When a Haitian voodoo priestess, a Mambo, dies, it is up to the children to celebrate the deity she served. It’s time for my mother to come home to perform this ritual in honor of my late grandmother.
Categorie: Awards 2022
SUPPER FOR THE DEAD SOULS
“…The dead souls enter into homes at midnight, passing around the laden tables, departing afterwards satiated only by the aroma of the food. If, instead no dish has been prepared the dead leave accompanied by heavy sighing…” It is still alive in Sardinia the ancient habit of leaving served on the table, on the night between 1st and 2nd November, a supper for their own dead, consisting of a full meal characterized by sos macarrones de sos mortos (the macaroni of the dead). Filmed in Orune, in central Sardinia, this documentary – with an observational approach – describes the preparation of the banquet and some connected rituals.
THE BEYOND
The second wave of Covid significantly increased mortality in hospitals. What does this mean for the work of Mathieu, employed in the morgue of a regional hospital center? How does he relate to these people whose souls have recently left their bodies?
ZENERÙ
The poetic relationship, between the ancient ritual of Zenerù and the life of the hermit shepherd Flaminio, makes us reflect on the border between domestic and wild, between known and unknown. At the end of the winter, Flaminio, a resistant shepherd, prepares materially and spiritually for the arrival of the spring through daily rituals, using the tools he built for himself: he moves and sows the ground, shears the sheep and makes a woolen suit for the new season. The communities of the valley chase the winter away with cowbells and bonfires through the ritual of Scasada dol Zenerù, which is inserted into the story of the shepherd’s life as a dreamlike element that draws on an ancestral memory. Flaminio’s sensitivity, strongly connected to Nature, allows him to perceive when it is time to call the community to act, starting the ritual.
DOCTOR KEES – IN SEARCH OF WILLY’S WILL
Is Willy still legally competent and can he decide for himself whether he wants to live or die? Or does his condition meet the criteria he wrote down earlier, and can he receive euthanasia based on his living will? A documentary about a doctor’s search for his patient’s will. Kees is a specialist in geriatric medicine. He works at Vitalis Vaandelhof, a closed ward of a nursing home in Eindhoven. Willy has been living in this ward for more than a year. He has dementia and an acquired brain injury brought on by multiple cycling crashes. He suffers from periodic bouts of aggression and delusion, and is often lost in his thoughts. Willy’s family has indicated that he has set up a euthanasia request, and they wonder whether the time has come for Willy to receive euthanasia. His wife and (foster) children support his living will, because he has always said that he does not want to live this way. With help from Kees, they look for what is best for Willy. Under strictly specified circumstances, physicians in the Netherlands are allowed to perform euthanasia and assisted suicide at the request of a patient. The criteria include a voluntary and well-considered request from the patient, unbearable suffering without any prospect of improvement, and the lack of a reasonable alternative.
BORAMEY – GHOSTS IN THE FACTORY
Sreyra, Ponler, and Sreyven are three young garment workers in Cambodia. Day after day, they produce clothes for the most important global brands, until something exceptional disrupts their routine: suddenly they pass out in the workplace, an event that is followed by their colleagues fainting en masse. Episodes of mass fainting like these are not uncommon in Cambodia, where labour conditions remain harsh. According to trade unionists and government officials, this is caused by long work hours, high temperatures, and malnutrition. However, workers tell a different story: what happened to them is caused by spirits (boramey), angered by the lack of respect shown by the factory owners. Starting from this enigmatic background, Boramey: Ghosts in the Factory offers insight into the lives of Cambodian garment workers at the intersection of work, religion, family, and spirituality.
RINALDI – INSTRUMENTAL TRANSCOMMUNICATION TO THE OTHER SIDE
For almost three and a half decades, a slight and unassuming Brazilian researcher has been bringing forth evidence of an Afterlife via various processes of Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC). Using technological devices such as telephones, televisions, recorders, computers and cameras, Sonia Rinaldi has been able to record both voice messages and visual images of those who have passed on from this life providing comfort to those who have lost a loved one and helping to prove, definitively, that life continues after bodily death. Over time, the quality and quantity of these voice messages and visual images have become increasingly clearer, and her work has caught the attention of many well-respected researchers. Hear from some of them, as well as from a small sampling of parents who have lost a child, who attest to the amazing influence Sonia Rinaldi’s work has on current understandings of concepts such as life and death.
REFLECTIONS
Two ancient lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice, strive to remain connected forever. Even against death. And their love earns a place in eternity.
BARDO
Bardo in tibetan means intermediate state, and indicates the condition of transition between two states. This film is a journey that reflects on the concepts of Life and Death, of Transition, of Life as a Dream, and of all the illusions that manifest in our lives. It is an invitation to connect with a deeper sense of understanding, found within the space between each sound and image. The audiovisual stream becomes a resonating bridge to the Unseen and Unheard, to a knowledge we know exists, but of which we are habitually unaware. There is an alternative way of experiencing this film, which is to watch it twice, first blindfolded, and then with eyes open. By removing the sense of sight the first time, much more attention is given to the sound stream. Stripped of their ability to “see” outwardly, the audience gains space to picture moments and memories according to their own sensibility. This internal manifestation, this dance of light and color that occurs in the “mind’s eye” in reaction to the soundscapes, becomes a shadow-play of subconscious imagery, replacing “the real” imposed by the eye, by “the possible one” suggested by the ear. As such, the ear becomes the new “sensitive eye”, one which is born out of the enhanced combination of external sounds and internally perceived light. The sound will break this light into rarefied shadows, and will introduce the listener to one of the main topics of the film: reality, as we know it, could be nothing but a dream.
ROSE
Lonely Rose, 75 years old, is staying alone. She yearns for family attention, but doesn’t get it. Her life is about to change when her family turns up one day.