GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME

SATURDAY  June 1, 2024 12:00pm

AMC MAGIC JOHNSON THEATER

  • GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME
  • Director: Daniel Wolff
  • New York Premiere
  • UNITED KINGDOM, 2023,  70 min
  • Category: Documentary

SYNOPSIS

Undeterred by decades of prejudice, post-Katrina neglect, and ongoing appropriation of their traditions, three generations of the extraordinary, multi-talented Harrison family guard their legacy and define what Black masking culture means in New Orleans today.

Initiated and filmed by the celebrated Oscar winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme, the film was shot over the course of 15 years documenting the artistry and activism of three generations of the Harrison family of New Orleans. In the course of this African American family’s fight to recover not just from Hurricane Katrina but from a history of cultural suppression, we meet the matriarch Herreast Harrison, whose dream is to found a museum dedicated to her husband’s legacy. Along the way we are also introduced to her four talented children: a renowned saxophonist, a master beader in the closely-guarded Mardi Gras tradition, a performance artist and educator, and a singer and manager of Herreast’s grandson’s musical career. In the decades-long struggle towards survival and healing, we’re given an intimate view of the family’s determination to educate and preserve culture – from a social and pleasure club parade to a brass band commemoration, culminating in the spectacular Mardi Gras unveiling of the Guardians of the Flame.

Daniel Wolff

Daniel Wolff was the associate producer on Jonathan Demme’s documentary film, The Agronomist, and a producer on Mr. Demme’s five-part series on New Orleans featured on Tavis Smiley’s national television show in 2007, as well as Mr. Smiley’s hour-length PBS special, “Been in the Storm Too Long” (2010). I’m Carolyn Parker, a previous Demme/Wolff collaboration, aired on PBS in 2012. He has appeared in Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, and Subway Stories. This is the first film he’s directed.

Wolff’s writing includes essays, profiles, critical pieces, scientific articles, poetry and fiction. His articles have appeared in many publications including Connoisseur, the Nation, the Village Voice, and Vogue. Nominated for a Grammy award in 2003, Wolff’s other honors include the Ralph Gleason Music Book Award in 1995, two nominations for the General Electric Younger Writer’s Award, and being recognized as a Michigan Notable Book author in 2018. His work has been anthologized in various publications and featured on National Public Radio, Sirius Radio, and in numerous publications from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle.

His 2012 book The Fight For Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back, was hailed by The Christian Science Monitor as “a historic document … powerful and revelatory”, and his 2005 book Fourth of July, Asbury Park was a New York Times Editor’s Choice.
Wolff was a contributing editor for the music newsletter, Rock & Rap Confidential and has received grants as Writer in Residence from the New York State Council on the Arts, from the Public Arts Fund of New York City, and from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.

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