VII Cinema and Religion Exhibition

English
Ano_text: 
2009
subtitulo: 
Media and Religion: technology and art
Texto: 

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.