VII Cinema and Religion Exhibition
The year 2009 brings Eyes Fell Upon the Sacred in its seventh edition with a new exhibition hall at the Cultural Center for Youth. Within our tradition of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, we have various religions observed with originality, for unknown points of view to show its complexities and varied facets. With a retrospective of 41 films from previous editions, including short, medium and long, documentaries, fiction and docufiction, we have the Candomblé and its most controversial deity, Eshu, Islam living with Cristinianismo in Iran, Tibetan Buddhists in exile in India, our shamans showing their knowledge, healing traditions of Shamanism of Asia, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Judaism. The VII Film Festival and has also unseen movies that had shot during the year 2009, bringing as it always looks different on religions.
We have orthodox Jewish view in on aspects soft and harder, the Santeria of Cuba recorded by an American director and a Brazilian writer, the practices of the Mura shamans and again, with the support of Ong Video in the Villages award-winning film Corumbiara, that the matter of complaint is the poetic accident filmed there Indians in his first contacts with non-Indians showing their healing rituals. For the first time in seven years, we have an Indian musical film, speaking of ther old tradition and, looking ahead, approach the vision of the younger generation about the religion, through the selection of short films produced by young people from suburbs in the states of Sao Paulo, Espírito Santo, Maranhao, Pernambuco and Ceara in partnership with the NGO and TV Viração USP. This selection represented Eyes Fell Upon the Sacred in the biggest film festival and religion of the West: the Religion Today, which happens every October in the city of Trento, Italy. Also new this year is showing the film that won the festival Insight from Manchester, England: Who's driving the bus of Dreams? Directed by Boris and Claire Jansch Jansch, have interviews with spiritual teachers, philosophers and writers. We have an international guest, the director of the controversial Israeli film Gevald, Ron Ofer, who chats with the audience at Cine Olido after Shabbat, Saturday, 19th; december. And now we have a blog with the latest shows and covered daily with more news about the films and activities. Finally we will have three conferences: Phd. Teacher Silas Guerrieiro opens the show talking about Religion and Magic in the CCJ, at the PUC, Phd. Teacher Fernando Alltemeyer conversation with the public about the relationship between religion and media and closing the program in CCJ, Master. Teacher. Ge Marques talk about the use of the beverage Ayahuasca in sacred rituals. We acknowledge the support of NGO Video in the Villages, the program graduate in Science of Religion at PUC in São Paulo and the Embassy of Israel. The VII Film Festival and religion had Mamute Films production with co-sponsorship of the Sao Paulo City Secretary of Culture.
Nadia Stepanova, the vision of one Buriaty She -Shaman
Italy/Buriatya
Costanzo Allione
color
30 min
VHS
portuguese subtitles
Nadia Stepanova is a Buryatian shaman who is reviving shamanic ritual ceremonies that for centuries have ruled the life in the taiga. The Republic of Buryatia is a large country that lies between Lake Baikal and Mongolia in Siberia, often said to be the cradle of shamanism.
Gourd´s Dance - Exu in the Brazil
2006
Brazil
Kiko Dinucci
color
55 min.
Exu in Brazil is an poetic investigation on the African divinity Exu in the brazilian imaginary. Alongside other Yoruba Gods, Exu was brought to Brazil by the slaves and became demonized during the colonial period, when catholic missions in Africa and in Brazil concealed its original attributes. In Africa, Exu was viewed as the beginning of life.
Chaturanga
Índia
Suman Mukhopadhyay
120 min
portuguese
The lead protagonist Sachish fleets from radical positivism to religious mysticism in his quest for life's meaning. However, his search ultimately yields nothing but crushing disillusionment. Based on the novel by the Nobel Prize winning author Rabindranath Tagore.
Eyeless
2008
Switzerland
Marcel Hobi
7 min
If an eyelash falls out, lay it on the back of your hand, make a wish as you blow it away – and your wish will come true! a popular belief Wishing is not easy if everything is already perfect. And Wanner’s life is perfect. All the same, Wanner is constantly endeavouring to optimise his everyday life with an eyelash.
Go to because I will go early
2006
Brazil
Rubem Barros and Marcelo Perez
color
15 min.
DVD
Humourous documentary about the death imaginary. Very different persons telling his points of view about the last cerimony.
