Stories in Stones

Marc Levitt has recently completed his first documentary film, co-produced and co-directed with Lilach Dekel of Transformation Films. The film, Stories in Stone is a film about the Narragansett Tribal stonemasons who, over the last four hundred years, have built many stonewalls that wind picturesquely through the woods of southern New England. Interspersing footage that elegantly captures the beauty of the walls with interviews with tribal elders and members of two prominent Narragansett mason families, Lilach Dekel and Marc Levitt weave a story that is at once poetic and inspirational. Stories in Stones is a story of love; for place, heritage and family and a tale that demonstrates how a craft, utilized initially at the point of European contact, has served as a strategy for resiliency and resistance.

The price includes shipping and handling

Individuals in the U.S. $30.00 Institutions in the U.S. $155.00 Individuals - Internationally $35.00 Institutions - Internationally $160.00

Stories in Stones is the first film that looks at the Narragansett wall building tradition from multiple perspectives, artistic, spiritual, multi-generational and as a story of tribal affirmation. While some would see wall building as the haphazard placement of rocks, Stories in Stone, demonstrates that the wall’s beauty is the result of a finely honed and ever evolving sculptural aesthetic. While some see the walls as ‘the only option’ for the Narragansett, Stories in Stones makes clear, that more often than not, becoming a mason is a choice, a choice that allows freedom of movement, freedom from ‘inside’ work, freedom from working for others and the freedom to join a long and illustrious line of ancestors. While many believe that ‘tradition’ among New England Tribes is long gone, Stories in Stone makes clear that wall building remains a means to assert and perpetuate Tribal identity; in the choice to be a mason, in the placement of symbols, in the use of a particular aesthetic, in the visceral relationship to stone and in one’s spiritual connection to nature. Stories in Stone elucidates the stories that lie beneath one’s initial appreciation for the stone walls of Southern New England and in doing so, illustrates how the seemingly ordinary, can be indeed be, quite extraordinary. For information about purchasing and/or showing Stories in Stones please contact Marc Levitt at MarcLevitt[at]aol.com.

• Duration: 26 Minutes
• Director of Photography: Rod Bachar
• Film Cinematography: Laura Colella
• Additional Video: John Meyers and Dan Akiba
• Edited by: Robin Blotnick
• Additional Editing: Rod Bachar, Laura Colella
• Photographs: Mathias Oppersdorff
• Transformation Films and Levittation Production
• Funders: Rhode Island State Council for the Humanities, Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, Rhode Island Department of Transportation, United States Department of Transportation and the Mohegan Tribe

Mr. Levitt was also a screen writer for Ms. Lilach Dekel's documentary, "Living for Tomorrow", a film about Israel's pioneering women.

writer | storyteller | educator | radio host | filmmaker | contact marc


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