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Spiritualism and Religious Rituals


Spiritualism and Religious Rituals



KENDAL PROJECT, THE: A SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION?

Between October 2000 and June 2002, a University of Lancaster study of the population of Kendal, a town near the Lakes District in the UK, revealed some fascinating trends in modern society's approach to, and practice of, religion and spirituality. Known as the Kendal Project, the study looked at the prevalence of regular congregational church attendance compared with the popularity of spirituality in the holistic domain. This program explores the scope and methodology of the Kendal Project, its findings and conclusions about modern society, religion and spirituality, and examines implications and explanations of changing trends. We hear reflections from a range of people, including University of Lancaster academics involved in the Kendal project, a member of the clergy, and a modern day practising witch.

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DVD / 2012 / 23 minutes

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EVIL AND SUFFERING: A RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE

This program discusses the concepts of evil and suffering in relation to the existence of God. It attempts to resolve the theological and philosophical dilemma of the inconsistent triad and gives some possible explanations of evil and suffering in the face of an omnipotent, omni-benevolent and omniscient God. This topic is discussed by a range of specialists and academics who explain how the existence of God and suffering can coexist, with reference to the theodicies of St Augustine and Irenaeus. Contains some mildly disturbing imagery that you may wish to prepare younger students for before showing.

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DVD / 2011 / 21 minutes

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SACRAMENTS, THE

This informative program defines what a sacrament is, examines what the seven sacraments are, and explores what they mean for Christians today. It focuses on each sacrament individually and explains how they affect the life of a Christian. This topic is discussed by a range of specialists, academics and Christians who describe what the sacraments are and how they are followed, giving detail behind the meaning and symbolism of each one. The last chapter focuses on anointing the sick and provides views on life after death that you may wish to prepare younger students for before showing.

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DVD / 2011 / 23 minutes

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DRUMS ON THE RED RIVER

By Lan Phuong, Jayasinhji Jhala, Hoang Son, Lauren Meeker

Once a year in Yen Vinh, Hung Yen Province a grand three-day festival is held at a temple by the banks of the Red River to worship the god Chu Dong Tu and his two wives, Tien Dung and Tay Sa. During the festival, three area villages converge on the main temple complex to participate in the ritual offerings, folk games, ca tru singing, and other events.

On the second day of the festival, a water procession takes place on the Red River that mimics the Princess Tien Dung's fated river journey in which she encountered the poor fisherman Chu Dong Tu hiding in the sand. During the procession, in an elaborate ritual conducted by the elders of the participating villages, water is poured into a porcelain jar. This sacred water will be used in temple rituals throughout the year.


DVD (Color) / 2010 / 73 minutes

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RETURN TO THE LAND OF SOULS

By Jordi Esteva

In the 21st century, many ancestral beliefs are struggling to survive in a hostile, fast-changing world. In southeast Cote d'Ivoire, some Akan communities still make contact with the spirits through Komians or animistic priests who go into a trance and are possessed by the spirits of the Forest and the Waters.

Jean Marie Addiaffi (1941-1999), a writer and intellectual from Ivory Coast, fought to conserve the Akans' oral literature, myths and legends, and the knowledge and uses of the plants.

Award
  • Best Documentary, Black International Cinema Berlin, 2010

    DVD (Color) / 2010 / 68 minutes

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    CELESTIAL DANCE: A BALINESE CEREMONY

    By Kari Soveri

    Sanghyang Deling is a special religious ceremony performed in a remote village in the volcanic region of northern Bali. This beautifully poetic event is meant to protect the village and its inhabitants from demons and practitioners of black magic. To ward off the insidious creatures with magical powers, all of the inhabitants of the village participate in preparing the ceremony. They decorate the temple area, prepare sacrificial gifts and the food. This event has rarely been seen by outsiders.

    The key part of the ceremony which is based on Hinduism, consists of two young girls who dance according to strict Balinese traditions. The girls chosen for the task have never received any dance training although they have seen the dance many times before. They only dance while in a trance. The ceremony is led by a Hindu priest who asks the deities to descend into their midst in the temple and to enter into the body of puppets which are representations of the two girls. While dancing the girls murmur chants that have healing properties and exorcise the evil spirits that threaten the village.