A Little Corner of Tibet
2007
Italy
Marco Leopardi
color
50 min.
portuguese
In the heartland of India a Tibetan community in exile has recreated their own world in a small way. Here lives Tenzin, a 9-year-old child who studies to be a Buddhist monk. His life goes on happily between the monastery and the village, learning his religion beliefs, playing with friends and visiting his family.
Unanswered Production (Produzione senza risposta)
2008
Italy
Gabriele Agresta
color
07 min.
mute
The film shows several images where white is the dominant color in sequence with final surprise. The summary sent says: Nothing, just a white wall and then a puzzle of memories like a dream. No actors, no bodies, no actions. Nothing and again a white wall. Candid behind this universe, everything.
The Oracle
Canada
David Cherniack
color
60 min.
DVD
portuguese
The Oracle is about the ancient practice of spirit possession in Tibetan Buddhism. The filmmaker, granted by the Dalai Lama exclusive access to the State Oracle of Tibet, explores this magical practice through his Western eyes and is forced to confront the mysterious nature of the self.
In Syracuse where Maria cried
2006
Italy
Carlo e Paola de Biase
color
25 min.
portuguese subtitles
In 1959 a small statue of the Virgin Mary cried and the extraordinary even was captured by a cine camera- Thanks to films of the time, also amateur ones, it has been possible to acpture on video the atmosphere and emotions of the moment, interviewing some of those who witnessed the effects of the miracle often years after the event.
Severa Romana
2006
Brazil
Bio Souza, Sue Pavão, Rael Helyan
color
16 min.
DVD
The city of Belém is the scene where the tragedy occurred. Severa Romana, nineteen years old, married, and pregnant. On 02 November in the year 1900, Severa is brutally murdered cable Ferreira. The woman dies - the myth is born, a Holy Person.
Pio Priest, the demonizated from Heaven (Padre Pio, l'indemoniato dei cieli)
2007
Italy
Stefano Rizzelli
color
57 min.
DVD
portuguese
Contested and rejoiced, loved and harassed, Padre Pio, the Capuchin monk from Pietrelcina, was proclaimed a saint by the Pope John Paul II on 2002. Object of very strong popular devotion, but under much criticism and suspicion in the Catholic Church establishment.
First Chapter
2005
Brazil
Roberto Maxwell
color
20 min.
Going through her sons drawer, an evangelic woman finds a love letter and discovers that he dates another boy.
Son of Maryam
1999
Iran
Hamid Jebelli
71 min.
portuguese
Rahman, a milk-delivery boy in a village in Iran, is the prayer-chanter at the mosque. Being attracted by the icon of Holy Virgin in the local Christian church, develop a strong friendship with the old priest of the church. When an accident happens to the priest, Rahman and his friend Davud face new responsibilities.
I said yes to You
2008
Brazil
Waleska Praxedes
color
3 min
Fun documentary about Marquinhos, who had a junky dissolute life cured by his faith. Member from the Church Assembly of God, owns and works in a tent in the gay heartland of Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro. What is written in the tent?
Forbidden Wedding
2002
Brazil
Flávia Fontes
color
56 min.
This is the story of a man who is forbidden to get married by the Catholic Church in Brazil because he is sexually impotent. The documentary explores the relationship between an institution and its people, and the triumph of the human heart.
Fénatismo
2008
Brazil
Felipe Barros
color
2 min.
Videoarte about the dramatic style of the neo-pentecostal clergyman.
Uncertain Times (Ongewess Jyd)
2006
Netherlands
Diego Pos
color
63 min.
portuguese
Uncertain Times tells the story of a Jewish family in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in South-America. Suriname had a significant Jewish population dating back to the very beginning of the colony. These Jews became well to do plantation owners.
O Dono da Dança ( Dono da Danza)
2002
Costa Rica
Alejandro Tosatti
color
15 min.
spanish spoken
The Lord of the Dance is a medical and researcher of the tradition of performing a ritual dance during the procession of Corpus Christi in Panama. It deals with the relationship between the Supreme and the dancer and its history and preparation.
The Other Side of Heaven
2001
Brazil
Vincent Carelli
color
20 min.
The religiousness and the mystical sentiment of Indigenous culture, using as a reference point the Yanomami (Roraima State), Pankararu (Piauì State), and the Maxacali (Minas Gerais State). José Ferreira Maxacali explains the religious concept of his ethnic group.
Mitake Oasin
2008
Brazil
Anderson Souza
color
3 min.
