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Light Upon Light

Mon, 2 Oct 2023 11:47:00 GMT

One day, an Egyptian friend gave Danish anthropologist Christian Suhr a piece of advice: Stop focusing on all the darkness in the world, and look at the light instead. Tired of studying the tensions between Muslim and Western world views in Europe, Suhr began to study religious experiences of light in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Light Upon Light explores how practitioners of Sufi Islam search for light at a time of deep darkness and political turmoil. Throughout his journey in Cairo and back home in Denmark, Suhr engages in conversations with friends and acquaintances while also observing and participating in rituals that open the hearts of practitioners to the light of God. While speaking to universal human concerns, the film offers a nuanced portrayal of religious practices as the filmmaker seeks to understand the experiences of those he meets as well as his own experience of divine light.

“Danish director and anthropologist Christian Suhr’s feature documentary offers a respectful yet compelling peek into the surprisingly diverse communities of Sufi worshippers within the Islamic tradition of Egypt.” – Deborah Young, Film Verdict

“It is groundbreaking that a Danish director (Christian Suhr) is part of an Arab production. It is a symptom of a greater transformation in the cultural power relationship between Western and Arab documentary filmmaking – a relationship that historically has been very unequal. For long there has been a hegemony, where Western production companies have led the productions of documentaries also from the Arab world. Here the hegemony is turned upside down.” — Rasmus Steen, Head of Documentary, IMS

Selected Screenings & Awards

Special Mention, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, France, 2023

Opening Film, Ethnofest – Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece, 2022

World Premiere, CPH:DOX, Denmark, 2022

International Premiere, Cairo IFF, Egypt, 2022
German International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2024

Dhaka International Film Festival, 2024

Society of the Anthropology of Consciousness Annual Meeting, USA, 2024

Jean Rouch Hors-les-murs Festival, France, 2024
European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference, Spain, 2024

American Academy of Religion, USA, 2023

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Canada, 2023

Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Film Festival, Canada, 2023

Freiburger Filmforum, Germany, 2023

Tripoli Film Festival, Lebanon, 2023

NAFA Film Festival, Denmark, 2023

Mind & Life Europe Conference, ESRi, Italy, 2023

FIFEQ Montreal, Canada 2023

FIFEQ Ville de Quebec, Canada 2023

Ethnocineca, Austria, 2023

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt, 2023

Arabian Nights Festival, Cinemateque, Denmark, 2022

Amsterdam Ethnographic Filmday, Netherlands, 2022

Ethnokino, Switzerland, 2022

Practices, Aesthetics and Entanglements Conference, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, 2022

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Point of View (NYU C&M Vol. 2)

Mon, 4 Feb 2019 14:51:00 GMT

Point of View (NYU C&M Vol. 2)
Buy Now: $340.00

Point of View: First Person to Observational explores different methodologies in ethnographic documentary filmmaking. In each short film, the filmmaker establishes a unique point of view, and thus entry point for the audience, as observer of their own or others' lives. All reveal the importance of observation - of the physical spaces and of their characters' interactions - for engaging audiences in otherwise inaccessible spaces and intimate conversations.

Stories range from a young filmmaker's new appreciation of his mother in his attempt to grow up, that offer a glimpse into a suburban white, economically privileged community; a woman's reflections on her recovery from a breakdown after experiencing an attempted coup in Turkey; a humorous, keen observation of a couple negotiating their newlywed portraits with a lively photographer in a Chinese wedding photography shop; observations of Eastern European women telling stories as they make dumplings in the basement of a Ukranian church; and a filmmaker's encounters with the workers who create manhole covers that, upon their completion, travel from India to the streets of New York.

Films:

Cast in India (Natasha Raheja, 26 min, 2014)

Iconic and ubiquitous, approximately 300,000 manhole covers dot the streets of New York City. This observational documentary takes the viewer behind-the-scenes, to Howrah, India, where skilled workers heat, weld, melt, and mold iron into manhole cover castings. Cast in India gives life to the men, the processes, and the transnational journey behind these everyday objects.

My Mom's Name is Jean (Myles Jewell, 27 min, 2008)

New York City based filmmaker Myles Jewell still relies on his Boston-based mom to complete tasks he is perfectly capable of, such as making dentist appointments and buying new underwear. In an effort to shed his adolescence, Myles moves home for thirty days and calls his mom by her first name. Combining first person narration and observational camera, the film offers a unique approach to the coming-of-age story.

The Bride Who Wouldn't Smile (Camilla Nielsson, 8 min, 1998)

At Nancy's Wedding Center in Chinatown, New York, Nancy Ma and the wedding photographer, Mr. Ma, work to recreate big-screen beauty and glamour for their customers. Through close attention to the interactions between a young Vietnamese couple and the studio owners, and to the material objects around the studio, this short observational film captures the tensions inevitably encountered in the pursuit of the ideal photo.

