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The Spirit World of Tidikawa
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Filmmaker Name:
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Jef Doring, Su Doring
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Film Length:
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51 min
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Film Year:
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1972
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Duration:
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46-75 min
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Decade:
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1970s
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Color:
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color
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Region:
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Oceania
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This film offers a visual exploration of the daily lives of the Bedamini, on the Great Papuan Plateau.
In 1972, there were about 3,800 Bedamini speakers, living in 60 longhouse communities scattered throughout 700 square kilometers of tropical rainforest. A longhouse community consisted of twenty to one hundred individuals, with its site shifting every three or four years in order to clear new gardens. Bananas, the principal crop, were supplemented by taro, yams, sweet potatoes, and sago. Protein was obtained by hunting, gathering, and fishing.
Tidikawa, a gesame, or spirit medium, is the focus of the film. Spirit mediums are men who communicate with ancestral spirits through spirit children, who speak through the medium's body when the later is in trance.
However, Tidikawa's days are not solely devoted to his work as a medium. The film follows as he and a friend, Haifi, spend their time around two longhouses while other men hunt in the forest and women garden and collect sago. Away from the longhouses, the film explores as huge timbers are felled with steel axes, a father plays with a baby, and tobacco is smoked, offering a brief look at the daily lives of the Bendamini.
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival
Best Documentary, Australian Cinematographic Society
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