DVD
A look at the ritual of ayahuasca, its healing and contact with the divine.
The Misteries of Faith
2006
Brazil
Naira Avila e Daiane Santos
color
15 min.
DVD
Documentary about the Santo Daime Church held in Kingdom of the Sun.
Ended Conference with Gê Marques concerning: "The Ayahuasca approach in the sacred rituals".
The Ayahuasca approach in the sacred rituals<br/>Gê Marques: Graduated in Social Comunication in the University of Sao Paulo (1982) and master in Science of Religion in the Sao Paulo Pontifical Catholic University (2007) . Today is is Chairman of the Kingdom of the Sun.
How do you talk with the Divine?
2009
Brazil
Cinthia Balbino dos Santos, Janaina Leonardi, Tamires Cardoso dos Santos, Vinicius Gallon, Rones Maciel, Losangela dos Santos, Leandra Barros, Jaqueline Silva Lima
color
26 min.
DVD
7 films until 3 minutes in partnership with the NGO Viração, TV USP and Associazione Jangada (Trento). They are the first videos by young members of 24 councils, the Virajovens of Viração of outlying communities in Brazil. The movies showing how they answer the question: How do you talk with the Divine? These videos have participated in the Religion Today Film Festival.
Loneliness (Solitude)
2008
Iran
Merhdad Sheikhan
color
10 min.
DVD
portuguese
A stone creature lives a solitary life in his barren planet for thousands of years. Worn out by his loneliness, he decides to change his destiny. The animation seems to be a metaphor for the limitations of freedom, the vision of political and religious power in Iran currently imposed on the population.
Flowers For San Lazaro
2008
USA/Cuba
James Rauchman
color
25 min.
DVD
portuguese
The film offers a vision of the microcosm of religion in Cuba today, documenting three members of a family preparing for the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Lazarus, outside Havana, on December17.
The Dead Girl's Party
2008
Brazil
Matheus Nachtergaele
color
110 min.
DVD
The concept of fabricating faith and attempting to find solace in the face of the ultimate mystery are the central themes of this film concerning a man exalted to sainthood after performing a miracle on his deceased mother, who had recently committed suicide.
The Mura Shamanic Practice (Yandé Anama Mura)
2008
Brazil
Raoni Valle e Organização dos Professores Indígenas Mura
color
55 min.
DVD
Documentary with 10 shamans ethnic Mura interviews, their daily life of shamans, healers, prayers, midwives. Their practices and beliefs. The symbolic world and the materiality explicit in the relationship among the shaman and the villages, the ordinary people and the invisible world.
Halakeh
2008
Israel
Avigal Sperber
color
87 min.
DVD
portuguese
The journey by one religious couple: Yael (Hani Furstenberg), Yoni (Ohad Knoller) and their son Yiftach (Hinave Hilel Pney El). Yoni is devoted to the passionately Hassidic Breslov tradition. His wife Yael has remained more moderate. They are going to the rite of passage – the halakeh, that involves cutting the Yitach’s hair for the first time, leaving only his sidelocks.
Gevald
2008
Israel
Ron Ofer & Yohai Hakak
color
50 min.
DVD
portuguese
As a child, Shmuel-Haim Pappenhym would cover his eyes during Independence Day fireworks so as not to participate in the 'Zionist' celebration. Today, he organizes mass demonstrations of ultra orthodox Jews against the State of Israel. In contrast, ultra-orthodox parliament member, Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, has been part of mainstream politics for many years.
You Never Know
2008
Israel
Boaz Shachak
color
62 min.
DVD
portuguese
Rabbi, folksinger and composer, Shlomo Carlebach is considered to be the foremost Jewish religious songwriter of our time. He touched millions of Jews and non-Jews around the world.The film takes you to a Journey that senses and searches for that touch...
Corumbiára
2009
Brazil
Vincent Carelli
color
117 min.
DVD
Documentary about the massacre of Indians in a farmer region named Corumbiara. The director spend 23 years I the order to finally confirm the massacre. There are a scenes with three groups of Indians, in their first meeting with pacific non-indians people. In the film we see the practice of healing with the newly contacted Indians. Award for Best Film Festival of Gramado in 2009.
Who is Driving the Dreambus?
2009
England
Boris Jansch e Claire Jansch
color
30 min.
DVD
A personal journey and interviews with eminent spiritual teachers, philosophers and writers – in a quest to unravel what it means to be alive.