Rick Harlow's The Black Line Journey
Screened Oct. 2 at Eclipse Mill Gallery
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 22, 2010
During October the Eclipse Mill based artist from North Adams, Rick Harlow, will present a new film “The Black Line Journey” during a festival of documentary films in Bogota Colombia. He will participate in panel discussions regarding his decades long work with indigenous peoples.
For his Berkshire friends and neighbors, who have followed his projects with great interest, there will be a special screening of the 28 minute long film, followed by a discussion, on Saturday, October 2 at 7 PM in the Eclipse Mill Gallery. The gallery is located at 243 Union Street in North Adams. The event is free and open to the public.
Last night over beer and burgers Harlow commented on the project and his extended visits to Colombia that add up to several months each year. “This time I will be away for about six weeks” he said.
Harlow is best known for large scale visionary landscaped inspired by the tropical environment and an involvement with the ancient rituals of the native peoples of Colombia. This is his first effort to produce a film which he has been editing for the past several months. The video footage was shot by Jan Willem Meurkens who previously produced a documentary in Harlow and his work in Colombia.
The film focuses on The Elders Project which occurred in January, 2010. It entailed travel and exploration of ancient trails and sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The party of travelers accompanied thirteen Kogui, Arhuaco, and Wima Mamos (Indigenous Elders) on a journey around “The Black Line.” It forms a virtual triangle around the base of the Sierra Nevada connecting fifty four sacred sites.
The purpose of the Mamos journey was to make offerings to these sites in compliance with their “Law of Origin.” The Mamos have been making these offerings of millennia. This is how they care for the Sierra Nevada which they call “The Heart of the World.”