Yorktown Filmmaker Tackles Climate Change: VIDEO

“Climate change forces us to have to learn the family business.” - Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead.

So begins THE ANTHROPOLOGIST, a new feature documentary by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger. Newberger’s a Yorktown Heights resident.

It tells the story of Katie Yegorov-Crate, a thirteen-year-old girl from Fairfax, Virginia. She is carted around the globe by her mother, noted environmental anthropologist Susie Crate. Susie studies the effects of climate change on centuries-old indigenous communities.

Margaret Mead also analyzed how communities confront change, but that which results from war and modernity. Her daughter Mary Catherine Bateson, now 76 and a cultural anthropologist in her own right, provides extraordinary insight into what Susie and Katie discover.

Filmed over the course of five years, THE ANTHROPOLOGIST is a meditation on change, both individual and societal. Susie and Katie work with people in Siberia, the South Pacific, the Andes, and the nearby Chesapeake Bay, who struggle to reconfigure how and where they live. In Siberia, where Susie met Katie’s father while doing research, Katie’s relatives can no longer farm on land they’ve occupied for generations. Katie’s roots are also threatened by the inhospitable soil.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST had its world premiere at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival, on Nov. 13, as a co-presentation with the American Museum of Natural History. It was chosen for DOC NYC’s Viewfinder Competition, a selection of films with a very distinct directorial vision.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST is a follow-up to Kramer, Miller and Newberger’s Sundance hit and Emmy Award-nominee THE LINGUISTS. Both films were funded by the National Science Foundation. THE LINGUISTS follows two scientists around the world documenting languages on the verge of extinction.

“Films about climate change tend to be vast surveys of global trends, whether environmental, technological, or political. Like THE LINGUISTS, we wanted to tell the story of our changing planet through a couple of down-to-earth characters who are trying to figure it all out.” - writer and director Daniel A. Miller, Ironbound Films.

Their last documentary was ÉVOCATEUR: THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. MOVIE. It premiered at Tribeca, hit theaters care of Magnolia Pictures, and aired on CNN in August 2015. It was critically acclaimed and a ratings hit for CNN. Kramer and Miller have each been nominated for three Emmys, Newberger for two.

Celebrated singer-songwriter Dar Williams is featured on the soundtrack of THE ANTHROPOLOGIST. Renowned fine artist David FeBland created an original painting for the poster.

Now THE ANTHROPOLOGIST will begin a cross-country tour starting with the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, and then onto the St. Louis International Film Festival, the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, and the Santa Fe Film Festival.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST

World Premiere: November 13, 2015, 9:30 p.m., SVA Theater, 333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY

Directors: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger

Producers: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger

Music: Peter Rundquist, Dar Williams

Running Time: 80 minutes

Countries: USA, Russia, Kiribati, Peru

Languages: English, Russian, Sakha, Ikiribati, Spanish, Quechua

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Anthropologist-a-documentary-474521635921821/

Twitter: @TheAnthroMovie

Website: http://www.TheAnthroMove.com/

PHOTO: Kramer, Newberger and Miller/courtesy Ironbound Films