A Peaceful Warrior
Channel: Iris Arts & Education Group 
Date: 04/10/2021

Gusein Magomaev is the "peaceful warrior in Dagestan is a Russian region where, in 1994, there were 36 tribal groups, and 22 languages with 5 different linguistic roots. Historically the "warrior archetype" has predominated here and throughout the Caucasus. During a visit to Dagestan in 1994, before the region's first democratic elections, I found every man carried a weapon - but they did not take it out to use it unless there was a tribal issue at stake. As a non-violent activist, I was interested in how and why Dagestan had avoided the violent upheavals that occurred with their neighbors in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, and Georgia after the break up of the Soviet Union. I also became interested in the work of Gusein Magomaev who had been the head coach for the National Karate team in the Soviet Union before martial arts were banned by the KGB. He and his wife, Olga moved from Moscow to his homeland in Dagestan and founded a school to teach children how to channel the aggressive impulses of the warrior archetype through martial arts and artistic expression. Children from all over the Soviet Union came to learn from him, and his student were consistently National champions in martial arts. ￼I filmed initially in 1992 when on a trip with a non-profit organization, Olympia Institute, supporting war veterans who had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. I was able to film many of the upcoming leaders in Dagestan who planned to run for political office in the region's first democratic elections. I returned to Dagestan in 1996 with a well know cinematographer, John Knoop, filming many of these men, the sons of former tribal leaders, who now had political positions. We witnessed the impact democracy had had on a culture that had been unchanged for decades. This was the first film produced by Iris Arts with a budget of $5000 provided by Alan Slifka, who has contributed on a large scale to the peaceful co-existence movement. The final product was on video which was produced with the level of technology available to Iris Arts at the time.
Produced by Iris Arts & Education Group, Edited by Verona Fonte

#dagestan, #guseinmagomaev, #dagestanmarshalarts,  #marshalart

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Please watch: "Un Mito de las Creacion Yoruba Afro-Cubana" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOE0yRpEAEA
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