Culture Community Education
The Big New-Mex Review extends beyond the feature documentary through select workshops and conversations that grow directly from the film and its creative process.
These engagements bring musicians, cultural practitioners, and community members into dialogue around the traditions and stories reflected in the film, emphasizing listening, exchange, and shared presence.
With a three-year practice of educational work across New Mexico—including workshops with young students in Nambe Pueblo and students at Eastern New Mexico University—founder Lance Bendiksen continues to develop community-based engagement, particularly within underserved populations.
Indigenous drum groups and regional musical traditions featured in the film are approached in collaboration with the communities who sustain them, ensuring cultural continuity and respectful representation.
These interactions remain grounded in the film itself, reinforcing its central focus: music as a lived expression of identity, memory, and connection.
Community Preservation and Impact
The Big New-Mex Review engages with New Mexico’s musical and cultural traditions as a living record of memory, identity, and place.
Through the film, the voices of historians, musicians, and community members are documented in their own environments, preserving stories and musical lineages as they are passed between generations.
The project highlights the ongoing evolution of Indigenous, Hispanic, and Anglo traditions, showing how they remain active and interconnected within contemporary life.
Beyond the film, select screenings, conversations, and workshops provide opportunities for direct engagement with the artists and communities featured in the work.
Together, these elements support the film’s central focus: music as a living cultural practice that continues to evolve while remaining rooted in place and history.