    DVD / 2006 / (High School, College, Adult) / 28 minutes

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    MAGIC AND CATHOLICISM

    The people of the Bolivian highlands blend in thought and practice the traditional magic of the region and the religion of their conquerors. A fatal automobile accident, coincident with the festival of Santiago, provides occasion for unique expressions of both faith and magic in the effort to influence events.

    DVD (Color) / 2005 / 34 minutes

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    BUYING THE SPIRIT

    By Saskia Rietmeijer & Bart Drolenga

    Nearly everyone in Haiti believes in voodoo. This powerful documentary takes us into the hidden world of voodoo practitioners and offers unique insight into a frequently misunderstood religion.

    Haitians turn to priests like Vladimir Bernadel or to secret voodoo societies for support and protection. Vladimir has problems of his own. He needs money to retire but his business is declining and the thirty family spirits he normally commands will no longer do his bidding. And his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend wants to kill him. His problems began after he "bought" a spirit and made him master of his own family spirits. These spirits won't accept an outsider and now only work when they want to. We witness a top secret ceremony, as voodoo priests set fire to a cross in a graveyard and call upon a powerful spirit to kill Vladimir's rival.

    Yves and Odette Theophile belong to the secret society Ayan Papa because they believe it gives them strength. In the past year, five of their children died, their business collapsed and all their savings were used for the funerals. Ayan Papa offered them aid which they used to start a small business

    The personal tales of Vladimir and Yeves reveal two very different aspects of voodoo. Vladimir uses it to gain wealth and power while Yves turns to it for comfort after the deaths of his children. Their stories offer an objective view of the religion that is so important to so many. Does it really deserve its maligned reputation?

    Review
  • [italics]Voodoo practices are revealed in this documentary film, addressing how people utilize religion to solve practical problems in Port-au-Prince,Haiti. Throughout we gain insight into the lives of both the Haitian poor and those of higher socioeconomic standing."--Anthropological Review Database

    DVD / 2004 / (College, Adult) / 52 minutes

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    SIBERIAN DREAM

    By Janet Gardner with Irina Pantaeva

    Originally from a small village in the Buryat region of Siberia, Irina Pantaeva emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980"s. Every summer, Irina, a world-famous model, and her son travel back to help her troubled family, trapped in the new free market society struggling with alcoholism, lawlessness and despair. Through interviews with academics, local shamans, monks, musicians, and farmers, Siberian Dream shows the effects of perestroika and glasnost on this Buryat community.

    The Buryats are trying to develop an open society while struggling to revive their culture. Irina and her family embody these efforts. Buryat-Mongols -- including the Pantaeva family -- practice Buddhism and Shamanism simultaneously. Irina celebrates her endangered Buryat-Mongol culture, teaching her son the importance of honoring their ancestors.

    Dr. David Foglesong, Professor of Russian History at Rutgers, illuminates the effects of Russification and the events and personalities driving glasnost and perestroika. Dr. Robert Thurman, Professor of Religion at Columbia University and President of Tibet House, New York, discusses Tibetan Buddhism and history as it affected the Mongolian tribes to which the Buryats belong.

    Reviews
  • "We see how the effects of Soviet Communism, Russification, Glasnost, and the fall of Communism have all come, and gone, with a cost. Yet the Buriats have survived and their culture is now resurgent. All of this is interwoven with Irina's personal story. The music goes hand in glove with the visuals, making this a delightful and informative production. Recommended." - Michael Fein, Coordinator of Library Services, Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg, VA, for Emro

  • "I just took a look at the film and was mezmorized by the story. This is truly original and inspiring." - Linden Chubin, Asia Society

  • "This wonderful project documenting Buryat history, culture, and religion, will be of great help for any and all people interested in better understanding the peoples of Russia and Central Asia." - Dr. Robert A.F. Thurman, President, Tibet House U.S., and Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University

    DVD / 2004 / (High School, College, Adult) / 31 minutes

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    SENTINELS OF THE EARTH: CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SIERRA POPOLU

    By Judith Gleason

    This is an innovative, intimate portrait of stalwart members of an indigenous people who inhabit Mexico1s Sierra de Santa Marta and speak a derivative of ancient Olmec. For convenient classroom use, eight episodes, focussed on various aspects of their culture, have been divided into Parts I and II -- available separately.

    Part I begins with recollections of an outlawed carnival celebration intercut with old women performing "Dance of the Tiger" in honor of the corn god. Episode two: younger women collaborate, guided by Santana, in making a fuel-saving clay stove. Episode three moves to Apolinar1s clinic for a group-cleansing, followed by his recital of a chant to restore a soul stolen by wiley spirits called chanecos. In section four, Santana recounts her life-story.

