Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Asch, Timothy / All Films

Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Seance Observed
The Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Massage w/Jero Tapakan
Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

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The Jero Tapakan series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

The Jero Tapakan series
Buy Now: $795.00

Jero Tapakan, a spirit medium in a small, central Balinese village, consults with a group of clients in her shrinehouse. An introduction precedes the main seance, providing a visual impression of a seance and background information on the medium and her profession. The clients wish to contact the spirit of their dead son to discover the cause of his death and his wishes for his cremation ceremony. Jero is possessed several times in the course of the seance: first by a protective houseyard deity who demands propitiary offerings that had previously been overlooked; then by the spirit of the petitioner's deceased father, who requests further offerings to ease his path to the other world; and finally by the spirit of the son. In an emotional scene the son's spirit reveals the cause of his premature death (sorcery) and instructions for his forthcoming cremation. Between each possession the medium converses with her clients, clarifying vague points in the often ambiguous trance speech.

Films in the Jero Tapakan series:

A Balinese Trance Seance

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Yanomamö Series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Yanomamö Series
Buy Now: $5,770.00

In 1968 and again in 1971 filmmaker Timothy Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon collaborated on a project to film the Yanomamö Indians in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. Chagnon had conducted research among the Yanomamö beginning in 1964, and Asch had previously filmed in the field in Africa and Japan. During his first field trip, Chagnon used a 16mm Bolex to film selected aspects of Yanomamö life.

Several of these films are also available on the Yanomamö Shorts DVD collection, a 2007 re-mastered/authored 2-disc set which also contains eight previously unreleased short Yanomamö films and additional information about the series.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

Climbing the Peach Palm *

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

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Yanomamö Short Films

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Yanomamö Short Films
Buy Now: $545.00

This 2-DVD set combines 17 short Yanomamö films in a 2007 compilation which contains additional background information about the series. Six of the films on Disc One were remastered in 2021. The updated versions are included here, and are also available in the set Yanomamo Films: Remastered, Vol 1.

Disc One contains all previously released titles:

Arrow Game *

Children's Magical Death *

A Father Washes His Children *

Firewood

A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock *

Tapir Distribution

Tug-of-War

Weeding the Garden *

* Remastered 2021

Disc Two collects eight previously unreleased short films from the series. They only exist as what Asch called "slopticals," duplicated workprints with optical tracks that he assembled in order to receive feedback from fellow filmmakers. Although they lack narration or translated subtitles, they show many interesting aspects of social life:

Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden (6 min)

The warmth of adult-child interaction is shown as children play with the resting Dedeheiwä.

Children Roasting Meat (5 min)

Several children sit and play together. One roasts meat and bananas over a small fire.

A Woman Spins (8 min)

A woman reclines in the shade, spinning while a baby tries to play with her thread.

Children Make a Toy Hammock (7 min)

While running around and playing, a few children work on a smaller version of the hammocks their parents make.

Sand Play (19 min)

Boys and girls aged four to seven sit in a tight circle and play around a sand pile.

Playing in the Rain (8 min)

Children and adults play tug of war in the rain.

Mouth Wrestling (5 min)

Teenagers wrestle over a wad of tobacco.

Young Shaman (10 min)

A young shaman, still an initiate, gets sick and loses control on the hallucinogen ebene.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

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Children's Magical Death

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Children's Magical Death
Buy Now: $545.00

A group of Yanomami boys, ages four to ten, pretend to be shamen and imitate the drug-taking and hekura-spirit-calling ceremonies of their fathers. The children, using ashes as their "drug," blow it up each others nostrils and chant and dance as if under the influence of ebene. Near the end they attempt to draw out the evil spirits in a "sick" boy and effect a shamanistic cure.

This short film of children's "play" explores how children imitate their parents and prepare for adult life. Young boys can become real shaman at the age of 16 or 17. The film, Magical Death, also part of the Yanomamö series portrays a shamanistic event in the same community.

Children's Magical Death was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

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Climbing the Peach Palm

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Climbing the Peach Palm
Buy Now: $545.00

The ingenuity of Yanomamö technology is revealed in the climbing frame used to scale the spiny trunk of the peach palm tree. Here a young man collects the fruit for his in-laws by means of two frames, each constructed of two crisscrossed poles. As he perches on one frame, he raises (or lowers) the other, onto which he carefully steps, continuing in this manner up (or down) the entire tree.

