LOOKING AT THEMSELVES: BABALUDA LUDA
Romania, 2012, 33 min
Mihai Andrei Leaha
26.01.2013 18:35
The film is an attempt to question the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed when using the feedback method. The feedback provided by the people involved (the young performers but also the elders) in the Babaluda Feast, turned out to be very important in offering an insight to the ways in which the Feast was depicted by the visual ethnographer. By recoding the shared visual ethnography, that was arranged in big groups in a large screening rooms, but also in small groups in private houses, the film will try to experiment the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed by looking at, the looked at. The montage method of the film will use a chronotopic montage technique (Bakhtin), in which the time and space unity will be enacted in a visual ethnographic present.
Mihai Andrei Leaha is PhD Student in Philology. European Studies Faculty, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, România. Thesis: Visual Ethnography. Restructuring Anthropological Knowledge. Video Researching Romanian Traditional Customs.
Director: Mihai Andrei Leaha
Producton: Triba Film
Language of dialogues: Romanian
Language of subtitles: English, Czech
Launching of film, awards:
The film won the Student award in Goettingen International Ethnographic Film Festival.
It also entered the official selection of Film festivals in Sofia (IFEF 2012), Athens (Ethno Fest 2012) and Ho Chi Minh City ( AnthroFilmFestival 2012)
S.A.P.E is a acronyme for the Society of Ambience Makers and Elegant People. The followers of this movement are called "sapeurs"; men devoted to elegant dressing originally from the Congo-Brazzaville, West Africa. Part of a sapeur´s achievement is to settle in Paris, the fashion´s capital so there they can become an experimented, recognised sapeur. In Paris they are called "yayas" a lingala expression to name the elderly, those who deserve respect and recognition within the community; those who have made the journey of the S.A.P.E. Through the story of Fuluzioni Di Aluzioni, Annick Bertin "General Firenze" and Chardel Matsanga, this film tries to reveal the main aspects of this congolese practise.
In some of the diverse cultures of the pacific, especially in Melanesia, the pig is the most important domesticated animal. It is predominantly used for ceremonial purposes such as in funerals, weddings and age-set rituals. Several of the films in the long-term Reef islands Ethnographic Film project thus show the killing of pigs in conjunction with such events, at times giving a some what disturbing impression of human-animal relationships, particularly for audiences uses to see meat only wrapped in cellophane at the local supermarket. In this short film a mummy, daddy, and their little son go out to feed their pigs, conveying the impression of an altogether different human-animal relationship, one of tenderness, care, and love, whilst also showing how children learn through awareness of animals nature and technology.
