Weaving Real to Reel: Spotlight on ᏲᎾ Bear Allison

Weaving Real to Reel showcases two films by Eastern Band Cherokee filmmaker and photographer ᏲᎾ Bear Allison, Weaving Connections [2022] and A Cherokee Basket Maker [2014]. Each of Allison’s films cast light on the Cherokee artists behind the masterful baskets that are on view in the Center for Craft’s galleries. Allison captures their intensive process of harvesting, processing, dyeing and weaving, and in turn, illuminates the generations of skill and material knowledge compounded into every Cherokee basket through the cinematic format.

Bear Allison made his latest film, Weaving Connections, in conjunction with the exhibition ᎢᏛᏍᎦ  ᏫᏥᏤᎢ  ᎠᎵᏰᎵᏒ  Weaving Across Time. It features the artists ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow, Lucille Lossiah, Ramona Lossie, ᏗᎳᏂ Dylan Morgan, and ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary W. Thompson, who speak about their deep-rooted relationships with the land and the natural materials they weave with as well as their motivations for making.

A Cherokee Basket Maker features second-generation basket maker, Louise Goings, whose white oak baskets are on view in the alcove display. Goings learned her craft by watching her mother, celebrated basket maker Emma Taylor. In the film, she speaks about the distinction between identifying as a “basket weaver” and a “basket maker,” who knows how to harvest, process and dye all of their materials before they even begin to weave.

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Weaving Connections

Bear Allison (Cherokee, NC; United States) Weaving Connections, 2022. Digital video; 17:48 minutes. Commissioned by the Center for Craft. Courtesy of the Artist.