Documentary Educational Resources - Indigenous Studies / Belief & Knowledge Systems / All Films

On Behalf of the Living

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 09:47:44 GMT

On Behalf of the Living
Buy Now: $320.00

On Behalf of the Living unfolds on two levels: an exploration of humanity’s preoccupation with life after death and the story of one anthropologist’s experiment—taking his lifelong “participatory” research on a Papua New Guinea island to its logical, if counter-intuitive, conclusion.

The film is composed of three strands. The first includes footage that Ton Otto filmed with his parents in the Netherlands, where discussions of faith, God, and eternity are argued out ‘en famille’. The second strand takes place on Baluan Island, where Christian Suhr documents Ton’s reunion with his adoptive family. Before long, the two find themselves entangled in complex disputes —both spiritual and personal. The third strand, in a different register altogether, consists of a series of dialogues between Ton and Christian, one-on-one. Through alternating first-person perspectives, they interrogate and challenge each other with rare directness, questioning the very viability of their experiment—and even the anthropological project as a whole. This strand functions as a Greek Chorus, providing a check on the ideas and insights emerging from the main storyline. While probing the realm of the ancestors, the film’s primary source and frame of reference remain the lived experiences of the people—mostly family—that it embraces with its lens.

Writing about his motivation for making the film, Ton writes that he was interested in confronting “one of the great mysteries of human life: its ending. What happens after our biological demise? What kinds of afterlife are imaginable? How do we continue to relate to our dead loved ones? Being an anthropologist by profession I was driven to immerse myself in different cultural worlds, not only to discover alternative beliefs and practices but also to challenge my own ideas about the continuities and discontinuities between the living and the dead.”

"On Behalf of the Living is a stunning film. It is about Papua New Guinea, and the Netherlands and Denmark, but even more, it is about the nature of human life and death. Terrence Malick-like in its scope, it is also the best film of any kind about religion I have seen in a long time…It is a major piece of work."
— Prof. Joel Robbins, Cambridge University, UK

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Ethnografilm, France, 2024

NAFA Int'l Ethnographic Film Festival, Denmark, 2023

Int'l Festival of Ethnological Film, Macedonia, 2023

Ethnofest - Athens Ethnographic Film Festival. Greece, 2023

European Society for Oceanists, France, 2022

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Imaginero - The Image Man

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

Imaginero - The Image Man
Buy Now: $320.00

Imaginero is an ethnobiography of Hermógenes Cayo, a self-taught woodcarver and painter who lives on the high Andean plateau of Argentina. The film portrays Hermógenes, his wife Aurelia Kilpe, and their children in their Andean lifestyle, as well as Hermogenes' passion for painting, carving, building, and his devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Devout, austere and dedicated to craftsmanship, he can make anything from religious figures carved from cactus wood to a working harmonium. Inspired by a trip to Buenos Aires to advocate for land rights, Hermógenes has labored to replicate the style of the capital's grand cathedral and shrine to the Virgin with resourcefulness and skill.

A respected member of his community, the image-maker's wedding ceremony brings music, costumes and dancing, while Prelorán films life, festive and ordinary, on the coldest part of the plateau. Hermógenes and his family live much as their ancestors have always done, raising sheep and weaving cloth, but a train now makes the rest of the world closer; “the children play differently now that they have been to town,” he notes.

The film does not follow a traditional narrative structure, transitioning between themes and revisiting earlier themes later. In this way the film weaves a portrait of Hermógenes Cayo, the craft of image making, an indigenous Catholicism, as well as portraying the lifestyle of a solitary Andean family braving the harsh conditions of their surroundings. The relationship between individual and culture, as well as cultural change, is artfully expressed by Prelorán.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

The Drums of Winter

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

The Drums of Winter
Buy Now: $340.00

Digitally Remastered DVD Edition

This feature-length documentary explores the traditional dance, music and spiritual world of the Yup'ik people of Emmonak, a remote village at the mouth of the Yukon River on the Bering Sea coast. The Drums of Winter (Uksuum Cauyai) gives an intimate look at a way of life of which most of us have seen only glimpses. Dance was once at the heart of the community's spiritual and social life. It was the bridge between the ancient and the new, the living and the dead and a person's own power and the greater powers of the unseen world.

