Hamac Cazíim

"Hamac Cazíim" tells the story of punk rock musicians from a native tribe called the Seri nation, or Comcáac, who are using music to maintain their ancestral language and culture despite a long history of colonialists, missionaries, and modernization.

The Comcáac are a nomadic people who live in a place of mystic beauty along the Gulf of California, where the mountains meet the desert meet the sea. Despite this isolation, our world's modernization—and our extinction of sacred animals—threaten their indigenous identity. To fight against these dangers, the band Hamac Cazíim was formed.

Converging these themes of music, tribes, and endangered species, the film delivers a tuneful meditation on the universal challenge to preserve native heritage, and the power of music to stage that fight.

[NOTE: This is the significantly altered and shortened edit of the film completed on July 10, 2014.]

  • H. Paul Moon
    Director
  • Stana Benesova Kimball
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    29 minutes 29 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 10, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Mexico, United States
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Red Nation Film Festival
    Los Angeles, California
    November 4, 2011
    World Premiere
    Best Short Documentary
  • Indianer Inuit: Das Nordamerika Filmfestival
    Stuttgart, Germany
    January 21, 2012
    European Premiere
  • Chicago International Movies & Music Festival
    Chicago, Illinois
    April 15, 2012
    Chicago Premiere
  • Native American Indian Film Festival of the Southeast
    Columbia, South Carolina
    November 3, 2012
    South Carolina Premiere
  • Ruby Mountain Film Festival
    Elko, Nevada
    September 29, 2012
    Nevada Premiere
  • XEPE AN CÖICOOS
    Sonora, Mexico
    June 1, 2014
    Mexico Premiere
  • Green Bay Film Festival
    Green Bay, WI
    March 8, 2015
    Wisconsin Premiere
  • Festival Internacional de Cine Álamos Mágico
    Alamos, Mexico
    March 13, 2015
    Mexico Premiere
Director Biography - H. Paul Moon

H. Paul Moon is a filmmaker, composer and video artist. Through his production company Zen Violence Films, he profiles performing and visual artists who span boundaries from classical arts to new media technologies. He also creates experimental films in the tradition of wordless environmental cinema ranging from city symphonies to "Koyaanisqatsi."

Moon's debut film "El Toro" — an experimental work that explores connections between the ancient ritual of Spanish bullfights, and the passion of the Christ — won the Best of Show award of the 2010 Rosebud Film & Video Festival at Artisphere, and the Experimental Media Prize of the 2011 WPA Experimental Media Series at The Phillips Collection. Prior to "El Toro," Moon filmed the documentary "R. Luke DuBois: Running Out of Time," profiling a New York composer and visual artist who builds on notions of cultural and romantic memory, exploring how information can be time-manipulated for emotional impact. The documentary premiered at the 2011 DC Independent Film Festival, won the 2011 "Best Short Documentary" jury prize at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, won the 2011 "Silver Medal for Excellence in a Music Documentary" at the Park City Film Music Festival, and won the 2013 "Best Short Film" jury prize at the Reel Indie Film Fest in Toronto. Subsequently, Moon filmed the short documentary "Hamac Cazíim," about a punk band using music to maintain their indigenous heritage, which became an official selection at the Red Nation, Chicago International Movies & Music, and Ruby Mountain Film Festivals, the Native American Indian Film Festival of the Southeast, the Indianer Inuit: Das Nordamerika Filmfestival in Stuttgart, Germany, and XEPE AN CÖICOOS in Sonora, Mexico.

Moon later debuted "Time Crunch," a landscape/environmental film accompaniment to the same-named work for chamber orchestra by composer Jordan Kuspa, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum with the 21st Century Consort. "Time Crunch" became an official selection at the Ruby Mountain, James River Shorts, Chronos, and Park City Film Music Festivals. From the same series at the Smithsonian, he debuted an experimental work named "Simple Machines" with an original music score by R. Luke DuBois, which subsequently screened at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City. Prolific in creating shorts, his newest other films are "LowerTown Paducah," a feature-length documentary about an artist relocation program in Kentucky, and "The Saxon New World," a half-hour documentary about 19th-century Saxons who settled in rural Missouri, from the untold history of America's earliest and largest immigrations. Projects still in production include a narrative short, and five feature-length documentaries: about the American composer Samuel Barber, cowboy poetry, Fluxus art, the Occupy movement, and the life of Whittaker Chambers — an espionage thriller.

Prior to his recent interest in filmmaking, Moon was a playwright and a composer of incidental music for theatre. He lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area, and manages online filmmaker communities at www.focuspulling.com and www.docofilm.com. He is the recipient of the Emergence award at Docs In Progress, where he teaches video editing as an Adobe Certified Expert (A.C.E.).

Samples are available through his online portfolio at www.zenviolence.com.

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