In a Day’s Time: Songs of the California
Men’s Colony (2007)
NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD.
A chronicle of an ordinary day of music-making
at the medium security California Men's Colony in San Luis
Obispo, In a Day's Time offers an alternate view
of these men behind bars. The performances (from rap to ranchero
to rock) are interlaced with interviews and conversations,
and reveal on a very human level how music is an inner and
outer mirror for lives full of regret and hope, loneliness
and camaraderie, and opportunities yet to come.
In a Day's Time was shot in one day
to show the vitality of musical activity in the California
Men's Colony. What emerges are startling momentary connections
with inmates as they discuss and perform music that they assume
no one beyond prison walls will hear. Moving across three medium
security yards, we meet charismatic musicians with a range
of talents from endearing amateurs to seasoned troubadours.
The film presents uncut music, offering the opportunity to
visit a variety of inmate musical worlds.
Today's musical inmates work with limited
resources and personnel, often creating original music styles.
Their songs are born out of a necessity to connect with each
other and poetically grapple with the situation of incarceration.
For example, a white country guitar picker collaborates with
a black R&B crooner to deliver a powerful song about freedom
and mortality. A songwriting group develops a rap inspired
by Shakespearean themes about having artistic dreams given
the reality of living on the streets. (32 min.)
John (Ivan) Filcich, Life in the Circle Dance (2008)
John (Ivan) Filcich, the Croat in ethnic
background, devoted his life to the preservation and promotion
of musical traditions and dances of many ethnic groups in
California. Filcich has been a music seller and record producer
catering to ethnic communities in California for nearly sixty
years. Since 1947, he has been a folk dancer, and then a
teacher to the international folk dance community in California,
and he was a founder of that community’s Kolo Festival.
In this documentary film John (Ivan) Filcich
is portrayed as a treasure trove of knowledge and an invaluable
source of information and documentation for all those fascinated
by the musical and dance life of California’s ethnic
groups in the second half of the 20th century. The film exposes
Filcich’s vivid memories; his vibrant but modest personality;
his warm, expressive way of presenting knowledge of oral cultural
history of California; the caring way he shares music, dances,
costumes, and information, and it documents his long-lasting
relationship with Machvaya Gypsies, and his knowledge of their
changing lifestyle within California’s multi-ethnic urban
settings. (29 min.)
Directed by Ankica Petrovic
Produced and edited by Ben Harbert
