Film short abstract:

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.