In The Drums of Winter, the people of Emmonak tell us through actualities and interviews how their history, social values and spiritual beliefs are woven around the songs and dances that have been handed down to them through the generations. We also learn that it is not just old songs that are important; new songs and dance movements are created to reflect modern life with all its complexities. Each time a person gets up to dance, he is strengthening the continuity of the ages, and insuring the survival of his culture.

The film follows the elders of Emmonak as they prepare for the coming ceremonial gathering (potlatch) with a neighboring village. In the Kashim (qasgiq or men's house), they practice their songs and painstakingly work out the motions of the dances. Each movement has meaning and plays a part in telling a story. In the days before television, radio, bingo and weekly basketball games, dance was the sole means of entertainment. Throughout the film, archival photographs and film footage accompany the words of early missionaries who brought Christianity to the area. These sequences provide a historical context for the film and give us a strong sense of the resilience of Yup'ik culture, having survived despite a century of missionary suppression.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

At the Time of Whaling

The Drums of Winter (Uksuum Cauyai)

From the First People

Note on Term "Eskimo":

The films in this series make use of the name "Eskimo." While once broadly applied, it is a perjorative term and considered offensive. While the inception of the word is a matter of debate, it is no longer used or applied in our film catalog. The context in which the term appears in this series is an acknowledged relic of a colonial past, presented in its original version. DER apologizes for any offense caused.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer
Buy Now: $295.00

The Xavante people of Aldeia Nova ask Xavante videomaker Divino Tserewahú to film their Wai'á ceremony, after watching his film Wai'á rini, the Power of the Dream. Elders in Aldeia Nova want to preserve this tough but rewarding ritual.

Out in the hot sun all day, for three weeks the young men of the community undergo strengthening physical suffering in order to develop their curative powers. The trial culminates with the men's fainting and being revived by their families; after their initiation the trainees replace their elders as spiritual guardians. "To be a Wa'ia, you have to suffer like this," explains one man. Everyone in the village watches and takes part in the men's ceremony, proud of their sons and brothers.

Films in the Video in the Villages series

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer
The Girl's Celebration
Jungle Secrets
Pemp
The Spirit of TV
Video Cannibalism
Video in the Villages Presents Itself
Video in the Villages

Disclaimer on Naming:
Please be aware that this documentary may include outdated or potentially offensive language. Such terms are not endorsed by DER but are presented in their original context to promote awareness, education, and discussion. Learn more about DER’s efforts to use reparative language and honor the preferred names of Indigenous communities by clicking here.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Diary of a Maasai Village, Part 5

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Diary of a Maasai Village, Part 5
Buy Now: $320.00

This final segment of the series, Diary of a Maasai Village, depicts the ceremony known as the "ox of ilbaa," from which Miisia emerges, acknowledged as a man.

About the Diary of a Maasai Villageseries

Thisseries of five films by Melissa Llewelyn-Davies looks at daily life among theMaasai. The films are presented as a diary of a 7-week visit to a singlevillage. The structure is episodic and the content dependent on various eventsor stories, some of which are developed through more than one film. The tapescan be used independently or together, to give an in-depth sense of Maasailife. The series includes the following five films:

Part 1: The Prophet's Village

Part 2: Two Ways Of Justice

Part 3: Two Mothers

Part 4: Two Journeys

Part 5: Nine Cows And An Ox

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Fate of the Lhapa

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fate of the Lhapa
Buy Now: $320.00

Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans (lhapas) living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. With no other descendants to carry on their healing practices and a younger generation attending schools, acculturating, and modernizing, these "sucking doctors" are practicing an endangered tradition. Each lhapa requested that their story be filmed so that an historical record would be created. Their fear was that the next heir might not appear until after the old men's deaths. Subsequently, with no lhapa alive to mentor the children, the documentary would be used to transmit the knowledge to the next generation.

