the Relentless Wave

Dance – don’t do what you’re told…

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Rough Diamond – A Poem

By Daniel Hansson Come – bad boys refuse to be schooled in the ways of death   Girls, refuse to be good in the games they make you play   Outcast, reject, hopeless dreamer Roadkill by the wealthy wayside Rise up to the different drum to unlearn there’s no place for you   Come – useless misfit unable to trample your brother in the fold   Dance – don’t do what you’re told We’ll keep warm until dawn   Dance – don’t do what you’re told Shake off the dust of the old   Come – rough diamond You who are stronger than all the bonds of gold   Dance – don’t do what you’re told Keep moving, don’t fall   Dance – don’t do what you’re told We’ll unfurl our banner outside the city wall   © 2015 Daniel Hansson. All rights reserved.   Join the dialogue! Comment below, get in touch to receive email news, and follow Daniel Hansson and Terra Religata on Twitter for immediate updates on #ReconnectionActivism and new blog...

AudNews interview with Daniel Hansson

By Mundee Morning Original article in AudNews: http://audnews.com/meet-daniel-hansson-director-come-way/ Come, This Is The Way, directed by Daniel Hansson, won The Audience Awards Indigenous Peoples Short Film Competition in November.  “As part of the Terra Religata project (terra-religata.org), this film was shot at the 2013 Tutxinmepu Powwow in Idaho; an intertribal gathering hosted by the University of Idaho and the local Nez Perce Tribe to celebrate the rejuvenation of American Indian culture. This Powwow brought together Indians from all over North America in the spirit of drum music and dance; the unifying pulse and life-blood of Native American culture. ”  Said Hansson of his award-winning film.  Hansson spoke with The Audience Awards about his enthusiasm for film, activism, and Come, This Is The Way which can be viewed here:     Who are you and what’s your filmmaking background? I’m a Swedish activist, writer, and freelance educator with a focus on ecological balance, cultural transformation, and empowerment for change. Right now, I live in Sweden after having been almost a decade in the United States and Canada. I’m also the founder of Terra Religata – a new international grassroots project for deep reconnection among fellow human beings and nature as a whole (Read more at: terra-religata.org). In my work, I lecture widely, blog and conduct workshop on how to effect culture change for climate balace by deep listening to the voice of nature. I’m also a truly “accidental” filmmaker. I never had any aspirations whatsoever to make a film, but that changed during my work as a Lecturer at the University of Idaho when I went out into the Rocky Mountain...

Film award to ”Come, This is the Way”

Photo by Daniel Hansson © 2014 Daniel Hansson. All rights reserved.   “Come, This is the Way” won the international Indigenous Peoples Short Film Award 2014. Many thanks to all of you who voted for the film! I shot “Come, This is the Way” with a simple consumer-grade camcorder without any initial intention to make a film at the 2013 Tutxinmepu Powwow in Idaho. This annual intertribal gathering and traditional dance contest is arranged by University of Idaho’s Native American Student Center and hosted by the local Nez Perce Tribe to celebrate the rejuvenation of American Indian culture. This Powwow brings together indians from all over North America in the spirit of drum music and dance – the unifying pulse and life-blood of Native American culture. Behind the camera, I began to perceive the joy and the pain of this celebration of what was once lost and is now being reclaimed in fierce determination to survive after centuries of genocidal persecution and socioeconomic oppression. I became a witness to the respect and love between the generations – the preservation of civilization itself. The transmission of culture to the Indian children was so moving that I was brought to tears. And this is indeed the way for all of us to follow. The still near the end of the film of an old man smiling and looking at a baby held by its mother says it all. The man is my beloved friend Ernie Phillip, also know as Dancing Bear; a fullblood member of the Shuswap Nation of British Columbia in Canada. Dancing Bear is one of the great champions...

Vote for Come This is the Way!

