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Spirits and Ceremonies: How to Construct Religious Experience in Documentary Film
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Aaltonen, Jouko |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | IntroductionThere is a lot of research about religion and film concerning fiction films, but not very much dealing with documentary film, and practically none at all from the point of view of practice led or artistic research.I am a documentary film-maker but also a researcher, specialized in practice led research. This is also my point of view in this article. I have directed several films where spirituality or spiritual beliefs have been one of the topics. This time I am analysing two of my films: Kusum (2000) and Leap (2012) and reflecting the film-making process of these films.Although these films are meant for wider audiences and they are not strictly scientific, there is a strong scientific background in both films and they are based on serious research. Via these films and the experience of making them, I ponder the questions of presenting religious or spiritual experience in documentary film. How can the invisible be made visible in a visual medium? This question also has been asked in the literature (e.g. Bird, 1982: 4; Soderberg Widding, 2005: 77- 95). The problem is even more interesting in the field of documentary film, because traditionally the definition of documentary film has been based on the photographic, indexical relationship between the visible object and its representation. When one is constructing spiritual, abstract, conceptual, religious or theological phenomena, how can it be done? What are the means to do this visually, aurally and cinematically? Finally I try to define what kind of films Kusum and Leap are.Two cases: Kusum and LeapKusum is a documentary film about an Indian family fighting evil spirits and disease. The main character, Kusum, is a 14-year-old Indian girl who falls ill. She stops eating, isolates herself and suffers raving fits. Kusum's family initially tries Western medicine, but then opts for traditional Indian spiritual healing. Bhagat is a well-known religious healer throughout the region, and people travel hundreds of miles to see him. Bhagat's methods include conversation, rituals and herbal treatments. Joint trance sessions in which spirits talk constitute the core of his methodology. According to Bhagat evil spirits have attacked the family. He orders the family to travel together with him to the holy town of Balaji Mehndipur. It is believed that Balaji has special healing powers and that's why there are sick people everywhere. Kusum's family participates in Bhagat's sessions and various rituals. In the crucial session, the spirits surrender, beg for mercy and swear, on Bhagat's command, to leave the family alone.Leap is a film about the Hare Krishna movement told through two main characters. The film follows the spiritual paths of Keshava Madhava Das, a Finnish disciple and his guru Radhanath Swami, one of the movement's foremost spiritual leaders. Keshava faces the dilemmas of reconciling his personal life with a calling of a demanding religion. The film starts with Keshava's daily life as a seasonal tram driver in Helsinki. In pursuit of enlightenment he travels to Vrindavan in India, and together with thousands of other devotees, takes part in a pilgrimage led by Radhanath Swami. Keshava studies to become an altar priest. He is looking for love and finally gets married to an Indian disciple of Radhanath Swami. Together with his wife, Keshava settles into a family home in Mayapur, the "Vatican" of the movement. Both Keshava and Radhanath Swami must engage in self-sacrifice, asceticism and rigorous ritual discipline to follow in the footsteps of Krishna. The film follows their struggles over two years as they try to achieve their goals.Why these films?Spiritual and religious themes have always interested me, although I am not a religious person. It might be, that God does or does not exist, but religion, godhead and spirituality certainly exist. In my Taiga Nomads films (1992) shamanism was part of the life of the Evenki people living on the taiga areas of Siberia. … |
| Starting Page | 15 |
| Ending Page | 15 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 20 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1367&context=jrf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