These tales of nomadic childhoods, shamanic callings and apprenticeships, cosmologies of disease and treatments, and of their flight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s will be juxtaposed with images of present-day life in the camp, current healing practices and shared concerns of the future and the fate of their tradition. This is a touching portrayal of life in exile in a refugee camp in Nepal.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Four Films by Robert Ascher

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Four Films by Robert Ascher
Buy Now: $295.00

This collection contains four animated films by writer, educator and anthropologist, Robert Ascher. These films were created using a technique called "direct animation" — drawing with pen and ink directly on 35mm film. Films in this compilation have been included in the permanent collection of Museum of Modern Art, the New Zealand National Art Gallery, the Jewish Museum, NYC, and the Israel Film Archive.

Cycle (5 min, 1986)

Cycle is an animated film based on a non-sacred myth of the Wulamba, a native people of northeastern Australia. The sound track of Cycle is in Wulamba. The narrator assumes familiarity with the myths of his people. He does not tell a myth; rather he indirectly recalls central figures in Wulamba mythology by utilizing poetic devices, particularly the repetition of key words: lotus, evening star, moon, and the name of a clay-pan where past and future events are played out in the present. The images complement but do not illustrate the narration. On the clay-pan, people collect lotus, the roots of which become an evening star. It is here, too, on the pan, that a being, rejecting mortality, changes himself to moon. The horn of light visible at the close of moon's period drops into the sea where it becomes a nautilus shell. The process is a never ending cycle relating people, the spiritual world, and the natural environment.

Bar Yohai (6 min, 1987)

Shimon Bar Yohai was a second century visionary who, according to popular belief, wrote the Zohar, the main Kabbalah text of the Jewish mystical tradition. The film's images — tree, mirror, candelabra and the ten dots with which each is constructed — are Kaballah figures for how the world got started and keeps going. Once every year there is a celebration honoring Bar Yohai at his tomb in Meron, Israel. The last scene is composed from photographs taken on the roof of the tomb during the celebration. The soundtrack, a song praising Bar Yohai, was also recorded during the celebration in a town (Safed) a few miles from the tomb. Support for the film's production came from a fellowship Award in Film, New York Foundation for the Arts; funds for participation in the celebration were from a Humanities Faculty Grant, Cornell University.

Blue, A Tlingit Odyssey (6 min, 1991)

In just about every known culture, there is a myth in which a hero ventures forth, discovers something of great value, and then returns home with his gift. The details may vary from culture to culture, but everywhere the broad outline is maintained. Blue is a visual rendering of the Tlingit hero myth. The Tlingit are Native Americans who live in southeast Alaska. In their version of the myth, the heroes are four brothers who go in search of blue. The film starts with a necessary preface. The world is dark. Raven, the trickster, releases the sun from its box, the world is illuminated, and the odyssey begins. In part one, The Search, the brothers set out on a sea journey encountering marvelous creatures along the way. Action in the second part — The Find — takes place mostly within a cave where the brothers find blue. The brothers find and take something so valuable that they are pursued and a storm develops. One of the brothers dies in the storm; the others, with their gift of blue, complete the trip home.

The Golem (4 min, 1995)

Take some soil, knead it with water, and, together with a companion, chant certain combinations of the Hebrew alphabet. This formula, written down in the 3rd or 4th century, is essential for the creation of a golem — an artificial person. For ten centuries golems thus created lived in the imaginations of their creators. After that they became corporeal presences that anyone could see. Still later golems could pose real dangers and had to be destroyed by their creators. The notion of the golem is persistent and still evolving. Today golems may be found in science, technology and art. They are often associated with robots, computers, and new organisms created through biotechnology. In several 20th century paintings, short stories, plays and novels, golems are central figures. There is a golem opera, a golem poem, a golem ballet and a golem orchestral suite. And in more than a half dozen live action movies, a golem is the main character. The Golem, an animated film, was created by drawing directly on clear film stock one frame at a time. There are over 6,000 individual drawings. The film's soundtrack is derived from the earliest manual for golem making; the brevity of the film allows concentration on the essentials of the story. Although every film is, in some sense, an interpretation, The Golem leaves ample room for viewers to find their own meaning.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

From the Other Side of the Sky

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

From the Other Side of the Sky
Buy Now: $295.00

From the Other Side of the Sky explains the importance of religious ritual for Brazilian Indians and shows the diversity of religious practices among various groups. The Yanomami Indians, as one of their shamans explains, believe that Omami, the creator, holds up the sky. If no one practices religious rituals the sky will fall down.

