinematography: Xiaolu Wang

Puppeteers: Kallie Melvin and Laura Korynta

Dancers: Malia Araki Burkhart and KK

Audio Technician and support:

Thomas Myrmel Filmed at MirrorLab Studios Minneapolis, MN On Oceti Sakowin and Anishinaabe Land

Music: “The Creature” (2015) Poem-Song, Vocals and piano by Malia Araki Burkhart with Soundscapes and Bass Guitar by Thomas Myrmel

Screenings:

Detroit Puppet Company’s Puppetry and Poetry Festival (2023)

Puppeteers of America National Convention (2024)

Reflections

This 10-minute film explores the intersection of ritual, dance, video, and poetry. I filmed at the “quarry” pond on Summer Solstice, 2009 doing improvised movement and Butoh Dance. Afterwards, I free-wrote this poem inspired by the messages I received through my movements with the land and water. I refined this free-write into the poem which appears on the video, and edited the footage with the music. Location flimed: Earthdance, in western Massachussetts. Music by ghost 7.

Wild America

Part “Nature Documentary”, part Butoh Dance, this film explores our relationship with nature.

Screened as part of my performance “The Survival Pages”, presented at Intermedia Arts in 2007 as part of Naked Stages, and in 2008 as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Created and edited by Malia Araki Burkhart. Music by Imogen Heap and Sigur Ros.

Remembering Rachael Corrie

This piece was created in 2006 for the “Revolutionary Women’s Cabaret” at the Center for Independent Artists. Within this performance, I created a 3 minute film (beginning at 00:52) combining photos and imagery from a “Crankie Show” to describe the cultural and historical context of this conflict.

This is a 10-minute edited version of a 30-minute performance. This piece was created in 2006 for the “Revolutionary Women’s Cabaret” at the Center for Independent Artists in Minneapolis, MN by artist Malia Araki Burkhart. Malia combined puppetry techniques with video projection and Butoh dance to tell the story of Rachael Corrie. Rachael was a US citizen, and a member of the pro-Palestinian group International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a southern Gaza Strip while placing her body between the bulldozer and the home of a Palestinian family about to be demolished. This performance includes a visual summary of the history of the conflict including references to the common roots of Islam and Judaism, the WWII holocaust of the Jewish people, the founding of Israel and the occupation of Palestine. The text includes excerpts of a real letter by “Danny”, a young IDF soldier who wrote to Rachael, a fictional statement by Dr. Samir Nasrallah, the Palestinian doctor whose home Rachael was defending, and excerpts from real letters Rachael had sent home during her stay in Palestine. I offer this performance in memory of the bravery of Rachael Corrie, for placing her own life in the line of justice; For the Palestinian people who face oppression and disproportional force; and for the Jewish diaspora — many of whom see the connections between the holocaust they endured and the current genocide of the Palestinian people. I pray for peace; and I pray that we all embody the bravery that Rachael showed in standing up for what is right.

Arts by Malia