29.-30.1.2010
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MOVIES
WITH ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEMES

SALAAM ALEYKUM COPENHAGEN

Slovakia/Slovenia/Denmark, 2008, 19 min
Sašo Niskač
29.01.2010 22:20

Salaam Aleykum Copenhagen is a short documentary about Haluk, Allan and Iman – two young boys and a girl with Turkish, Kurdish, Lebanese and Danish backgrounds living in Copenhagen. How do they confront their lives with the atmosphere of Copenhagen, their home? The film is a portrait of their attitudes towards the questions of immigration and integration, their daily problems and challenges, family values, their view on Danish society and Copenhagen itself. While presenting their worlds they are opening the doors towards understanding of Copenhagen itself. They are part of Copenhagen and Copenhagen is part of them.

“...It is hard and then people say: you are well integrated, and I think: what is “well integrated”? Is it when Danes feel I am well integrated or the immigrants feel I am well integrated? Or is it when I myself feel that now I can tackle the two cultures?”...”I have learned to drink my girlfriend’s homeopathic drops, medicine, and she drinks my Kurdish tea each day, and that is for example integration. But I am tired of the word ‘integration’.”

Awards: Special Jury Mention, Platforma Video8 Fil Festival, November 2008, Athens, Greece; selected for The Best of Kino OTOK Film Festival - Video na Plazi, october 2009, Izola, Slovenia

Language of dialogues: Danish
Language of subtitles: English

DRUGS AND PRAYERS - INDIAN PSYCHIATRY IN THE REALM OF SAINTS

Germany/India, 2009, 57 min
Helene Basu
30.01.2010 18:25

The Sufi shrine of Mira Datar in India is large pilgrimage centre specialising in healing possession madness/mental illness. Recently, it has also become a site of experimenting with new forms of community care in the mental health sector. The NGO „Altruist“ facilitates communication between the mental health department, shrine dignitaries, psychiatrists and patients suffering from diverse kinds of mental troubles who seek help from the saint. Under the heading of „Dava and Dua“  Altruists promotes psychiatric services at the shrine parallel to the cures of possession illnesses offered by ritual specialists. The film documents interactions between different actors at the shrine (patients-psychiatrists, psychiatrists-ritual specialists, patients-ritual specialists), listens to the stories of afflicted persons and presents diverse views on the presumed causes of mental illness as well on the benefit or non-benefit of medicine and/or ritual practices as perceived by patients and their relatives.

Language of dialogues: Hindi and Gujarati
Language of subtitles: English

ČERVENÁ RŮŽIČKO, PROČ SE NEZOZVÍJÍŠ. DOUDLEBSKÁ MASOPUSTNÍ KOLEDA: TANEC, IDENTITA, STATUS A INTEGRACE

Czech Republic, 2008, 35 min
Daniela Stavělová
30.01.2010 15:50

The documentary film is a part of a multimedia study which consists of visual and editorial parts. Apart from the film, the DVD offers thematically digested shots recorded in scope of the research and a photogallery. Visual as well as editorial part connects possibilities of verbal and visual language and is bound to serve as an interception of the complexity of the observed march and to the representation of the dance as a cultural context. The complexity should help to reveal and deliver the connotation of the traditional event in today´s local society. The documentary can be publicised separately as well and its informational value does not depend on the supporting text of the multimedia study.

Daneila Stavělová operates as a research worker at an Ethnological Institute AV ČR, V.V.I.. Her main field is ethnochoreography and anthropology of dance. In the scope of the specialisation she lectures at the department of dance at HAMU, Prague, where she organises workshops as well. She cooperates as a choreograph at designing of thematical scenical projects which deal with traditional dance and music culture. This year, Daniela Stavělová was confered an Award of Ministry of Culture for outstanding contribution in the field of folklore and for interconnecting the scientific, artisitc and pedagogical activities.

The project was executed in the scope of the research AVOZ 90580513 of the Ethnological Institute AV ČR, v.v.i. and subsidized by Ministry of Culture CR within the programme Traditional folklor culture.

Language of dialogues: Czech
Language of subtitles: English