The Ladies (Tyler Zoanni, 14 min, 2015)

For 50 years, a group of Ukrainian women has gathered in New York's East Village to make dumplings for their church. This observational short offers an evocative portrait of 'the ladies' and the work, faith, gossip, and humor that brings them together.

Back to Me (Zeynep Sertbulut, 22 min, 2017)

In the summer of 2016, an ISIS airport bombing and a military coup in Turkish filmmaker Zeynep Sertbulut's home country set her world off axis. Back to Me documents the many stages of recovery from an unsettling crisis while exploring identity, resilience, and change in the midst of global conflict. The intimate, first-person film tackles difficult subjects: How do you convey a traumatic event, and how do you evoke a subject's ever-changing internal states?

DVD Produced by: Cheryl Furjanic and Pegi Vail

This is part of the NYU Culture & Media series

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Stories from the Archive (NYU C&M Vol. 1)

Fri, 1 Feb 2019 15:33:00 GMT

Stories from the Archive (NYU C&M Vol. 1)
Buy Now: $340.00

Stories from the Archive: History, Representation, and Identity includes a variety of stories shot in, about, and using archives and archival materials. The films explore the meanings and relationships imbedded in material objects and images and raise questions about how images are created, and circulated. Topics range from the contemporary, yet controversial art practice of a pastor who digitally depicts centuries-old Russian Orthodox iconography; the hybrid, poetic uncovering of scientists' journals documenting their collecting practices at Natural History Museums over a century ago; written correspondence between a European Jewish couple following WWII, uncovered by the couples' own grandchild; the use of forensic and photographic evidence to trace Spain's disappeared during the Franco regime; to archival footage and images used to evoke a once-vibrant dance studio in New York City's Hell's Kitchen.

The films in this compilation offer different strategies for bringing life to archival materials. The filmmakers variously draw on letters, archival and found footage, and photography. They present letters and journals through voice-over and narration, engage stylized approaches to filming archival collections and objects, and recontextualize historical objects through contemporary interviews, and use "process film" sequences to explore the labor behind the creation of various types of artifacts.

Films:

Archives of Extinction (Alyse Takeyesu, 12 min, 2016)

Archives of Extinction explores the concept of "saving" nature through a look at a museum's preserved bird collection. The history of the scientific collection, accompanied by voice overs drawn from texts of late 19th century collectors, provide a backgrop to the modern processes of de-extinction, an emerging science dedicated to bringing extinct species back into the world. Archives of Extinction evokes questions about nature conservation then and now; about the role of science in disassembling past and reassembling future ecologies; and about the human will to resurrect lost species and re-animate the past.

Pixelating Holiness (Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, 15 min, 2017)

West Virginian Russian Orthodox priest, Father Jonah Campbell, manufactures religious icons using contemporary digital technologies. Observational scenes documenting Cambell's production process, are juxtaposed with interviews exploring current controversies surrounding these digitally-produced icons, particualrly the suggestion that these icons are less holy than hand-painted works. Through this case study, the film looks at the relationship between religious art and divinity as it is transformed through digital technologies, while also suggesting the importance of entrepreneurial enterprises to a changing Christianity.

What Remains (Lee Douglas and Jorge Moreno Andrés, 29 min, 2015)

After the exhumation of a mass grave in Spain's southern province of Ciudad Real, two local anthropologists meet Angelita González Yepes, a woman whose family was torn apart by post-war political violence. In the intimate space of her living room, Angelita's home, family snapshots, and defiant voice make sense and gives meaning to a haunting legacy that refuses to pass, despite more than seven decades of silence. Though an intense and emotional process of fieldwork, Angelita and her interlocutors piece together fragmented memories, forensic evidence, and archival documentation to understand the city's painful history.

More than a Face in the Crowd (Sami Chan, 25 min, 2012)

A filmmaker explores the life of her great-aunt, Jane Chung, an actress who made a career for herself at a time when Asian Americans faced widespread racism in Hollywood. Working mostly in small parts and as an extra, Jane's fifty-year career reflects many of the struggles and triumphs of the Asian Americans working in the entertainment industry. Jane had parts in over fifty films and TV shows including Chinatown, When Harry Met Sally, M*A*S*H, and I Love Lucy, but much of her work is uncredited. The filmmaker brings together multiple generations of her family, and mines the film archive for evidence of her great-aunt, to provide a portrait of the real person beyond the often stereotypical roles and bit parts that constituted her screen presence.

A Correspondence (Leili Sreberny-Mohammadi, 16 min, 2014)

The film brings to life the year-long correspondence between the filmmaker's grandparents during the years following WWII. After fleeing Nazi Germany and Poland Srebernya, Margo and David met in London in 1947, only to be separated when David was sent to Palestine as a doctor in the British Army. Constructed through photographs, letters, telegrams and archival footage from the era, their story is one of love across distance and the search for a partner during troubled times.

