By Bob Schwarz
Charleston Daily Mail staff writer
www.dailymail.com
In 1995, the Benedum Foundation gave Jude Binder a grant to make a film about domestic
violence. The "Field of Flowers" project was taking longer than expected, she told a reporter two
years later. She needed more money to complete it.
After 11 years and nearly $100,000 in costs, Binder has just completed "Field of Flowers,"
which will get its first showing on the big screen at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Capitol
Complex's Cultural Center. An exhibit of Binder's wood carvings will open a day earlier in
the center's Balcony Gallery and run through Jan. 7. Binder will speak at the Saturday
opening and a reception will follow.
This is the first film for Binder, who is better known as a dancer, dance director and mask
maker at her Heartwood in the Hills. Binder was past 30 when she moved from New York
to Calhoun County in 1973 with the idea of starting a rural school for the arts.
In 1982, Binder and her life partner, Frank Venezia, built such a school, Heartwood in the Hills.
Binder spent the summer of 1996 traveling the state to shelters. She listened in group
sessions as women and children repeated the same stories of control, fear, shame, anger and
guilt, Binder recalled. The film would focus on the women and children who lived with
cyclical batterers and on the men themselves, Binder decided.
A collaborative project with the West Virginia Coalition against Domestic Violence, the film
includes music by gospel singer Ethel Caffie-Austin and composer David Wall.
The film uses both color and black-and-white live-action shots, photographs, and drawings.
Binder uses puppets, shadows, masks and dance to create the visual images.
John Nakashima of West Virginia Public Television advised Binder on filmmaking techniques
and did the live-action camera work along with Chip Hitchcock. Calhoun County native Robert
Burns, whom Binder had worked with on theater projects, did the final editing. "This was a
first for both of us working in this medium," Binder said. "John was a mentor to both of
us."
Binder said that as an artist she has always wanted to tackle the issues that affect
people's lives. "So if 'Field of Flowers' will help to galvanize a community spirit, meaning
that people who see it will feel connected to others in the audience and also to the people
in the film - I will be very happy."
Binder has been carving wood since 1976 and once won a Governor's (purchase) Award in the
biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition. "I had stopped carving for several years because
of the film. I thought my hands would become weak. That hasn't happened at all."
She continues to teach evenings and mornings, offering classes to those age 4 to 75 at
Heartwood, where about 50 people generally attend three-month-long programs.
Now 64, Binder continues to dance, though with diminished spring in her step. "But great
riches come with age. Every decade brings new understanding. Even at the school, the
teenagers understand the young kids, and those in their 20s understand the teenagers."
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