Rites Revisited

Despite numerous changes over the last decades, tradition and rites remain integral to the lives of many communities around the world. From the convergence between tradition and modernity arises a section that highlights their correlation, rather than the complete disconnect that the two concepts might suggest.

In The Challenge, sheikhs use modern and sometimes downright opulent conveyances to reach their Quatari desert-destination, a meeting place for the rich and powerful gathering to attend a falconry tournament, a tradition that goes back centuries.

Libera Nos showcases the practice of exorcism which has recently reignited in Italy and throughout the world, born out of the growing fright of demonic possessions.

In Oh Brother Octopus the location is the Indonesian seascape, where the sea nomad population believes in the existence of a spiritual connection between humans and the eight-armed sea-creatures. Yet among rites celebrating the figure of the octopus, the film observes a family living in the city, and notes the growing encroachment of modernity and urban life into the pristine ecosystem of the seashore.

Through the camera lens Who is your grandfather? captures the oral traditions of the Mossi tribes of Burkina Faso, which write their histories and heritage through the language of drums.

Finally, A film less happy, more sad, poetical and wise is the ingenious portrait of a wood carver, a rural sage, who shares not only his thoughts and conception of the world, but also rites of his community.

Curatorial text and films presentations by Raluca Iacob