Ode to Fazil's (Marcel Rosa-Salas, 19 min, 2017)

Fazil's Dance Center, located in New York City, was considered sacred ground for flamenco, tap, hip hop and Middle Eastern dancers often unwelcome at other studios. In 2008, after nearly forty years in operation, Fazil's was torn down and replaced by a luxury high-rise hotel. Marcel Rosa-Salas' personal film brings together stories of a magical place that no longer physically exists, yet lives on in the memories of dancers who continue to cherish it. Through archival footage and present-day interviews, Ode to Fazil's tells the story of this lost New York landmark, and the displacement of artists in a rapidly transforming city.

DVD Produced by: Cheryl Furjanic and Pegi Vail

This is part of the NYU Culture & Media series.

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NYU Culture & Media Series

Fri, 1 Feb 2019 15:02:00 GMT

NYU Culture & Media Series
Buy Now: $545.00

The NYU Culture & Media series is a new collection showcasing ethnographic documentaries from the Program in Culture & Media (C&M) at New York University. C&M is a specialized course of study leading to a New York State certificate in Culture and Media for NYU graduate students who are also pursuing their Ph.D. degrees in the Departments of Anthropology, Cinema Studies, and Comparative Literature.

The program integrates production with theory and research stressing a decolonial approach in exploring the relationships between culture and media in a number of domains: ethnographic film’s significance for the fields of anthropology and cinema/media studies; the representation of cultures through media; the development of media in Indigenous, Diaspora, and non-Western communities; the emerging social and cultural formations shaped by new media practices; the political economy shaping the production, distribution and consumption of media worldwide; and the impact of new media technologies on these processes.

The documentary shorts in these collections were produced, directed, and shot by students in the yearlong Documentary Production Lab. Rather than focus on a single filmmaking style, students are exposed to a wide variety of ethnographic and documentary filmmaking methodologies in order to determine the best fit for their story. Each of the compilations, includes films representing an array of filmmaking approaches and diverse subject areas, selected for their usefulness in anthropology and film classes, as well as documentary production courses.

The NYU Culture & Media series

Volume 1 - Stories from the Archive: History, Representation, and Identity

Volume 2 - Point of View: First Person to Observational

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Video in the Villages: Amazon Projects series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Amazon Projects series
Buy Now: $400.00

These videos give examples of environmental protection and sustainable development projects taking place in indigenous areas of the Amazon. With their cultural respect for natural resources, these indigenous groups have a lot to teach other cultures about co-operation with the environment.

Films in the Amazon Projects series:
Agenda 31

Signs Don't Speak

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Video in the Villages: Ashanika Villages series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Ashanika Villages series
Buy Now: $850.00

Made by indigenous filmmakers, these inventive videos document a range of development projects, beliefs and cultural practices in indigenous communities of Acre, Brazil. We see how contemporary people have maintained some traditional practices and adopted new ones in these dynamic and diverse cultures.

Films in the Ashanika Villages series:
Iauaretê, Waterfall of the Jaguars

Imbé Gikegü, The Scent of Pequi Fruit
Kiarãsâ Yõ Sâty, The Agouti's Peanut

New Era

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Video in the Villages: Conflicts in the Amazon series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Conflicts in the Amazon series
Buy Now: $400.00

This series examines conflict and sustainable development in indigenous areas.

Films in the Conflicts in the Amazon series

Free-For-All In Sararé

It's Now or Never!

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Video in the Villages: Encounters series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Encounters series
Buy Now: $400.00

The Encounters series demonstrates of the ways in which video can facilitate interchanges and solidarity between indigenous groups. Using a combination recorded images and personal contacts, Indians previously isolated from one another are able to form friendships and forge cultural and political alliances.

Films in the Encounters series

Meeting Ancestors

We Gather as a Family

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Video in the Villages: Indians in Brazil series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Indians in Brazil series
Buy Now: $1,400.00

A series of videos produced for the 'TV Escola' (TV School) of Brazil's Ministry of Education. Presented by Indian leader Ailton Krenak, "Indians in Brazil" draws a picture of contemporary indigenous reality, attempting to overcome stereotypes and promote understanding between Indians and non-Indians.

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?

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Video in the Villages: Indigenous Video Makers series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Video in the Villages: Indigenous Video Makers series
Buy Now: $2,700.00

In production workshops, young indigenous filmmakers learn to use video equipment and set their own priorities about what to film. The result is a wide variety of videos about rituals, natural resources, village life, family, mythology and even video making.

Films in the Indigenous Video Makers series

Dancing with a Dog
From the Ikpeng Children to the World
Kinja Iakaha, A Day in the Village
The Living Forest
Moyngo
Nguné Elü
One Must Be Curious
A Path to Live
The Rainy Season
Shomõtsi
Trainees for the Future
Wapté Mnhõnõ, The Xavante's Initiation
Wai'á Rini, The Power of the Dream

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