FUNERAL SEASON
Kanada / Kamerun, 2011, 87 min
Matthew Lancit
26.01.2013 21:10
Director Matthew Lancit quit his day job to travel across Cameroon, visiting some of the world’s most joyous funeral celebrations. Throughout his excursion in the foreign countryside, Lancid is taken with the locals’belief that the dead are still roaming the Earth, leading Lancit himself to experience what might be spiritual connection with his own ancestors. Ultimately, Lancit learns about an altogetgher new way to celebrate the dead, their memory, and the way in which they still affect and even interact in our lives.
Matthew Lancit grew up in Toronto, Canada before leaving for New York to study writting and literature at Sarah lawrence College, and filmmaking at NYU´s Tisch School of the Arts. Most recently, Funeral Season has been chosen for preservation by the Library and Archives of Canada. Lancit currently divides his time between Toronto and Paris.
Director: Matthew Lancit
Language of dialogues: French, English
Language of subtitles: English, Czech
Launching of film, awards:
Rising Star Award, Canada International Film Festival, 2011
Menzioni Speciali, Contro-Sguardi, Italy, 2010
Prix du Premiere Film Professionnel, Traces de Viwe, France, 2011
Award, Dallas Black Film festival, USA, 2011
When inhabitants of rainforest walk under its canopy, they see resources for life. The ways of collecting, processing and utilization of these resources are based upon traditional indigenous knowledge which is for „western“ science examined by ethnobotany. The discipline generally focuses on cultural, social and economical relationships between plants and indigenous peoples. Movie camera is during field research used very rarely.Among the other goals of scientific expedition Wayvana Peru 2011 we have strived to answer the question: „Are methods of visual anthropology for preservation of traditional indigenous knowledge applicable? If so, what are pros and cons of this approach?“ The movie is part of „visual ethnobotany“ series and depicts „the story of resource“ piassaba palm (Aphandra natalia).
This film focuses how people share a collective sense of history through the auditory experience. dehong Tai people embrace Theravada Budhism. In ordes to live better in this world and the next, they perform dignified rituals and acquire "merit". For the rituals they spend years and save money, then they do a good deed like contribution of Budhist statues and building the bridges. chief donators commission an intellectual to write historical scriptures to hand down the good deed to posterity. It is called "Lik Yaat" in Tai and written with beautiful words and rhyme. After the cultural revolution, only a few intellectuals can create and chant "Lik Yaat" now. There is a woman, Wan Xiand-ya, who strives for the tradition of "Lik Yaat". She should be their first and last female intellectual who can write "Lik Yaat" in Tai history.
