Chasing Shadows

“Chasing Shadows” offers an intimate portrait of the current practice of the prophetic movement called Kyangyang in Guinea-Bissau. Kyangyang means “the shadows”, but its followers also call themselves “Children of God”. The members of the movement, belonging to the Balanta ethnic group, communicate with their ancestors, who transmit messages from the high God through prophetic writing, glossolalia, divination rituals, and spirit possession. Guided by the ancestors, they heal and give advice in collective ceremonies. This film delves into the creative and poetic world of Kyangyang by giving voice to its members, young and adults, men and women. It also explores the relations between Kyangyang and Balanta cosmology and between the prophetic movement and the two main "world religions" in the country: Islam and Christianity, in its Catholic and Evangelical modes. Original idea and Research: Ramon Sarró and Marina Temudo Direction, camera and sound: Roger Canals Editing: Jordi Orobitg Production: University of Oxford and Jordi Orobitg Produccions

...In Between...

Omid is a 15 years old refugee from Afghanistan. He and his family escaped persecution in their homeland and started their trip to Western Europe. They managed to reach Greece, but in the summer of 2016 the borders closed. His family was split. Now he lives in a refugee camp in Athens with his mother and sisters waiting for the family reunification decision. A short film about a young refugee, trying to come to terms with the liminality of the waiting status in a refugee camp in Greece.

Stereotype

This film experiments with documentary narrations about judgments as a widespread phenomenon. Projecting the gap between the subjectivity of prejudices and the object of judgment, as stereotypes imposed on the body.

Kashi Labh

Kashi Labh is a sensory audiovisual ethnography of the distinctive politics-of-care staged by families while they anticipate and create the possibility of Moksha for their dying relative in Kashi (Varanasi). This research examines audiovisual ethnography as it facilitates a performative space that allowed me and my interlocutor Shiv to navigate the holy city and improvise different possibilities for his mother’s Moksha during his ten-day stay in Kashi.

The World has not Changed

The Pèrè people is a ethnic group who lives on the Pere plains. Their territory is divided by the Nigerian Cameroonian border. Their traditions are threatened of desperation by a strong islamization process and by migration into the cities. At the regional radio station CRTV Adamaoua, in Northern Cameroon, do they have redaction on various local languages. This film follows of the Pèrè redaction and its work to take care of the traditions of its people and to facilitate communication between its people and the modern world. The film is shot on SD (DV-CAM).

Arho – The Afar Salt Trade of Northeastern Ethiopia

“Arho – The Afar Salt Trade of North-eastern Ethiopia” follows the journey of a camel caravan to the salt plains of the Afar Depression. Traditionally the caravans moved from Afar Depression to other parts of Ethiopia and to the Red Sea coastal regions of modern-day Eritrea and Djibouti. For centuries the control, trade and distribution of salt was of primary importance in the articulation of economic, social, and political life of the nomadic communities living along the caravan trails. Since 2010, trucks have slowly replaced the camel caravans. This has led to a steady decline in the trade. The film, relying on strong visual imagery and traditional Afar music, selected by the participant of this project, documents how the decline of this trade affects the daily life of the communities in Berahle district of North-eastern Ethiopia. The documentary is part of PhD project at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University London. It is based on 13 months ethnographic research (2017-2018) that combines anthropological theory with ethnographic filmmaking to explore new and creative ways of collaborative research.

Juarke

The Mboum people in Cameroon have practiced circumcision for centuries. Until recently, this practice was highly regarded as a period of initiation leading to a man's status. Every year, children were sent to the bush and during their seclusion, cultural codes and knowledges of the society are taught to them. Nowadays, this tradition is dying out leading to conflict of generation between olders and youngters, specially those who are born and raised outside of their community. Through a discussion between Hamidou the old a his grand child and by following a group of five children during their period of initiation, the film shows how circumcision is performed and explains its meaning among the Mboum people. It also shows that, despite social changes and external pressures (urbanisation, modernisation and health issues etc.) efforts are made to keep the social order resulting from this practice.

Kava Rootz

This documentary film is a result of multi-sited ethnographic research between 2015-2019, which explores cultural identity, gender, music, and spirituality through contemporary and common kava practices. Drawing from over 17 years of participation in kava communities, this film is grounded in Tongan experiences, while also including a mobile and expanding Moana/Wansolwara/Oceanic perspective with contributions from Fijians, Sāmoans, Māori, and more. The knowledge holders in this film span across four territories, including Te Ika a Māui in Aotearoa, Utah (US) on Turtle Island, The Kingdom of Tonga, and Kamberra, Australia. They share a complex web of experiences, purpose, and tensions within the contemporary practices of common kava gatherings known in Tongan as faikava. Contemporary kava gatherings are spaces to release the pressures of modern life, nurture ancestral and social relationships, reveal truths, build community, produce and transmit knowledge, negotiate identity, heal, and foster positive well-being through comradery and openness. This film cannot cover all of the complexity of kava culture, yet attempts to be a meaningful introduction to the dynamic practices that are alive and expanding throughout the world.

Memory Is Not About the Past

The short documentary "Memory Is Not About the Past" aims to understand how members of the so-called Third Generation East, individuals who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall as children or young adolescents, remember East Germany 26 years after reunification. The field of research is the city of Berlin and all its former East German districts. Walking, as a performative practice, is at the centre of this ethnographic journey. With every step, the individuals reclaim their childhood neighbourhood and, at the same time, position themselves in the present. The urban space functions as a sounding board of the individual's inner thoughts and embodied experiences and is closely intertwined with stories of former communal solidarity, social change and an underlying level of estrangement from these areas.