UPDATE (December 8, 2014): “Come, this is the way” wins film award   My film “Come, this is the way” was invited to an international competition for short films about indigneous peoples. This contest is called The Audience Awards, and they award a small prize for the submission that gets the most votes in two weeks by its online audience. By giving my film your vote, you make a contribution to increase the visibility of Terra Religata! Each person can vote as often as once per day during the 14 days of the contest. To vote you simply click “Vote” on the film’s web page, after which you get to enter your cell-phone number (scroll down to the name of your country and enter the number after the international code that shows up automatically; usually, you have to drop the initial 0 in your area code if it begins with a zero, e.g. 070 becomes 70). After you enter your number, you get an SMS with a code which you then enter into the web form and submit for verification. This is just to make sure that voting is fair and not done by a robot (your number is not stored or used for any other purposes). My hope is that this contest can help Terra Religata get more visibility. You can watch “Come, this is the way” HERE! Join the dialogue! Comment below, get in touch to receive email news, and follow Daniel Hansson and Terra Religata on Twitter for immediate updates on #ReconnectionActivism and new blog...

Pain Threshold – my short film about genocide in Gaza

I was going to write, but words failed me. Instead, my rage and despair over the ongoing crimes against humanity in Gaza motivated me to speak in the language of film. Pain Threshold is my new short film in the Terra Religata project – furiously made last week over a few days. It documents genocidal atrocities in the present (and past), U.S.-backed and funded war by Israel against the children of Gaza. How much is too much? Where is the world’s threshold of pain? If we fail to empathize with the people of Gaza, we are no longer human. Therefore, raise your voice to stop the genocide. Protest is the only thing that can end the siege of Gaza. For that reason, please share and promote this film and help it reach the people that need to wake up. WARNING: Extremely graphic. Viewer discretion advised. Read more about my film ”Come, this is the way”.     Join the dialogue! Comment below, get in touch to receive email news, and follow Daniel Hansson and Terra Religata on Twitter for immediate updates on #ReconnectionActivism and new blog...

Film première for Come, this is the way

I have just finished the editing and sound design of my first “real” short film, Come, this is the way. I shot it at the 2013 Tutxinmepu Powwow – an annual culture event in Idaho honoring the drum music and traditional dances of the North American Indians. I shot the nature scenes in the majestic Clearwater wilderness of Idaho; the ancestral land of the Nez Perce tribe. The traditional music you hear in the film (which I also produced and recorded) is performed live by the Indian drum group Vandal Nation. Through the momentary impressions of an external observer, my film tells the story of some of the relationships that express the beauty, joy, sorrow and fury that still sustain the life and love of a people that have refused to be exterminated. Listen to the heartbeat that brings us all together inside the Great Mystery. The unbroken flow between generations of a people that still remember that the Earth is our Mother. If possible, listen through a pair of good earphones.     Join the dialogue! Comment below, get in touch to receive email news, and follow Daniel Hansson and Terra Religata on Twitter for immediate updates on #ReconnectionActivism and new blog...

To form a wave

Over and over again, the brush hits the paper. Trying to catch a fleeting form. Again and again, my hand is tracing a wave in motion that I first can barely perceive, but nevertheless feel an irresistible urge to follow. At first, only with my hand, and then, suddenly also with my eyes when I see my sumi-brush capture the motion in black ink on the mulberry paper. So many attempts, and then, suddenly, congruency. The inner urge given shape. I see two brush strokes in dance; unified in the heart of a mutual whole.   What does it mean to form a wave? Many conditions must be right; many smaller movements come together to finally express their gathered force through a sustained wave of directed change. The outer result finally manifested. The tiny wave that took shape on my paper has become the symbol of Terra Religata, an international activistic and creative collaborative project that was born during the filming of my experimental documentary with the same name. This film, still under production, has so far given rise to as a handful of other creative experiments in filmmaking, poetry, music and transformative pedagogy. The common denominator is a conscious focus on making a personal experience of deep reconnection possible – among people as well as between individuals and the nature that gives them life; the wellspring that our modern culture is poisoning. Terra Religata shares values with many activists that are already struggling for justice, peace, ecological balance and climate neutrality, freedom of expression, and the individual’s right to privacy in a time of totalitarian mass surveillance. The...