F008: Film Programme 8

Bhojpuri ethnofiction film about a radical love story between a young man and a tree. Can the community’s songs help him save his love from being cut down?

Film long abstract

For over a decade, I have been researching the role of songs and other vocal traditions in navigating relationships between humans and other/more than humans in the villages of Bihar. The ethno-fiction film 'A Serious Wedding' (JCB Ravanva) is the result of my long-term collaboration with Bihar-based traditional singer Aaji and members of her village community. The film is an unconventional eco-activist ethnofiction that features the marriage of a young man and a tree, a union that successfully thwarts the state government’s plans to construct a highway which would otherwise destroy numerous trees in the area. Some community members played themselves, while others who worked in factories, construction and carpentry took a short leave from work to play their role of a romantic activist, a lawyer and a District Magistrate. Through songs, rituals and fiction filmmaking, the participants are able to reimagine future scenarios and stage their everyday environmental activism.

Original film title (if different):	जे सी बी रवनवा
Duration (in minutes):	19
Country(ies) of filming:	India
Language(s):	Bhojpuri
Year of Production:	2024
Website or link for other info:	https://www.instagram.com/jcbravanva/

Affiorare/ Surfacing

Rossella Schillaci (University of Genoa and UT Austin Colab - Nova University of Lisbon and University of Texas at Austin)

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Film short abstract

A 360 immersive fairy tale, set amongst Mothers and children who live in prison. A magical journey in their everyday Life, with animations of their surreal Memories of the past and dreams for the Future, created through a collaborative Process.

Film long abstract

Affiorare (Surfacing) is a VR experimental documentary set in prison.

Like in a fairy tale, the viewer is immersed in the everyday life of mothers and kids living in special places: prisons and custody institutions for inmates with their children.

360° footage at children’s eye level and animations embark us on a magical journey from the iconic Panopticon system of control, to the most recent confinement centres. Like the hero’s journey, the protagonists tell us - in a deep and poetic way- their first impressions of the prison, the smells, the fears, the challenges.

Their perception of prison as a submerged world is mirrored by illustrations (made in collaboration with mothers and children) depicting their past memories and their dreams for the future. Animations enhance this surreal world using the metaphor of an underwater world where animated animals are free to move and breathe.

A tale of pain but also resilience and hope, at the boundary between reality and imagination, which is able to speak to everyone and connect with personal memories of childhood.