    Part II begins with Don Tomas pouring libations to the rain god. Episode six find us in a polygamous household. Episode seven dramatizes the popular story of Homshuk, the corn god, as Gabriel and his second wife labor in the fields. To conclude, the Arizmendi brothers revive ballads of the Sierra on homemade instruments.

    Reviews
  • "This film is very well done and informative, allowing the viewer a look inside a little-seen culture. Recommended for senior high-college anthropology courses." - Kathleen Loomis-Sacco, SUNY College at Fredonia EMRO

  • "Recommended - very well done and informative" - Kathleen Loomis-Sacco, SUNY College of Fredonia for Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "The rich, elaborate ways of understanding and reckoning with the world in search of wellbeing ¡K come through clearly." - Prof. William B. Taylor, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University

    DVD / 2002 / (College, Adult) / 104 minutes

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    TAKI KUDO, SHAMANIC MEDIUM OF TSUGARU

    By Yasuhiro Omori

    Filmed between 1991 and 1997, Taki Kudo, Shamanic Medium of Tsugaru documents the final years of the charismatic Ms. Taki Kudo, a medium, healer and fortune teller. Every year she comes to Japan's sacred Mt. Osorozan, home of the Akakura grand shrine, where the mediums draw chopsticks for the best places to set up their booths. Summoning the spirits of the dead, she answers clients' questions with reassurances and criticisms from deceased relatives, and displays the elaborate shrines that families tend on behalf of their loved ones. Back in her own village, Ms. Kudo explains the power of her Buddhist rosary for prayer and healing and talks to ethnographer about her relationship with the gods and the process of spirit possession. She performs ceremonies for health and purification, and exorcises evil spirits and grudges by sending their paper representations floating downriver on a tiny boat.


    DVD (Color) / 2001 / 78 minutes

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    FEAST-DAY OF TAMAR AND LASHARI, THE

    By Hugo Zemp

    The Pshavi people of the eastern mountains of the Republic of Georgia perform a ritual which can be characterized as a syncretism of ancient polytheistic beliefs and Orthodox Christian faith, but which is qualified by city habitants of Tbilisi as "pagan". The ritual of Tamar and Lashari celebrates queen Tamar (12-13th century) and her son Lasha, deified by the mountain dwellers.

    Each year, and for three days, on the hillside of a Caucasus valley, pilgrims consecutively meet at two sanctuaries consecrated to these deities and worship them through prayers, songs and sacrifices, enjoying at the same time food and happy chats with friends they have not seen for a year. In addition to prayers and sacrifices by a shrine priest, religious songs are an essential part of the ritual.

    The purpose of this film is not to isolate the most archaic elements, nor to reconstitute an idealized image of a polytheistic ritual of the past, but it is to show the multiple dimensions of the festival as it happened in July 1991. Several centuries-old songs could be heard there, but also profane music, traditional and modern, rural and urban, oriental and occidental music.

    Awards
  • First Video Prize, 9th International Festival of Ethnographic Films ("Music and Rites"), Nuoro, Italy, 1998
  • Prize for Outstanding Documentation, Parnu International Documentary and Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2000.

    DVD (Color) / 1998 / 73 minutes

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    SHAMANISM: AN ANCIENT TRADITION

    Shamanism not only predates Western medicine, but is practiced with great homogeneity throughout the world. With a focus on knowing through direct perception rather than cognition, shamans search for the causes and cures for illnesses by contacting spirits through a trance -like state of consciousness. This intriguing program cuts across cultures and national boundaries to delve into the world of shamanic medicine. Shamans, ritualistic dancers, an anthropologist, a psychologist, a doctor, and others investigate this form of traditional healing, contrasting it with Western medical science.

    DVD / 1998 / 39 minutes

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    SEVEN NIGHTS AND SEVEN DAYS

    This beautifully photographed film documents an unusual healing ceremony in Senegal. It shows how a community gathers together to treat and heal one of its members who is suffering from postpartum depression. After giving birth, the young woman refuses to care for her child. Years before her mother and grandmother had been treated for a similar illness by the same shaman, Fat Seck.