Climbing the Peach Palm was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Asch, Timothy to see additional products in this category.

A Celebration of Origins

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:15:00 GMT

A Celebration of Origins
Buy Now: $320.00

The people of the Tana 'Ai region of Flores, Indonesia live in seven ceremonial domains, of which Wai Brama is the largest and the oldest. The people of Wai Brama are shifting cultivators, hunters and gatherers who, unlike their neighbors, have maintained their traditional ceremonial and social system.

A Celebration of Origins, filmed in 1980, depicts the first celebration of these rituals since 1960. The rituals, which require the participation of the entire community, had been delayed by poor harvests and epidemics. The film focuses on a small group of ritual leaders who struggle to hold the celebration in the absence of the Source of the Domain, the ritual leader of the community, who died after initiating the rituals. Evoking the contested nature of ritual, the film demonstrates how ritual performance implicates delicate political relationships based on pragmatic alliances, festering antipathies or developing jealousies.

Conflict is the thread that weaves together the disparate themes of the film. It is a finely crafted, sensually striking film with a compelling story that focuses on one of the central themes in contemporary anthropological debate: the contested nature of social - and ritual - life.

This film complements E. Douglas Lewis' published work on Tana 'Ai, including People of the Source: The Social and Ceremonial Order of Tana Wai Brama on Flores, in addition to the films Timothy and Patsy Asch made in collaboration with anthropologists James J. Fox and Linda Connor on the islands of Roti and Bali.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Society For Visual Anthropology commendation 1993
Award for Excellence, Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Video Festival, 1993
34th Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy, 1993
1st Prize, Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 1994
Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, California 1993, 1994

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Dodoth Morning

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Dodoth Morning
Buy Now: $295.00

Dodoth Morning was the first film by the pioneering filmmaker, Timothy Asch who is best known for his collaborations with anthropologists such as Napoleon Chagnon, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch, and E. Douglas Lewis. Shot in northeast Uganda in 1961, a year when too much rain threatened to rot the millet the Dodoth people grew to supplement their diet. Primarily a pastoral people, the Dodoth depended on their herds of oxen for food and to determine wealth. With minimal narration the film opens in early morning and follows a headman, his four wives and family through daily tasks. Tension builds and breaks out in a domestic argument between father and son. This video copy was made from the recently discovered and only edited 16mm print known to exist. Tim Asch's work with the Yanomami in Venezuela and with indigenous peoples throughout Indonesia have been used for teaching, shown in festivals and won awards worldwide. DER is pleased to be able to offer this historically significant film to researchers, educators and film historians. Useful for teaching Anthropology, Pastoralism, Film History, Africa, Gender and Kinship.

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Firewood

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Firewood
Buy Now: $545.00

The strenuousness of women's work is revealed as a woman patiently chops a large log for firewood one evening, enough to last one day. Her two children play nearby, and she occasionally stops to nurse the younger. The wood is loaded into a basket and she walks slowly back to the village, the heavy burden slung on a tumpline from her forehead, the young child in her arms.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Asch, Timothy to see additional products in this category.

The Feast

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

The Feast
Buy Now: $320.00

Yanomamö feasts are ceremonial, social, economic, and political events. They are occasions for men to adorn their bodies with paint and feathers, to display their strength in dance and ritualized aggression; for trading partnerships to be established or affirmed; and for the creation or testing of alliances.

In this feast, filmed in 1968, the Patanowa-teri had invited the Mahekodo-teri to their village. The two groups had been allies until a few years before this event, when they had fought over the abduction of a woman. They now hoped to renew their broken alliance, which they did successfully. Soon after the filmed feast, the two villages together raided a common enemy.

A detailed discussion of this feast, and of the significance of feasting among the Yanomamö, is found in chapter 4 of Chagnon's Yanomamö: The Fierce People. The film's graphic representation of reciprocity and exchange may enrich (and be enriched by) a reading of Marcel Mauss' The Gift.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

CINE Golden Eagle

Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival

Flaherty Award

Festival dei Popoli, Florence Italy

Grand Prize, Venice International Art Film Festival International Folklore & Tourism Festival

Exceptional Merit, Philadelphia International Festival of Short Films

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†