VIA2013: Screening - Vodoun Gods + Divine River

Dual screening, a 2-in-1 event. Introduction and Q&A with Filmmaker Hisham Mayet + SF DJ set, 50 minutes/2012

Vodoun Gods on the Slave Coast

Hisham Mayet's exploration of West African possession ceremonies continues in Benin. Benin is the cradle and birthplace of Voodoo. Formally known as the Slave Coast as, most of the slave industry was exported from its shores. Voodoo worship is integral to the every day lives of the people of Benin. Shot in 2010 during the country's rich Vodoun celebrations, is an impressionistic lens on the myriad ceremonies that this rich and diverse culture has to offer. Showcasing intimate observations of a variety of Voodoo ceremonies: The cult of Sakpata (god of pestilence and healing), Egoun dramas shrouded in magisterial costumes and the secret police of the Zangbeto night watchmen, among other highlights. This will be the premiere screening of this visual feast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ywahsfokAE

The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry In The Sahel
A Film By Hisham Mayet, 47 minutes/2012

The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry in the Sahel. Condensed from 40 hours of footage shot between 2007 and 2012, The Divine River is an exhilarating, hallucinatory, harrowing record of music, ritual, life and landscape along the Niger River—which the Tuareg call Egerew n-Igerewen, or "River of Rivers"— as it winds through Mali and the Republic of Niger.

Traversing 300 miles of this transitional zone between the Sahara and the Savanna, The Divine River is not a linear record of a journey so much as a phantasmagoria of visual associations that create their own emotional topography and chronology, always accompanied by music that blurs the lines between sacred and secular, past and present.
Highlights include intimate views of ecstatic dance in the painted houses of the island-dwelling Wogo; the seductive courtship rites and trance vocals of young Wodaabe men; a mesmeric Tuareg and Zarma duet for guitar and molo; Hausa griots enchanting with comsaa strings; Zarma spirit possession ceremonies; and heart-stopping footage of the Dogon mask ritual atop the Bandiagara Escarpment in the village of Endele.

True to Sublime Frequencies' "aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience," The Divine River refuses hasty contextualizations and rote interpretations that, far from "explaining" cultural displays, deaden viewers to the presence of mystery. Avoiding the temptation to reduce ritual to a simple matter of ends and means, its silence respects the chasm that separates concepts like "possession" from their lived reality. Rejecting the distractions of an imaginary understanding in favor of simple attention and humility, it traces the portal to deeper knowledge counseled in a centuries-old Sufi prayer: "O Lord, increase my bewilderment."



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWj3xnl87PQ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a small, independent record label dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations, with a major focus on the popular music renaissance that began during the 1960’s and continues to this day.

SF releases sound recordings and video works from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America and is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past.

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ABOUT VIA

VIA is a festival, series of year-round events, and creative collective based in Pittsburgh, PA. The VIA Music & New Media Festival is an annual week-long celebration of people who are defining what’s next in music, art, and culture.

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