Guardian of humans and nature, Omami takes care of everyone, including whites, because as the shaman says, "do you think the government will?" Pankaruru people reach their creator via "the enchanted," spirits summoned by a ritual called "the toré" that involves dancing and elaborate costumes. Maxacali society practices "hawk religion," in which animals play a symbolic role.

The video shows Maxicali people playing the Otter game, in which a man disguised as an otter spirit playfully snatches a child as the whole community watches and jokes. The creator "gave each tribe a religion. We have ours, and they have theirs," a Maxacali leader explains.

Films in the Indians in Brazil series:
A Different Story
The First Contacts
From the Other Side of the Sky
Our Languages
Our Rights
Our Territory
Who Are They?

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

Funeral Season

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Funeral Season
Buy Now: $320.00

“We pray to our ancestors but we do not worship them. You, you need an intermediary, the priest. But for us, our intermediary is the ancestor who is sitting next to God,” says Poundé, the old Cameroonian ethnologist, to the young Jewish director from Canada. And with this conclusive statement, everything becomes clear: the funerals in memory of “the dead who are not dead” organized several days or even years following the burial, the chants, brass bands and traditional dancers who accompany and punctuate the village rituals. The ancestral rites struggle to survive in a continuously westernized society of consumption by parading wealth and excess for all to see — even the dead. Funeral Season takes the viewer through the red dust of Cameroon's laterite slopes and into the heart of the Bamileke country, where one funeral flows into the next. These death celebrations provide an opportunity to see elaborate costumes and masks, festive songs and dances, and lavish feasts, while illuminating the communal links which bind the Bamileke as an ethnic group and society. Along the way, the director befriends his guides and becomes increasingly haunted by memories of his own ancestors. At times, the dialogues alienate him from the locals; at other times they bring the two closer together. Like the dead and the living, they belong to two different worlds often mirroring each other. There is a lightness to be found in this subjective ethnographic film which imaginatively and symbolically turns the gazes of two different worlds upon each other.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.

The Feast in Dream Village

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

The Feast in Dream Village
Buy Now: $295.00

The eastern Indonesian island of Sumba is the last island in the Malay archipelago where the majority of the people still follow their ancestral religion, called marapu. This film, shot in 1986, focuses on a challenge to the authority of the spirits and ancestors in a village ritual to restore fertility after a fire and famine. Narrated by the priests who communicate with the spirits in prayers and sacrifices, it documents a week of offerings, dancing and oratory in "Dream Village" in the western Kodi district. The name comes from a dream of prosperity the village founder once had, and dreams are also the ways in which priests are called to serve the spirits.

In the film, the head priest - a charismatic but fiery older man - leads the prayers and directs the order of the ceremony, but his authority is challenged when the sponsor and singer agree to delay certain stages to wait for the arrival of guests (some of them part of the Christian minority, who will come to the feast after they have attended church services). The head priest explodes and threatens to leave the ceremony if his authority is not respected, arguing that the invisible audience of spirits is more important than the visible one of human beings. He is finally pacified and paid with his share of meat, but he boycotts the final stages of the ceremony, when the souls of the buffalo sacrificed are guided out of the village and led along a pathway traced by buffalo horns to the "heavenly corral" of the upper world.

The focus on a point of conflict about ritual protocol sheds light in the transformations of Sumbanese society in the 1980s, which would eventually lead to an increased number of conversions to Christianity by the dawn of the 21st century. This small-scale drama shows a pagan community feeling pressure from government efforts to restrict sacrifices (through a slaughter tax) and inter-generational tensions about ritual authority. A younger priest, training to replace his father and assume a leadership role in the traditional religion, offers the most complete explanations and commentaries.

A more complete analysis of the feast depicted in this film can be found in Chapter 8 of The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History and Exchange (University of California Press 1994), and in the 1993 American Ethnologist article "Violence, Sacrifice and Divination: Giving and Taking Life in Eastern Indonesia" 20 (1): 159-178.

Visit Belief & Knowledge Systems to see additional products in this category.