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- Convenor:
-
Mattia Fumanti
(University of St Andrews)
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- Format:
- Film
- Sessions:
- Thursday 1 April, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Long Abstract:
Films
Accepted films:
Session 1 Thursday 1 April, 2021, -Joy Hendry (Oxford Brookes University)
Film short abstract:
An educatonal documentary about an aging anthropologist presenting materials she collected during her initial fieldwork to the village where she worked 45 years previously. The film explains an anthropological approach and its advantages for understanding society to a non-specialist audience.
Film long abstract:
This film was made when I returned to the village in Kyushu, Japan, where I did one year's fieldwork (in the old style) 45 years ago. At that time I collected family trees and much other information about the people living in the 54 houses, and I also made a villagewide chart showing how people in different houses were (or were not) related to each other. I have returned several times over the years, and written many books and articles using the material I gathered here and elsewhere, but the villagers don't read English and a BBC film made in the village was more interesting for them than my written work. When I was given a grant to take back the family trees and other materials written in Japanese, I was delighted therefore that my son agreed to come and make a film of the process. The film also explains the work I have done over all these years to anyone who cares to watch it so that the anthropological endeavour is made clear. In this way I have fulfilled a responsibility I felt both to the people who helped me to put my career together, and to a wider public who I think might thereby gain an understanding of the advantages of some of the work we anthropologists do.
Anita Hardon (Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam) Ralph Pulanco (Palawan State Univeristy) Juul Op den Kamp (Independent)
Film short abstract:
Filmed by a local crew, this ethnographic follows those involved with a multi-level marketing company that sells a herbal medicine in the Philippines. While demonstrating its promised values, this film also reveals the widely used herbal product to be problematic for those selling and using it
Film long abstract:
Meet Leo, a dealer of First Vita Plus, a multilevel marketing company in the Philippines that sells 'herbal food supplements'. Despite being a philosophy scholar, Leo still needs supplemental income. Sweet Medicine shows how in old-world island Palawan, where one third of families live below the poverty line and have bad acces to sufficient nutrition and healthcare, Leo tries to convince people to buy First Vita Plus. "To treat and prevent all health conditions and make for a better life." Charismatic officials of the company suggest that Leo can become a millionaire if he works relentless in recruiting new dealers and selling the product, while the government warns that the food supplements have no proven therapeutic value, and that they lack facilities to guarantee quality of these products. Yet First Vita Plus keeps growing just as Leo keeps believing.This ethnographic film is the first cinematic translation of a 4 year long research by the ‘ChemicalYouth project’. Funded by European Research Council and shot with a local crew.
Mike Poltorak (University of Kent)
Film short abstract:
In the South Pacific Island group of Tonga, a traditional healer and a Psychiatrist treat spiritual affliction and mental illness in challenging and inspirational ways.
Film long abstract:
On the South Pacific Island group of Vava’u, the traditional healer Emeline Lolohea treats people affected by spirits. One day away by ferry, the only Tongan Psychiatrist Dr Mapa Puloka has established a public psychiatry well known across the region. Though they have never met in person, this film creates a dialogue between them on the nature of mental illness and spiritual affliction. Their deep commitment, responsibility to their patients and transformative communication offers challenges and opportunities to help address the growing global mental health crisis.Produced and directed by Dr Mike Poltorak, Documentary Film-maker and Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at The University of Kent, the 75 minute ethnographic documentary explores the motivations and context for both traditional and psychiatric treatment in the South Pacific Island group of Tonga. It aims to contribute to greater appreciation and collaboration between psychiatric and traditional treatment for Tongans in Tonga, New Zealand, the USA and Australia and contribute to vital conversations and actions in relation to treatment integration to address the growing global mental health crisis. The Healer and the Psychiatrist is the result of twenty years of social anthropological research and collaboration.For more information: https://valueofvideo.com/healerpsychiatrist/
Piratá Waura
Film short abstract:
Indigenous filmmaker Piratá Waura explores the impact of Covid-19 on his community, the Wauja community of Xingu, Mato Grosso Brazil. Within his film, he explores the memories, impact, and cultural legacy of historic pandemics upon the community, the intersection between the Wauja communities' cosmovision, (Apapataai spirit world), traditional healing and medicine, and Covid 19 and its vaccines, and asks what will be the longterm impact of Covid 19 upon the community.
Film long abstract:
Indigenous filmmaker Piratá Waura explores the impact of Covid-19 on his community, the Wauja community of Xingu, Mato Grosso Brazil. Within his film, he explores the memories, impact, and cultural legacy of historic pandemics upon the community, the intersection between the Wauja communities' cosmovision, (Apapataai spirit world), traditional healing and medicine, and Covid 19 and its vaccines, and asks what will be the longterm impact of Covid 19 upon the community.