GAUR 8 AZOKAN
Spain, 2012, 16 min
Farapi & Monika Hertlová
26.01.2013 17:30
In the Basque country, the local distribution of agricultural products plays a very important role. Despite the strong pressure of foreign import, the traditional markets are an inseparable part of every day life of local people. Thus number of family farms has continued with its first-class production until these days. However, work at a farm is usually connected with a man – a man herdsman, a man farmer, a man trader. Eventhough, a woman is an important part of this world, she is usually overshadowed. But how is the everyday reality of a woman – landowner? To make a woman visible in the context of agricultural production was one of the goals of the documentary „Gaur 8 Azokan“, which resulted from the need of local rural women to emancipate, and whose hard work we do not know at all. The complementary character of gender roles within the rural world is shown in the light of anthropological perspective, and at the end, it will be clear that the rural world could never exist without both components – the productive and reproductive, the male and female.
FARAPI is a consulting company of Applied Anthropology residing in San Sebastian in the Basque country. FARAPI deals with public and commercial orders related to social themes (such as gender equality, migration, minority, market research, etc.). The documentary “Gaur 8 Azokan“ is the second audio-visual output of a longitudial survey concerning the current position of women in the context of rural world in the Basque country.
Monika Hertlova cooperated with FARAPI on the production of the documentary during her working stay. She is also a co-author of short documentary “Don´t dig in to us, we are not dead yet“ (2011), which reflects current activities of Scout Movement in the Czech Republic. At the moment, Monika Hertlova works for the Studio of Visual Ethnography on the Department of Anthropology of Faculty of Philosophy and Art of West Bohemia University in Pilsen in the Czech Republic, where she cooperates on the production of other audio-visual films.
Director: Farapi & Monika Hertlová
Production: Asociación de Mujeres Kimetz
Language of dialogues: Spanish, Basque
Language of subtitles: Czech
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.
Sometimes apparently normal people hide extraordinary and important stories. Roba comes from a remote pastoralist Ethiopian village. Belonging to the Karrayu clan, he grew up among the herders and his path of life was a matter of tradition. However, his passion for school will conduct him through a series of amazing events: the escape to the Capital city, the family conflict, the internal doubts and the hope for reconciliation, a terrible drought in the Karrayu lands, the loneliness of the city life, an unexpected journey to Italy, the death of his brother killed in an ethnic conflict, and finally the coronation of a big dream.