    The ceremony, called the Ndepp, is organized by the Lebou people of Senegal to honor their ancestral spirits and to ask them to allow a cure to take place. Performed over seven days and nights, the Ndepp is complicated with a precise set of rules. A large part of the population participates. Fat Seck, the healer, resolves this family problem. Trances and sacrifices are part of the cure. After the week, the young woman is restored to normal behavior, an effective mother and community member.

    Review
  • "Women's studies, anthropology courses and health workers would find this film of interest, and it can also be used to explore cross- cultural differences around the nature of illness and healing." - Media Network

    Notes
  • American Anthropological Association, 1992
  • American Psychiatric Association, 1987

    DVD / 1992 / (College, Adult) / 58 minutes

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    SHAMANIC MEDIUM OF TSUGARU, A

    By Yasuhiro Omori

    Ms. Taki Kudo says she has been able to connect with deities since she was six or seven years old. Even in modern Japan, mediums like Ms. Kudo are in demand, providing such traditional services as expelling a curse and invoking spirits for health and long life. At twice-annual rituals at Mt. Osore-Zan, she and other female spirit mediums allow the dead to speak through them, relaying insight, comfort and warnings from the deceased to their loved ones. Another important duty is caring for the mulberry-wood Oshirasama puppets representing individual souls. Ms. Kudo dresses and stores the puppets and performs the lively rites in which spirits come down from the mountain in order to protect and purify the people of her village - the deities are cajoled by offerings of food, lights, money and candy.

    Awards
  • First Prize, Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, 1994
  • First Prize, Bilan du Film Ethnographic, Paris, 1995
  • Third Prize, Nuoro Festival, Nuoro, Italy, 1996

    DVD (Color) / 1992 / 93 minutes

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    RETURN OF GODS AND ANCESTORS, THE: THE FIVE YEAR CEREMONY

    By Hu Tai-Li

    The Return of Gods and Ancestor is the first locally made ethnographic film in Taiwan. Under extremely low budget, anthropologist Hu Tai-Li recorded with a hand-cranked Bell & Howell 16 mm camera the most magnificent five year ceremony in Paiwan tribe.

    The Paiwan people on the one hand expected to receive blessings of the gods and ancestors through piercing rattan balls with extended bamboo poles; on the other, they tried to prevent any harm caused by the evil spirits. During the filming processes, the competitive chiefs were stimulated to reveal the cultural structure in front of the camera. The Paiwan five year ceremony is not only the reunion of the dead and the alive, but the meeting of the old and the new.

    Festivals
  • Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 1985
  • American Museum of Natural History, New York

    DVD (Color) / 1985 / 35 minutes

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    TO SERVE THE GODS

    By Karen Kramer

    To Serve the Gods is about the beliefs, rituals and performances of a week-long ceremony given by a Haitian family in honor of its ancestral spirits. We are told at the outset of the film that this sevis loua only occurs every twenty to thirty years. This particular service takes place in a rural community in southern Haiti, on family land, where relatives have gathered to propitiate gods inherited by their ancestors. This celebration of one's birthright and obligations involves drumming, song, dance, possession, animal sacrifice and sharing of food with the gods and with friends, family and neighbors.


    DVD (Color) / 1982 / 33 minutes

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    SAINTS AND SPIRITS

    Directed by Melissa Llewelyn-Davies

    Through Aisha bint Muhammad, SAINTS AND SPIRITS explores the personal dimensions of Islam during three religious events in Morocco: the festive annual renewal of contact with spirits in Marrakech; the pilgrimage to the shrine of Sidi Chamharouch, high in the Atlas Mountains; and the veneration of a new saint's shrine.

    Reviews
  • "An aspect of Islam that few outsiders see, viewers in high school and college classes and public libraries intensively studying Islam andMorocco will find this ethnographic documentary a rare record of the beliefsof one group of Moroccan Muslims." - Booklist

  • "[SAINTS AND SPIRITS] is a visual experience, recommended for a greater understanding of Islam and Muslim culture." - Landers Film Reviews

  • "Well-shot and well-edited¡K especially valuable for its focus on women in Muslim society" - EFLA Evaluations

    DVD (Color, With Study Guide) / 1979 / 26 minutes

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    A CURING CEREMONY

    By John Marshall

    Sha//ge, a very young woman about to have her first child, falls ill, probably with malaria. /Ti!kay, a relative and healer, enters a mild trance, without the stimulus of dancing, in an attempt to cure her. Sha//ge lives but her baby is born dead.


    DVD (Black and White) / 1969 / 8 minutes

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