Oddball Films Media
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Feb 24, 2013
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Come early for a double screen, overlapping projection of the exotic curios Belles of the South Seas and Belles of Bali (1930s).
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Venue:Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission:$10.00 Limited Seating - RSVP $12.00 at the door to: 415-558-8117 or programming@oddballfilm.com
Featuring:
Sherpa High Country (Color, 1977) is a beautifully photographed look into the life of Nepalese Sherpas from the Solu Khumbu highlands near Mt. Everest, over 4,000 ft in the sky. Sherpa life is shown in detail and features stunning cinematography of the great annual three-day Mani Rimdu ceremonies held at the Tangboche monastery. During the Mani Rimdu a unique orchestra of horns, drums, conch shells and cymbals accompany ritualistic dances in which monks in vibrant robes and bizarre glowering masks act out the roles of deities. These historico-mythical ceremonies replay the vanquishing of demons and the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This film is a document of a celebration that now draws thousands of visitors from around the world.
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Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja, (Color, 1970s) depicts an unusual trance ritual that functions to restore the balance of well-being to an afflicted village community. This film clearly portrays the song, dance and pulsating tension that precede dramatic instances of spirit possession in the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Celebes) Island, Indonesia. Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja, augments the growing body of documentation of ritually sanctioned altered states of consciousness. This remarkable film communicates both the psychological abandon of the trance state and the often neglected motivation underlying such activities as the supernaturally curing of the chronically ill and the ascent of a ladder of knives. The ceremony is narrated by the Tominaa, priest of the ancestral Toraja religion.
A Balinese Gong Orchestra (Color, 1971)
A film explaining the famous "Gamelan Gong" that includes the orchestra Tunjuk. Each instrument is described and explained, then the orchestra performs a piece taken from the Ramayana ballet suite (written in the 1950s and based on traditional themes). Segments of this film will be double screen projected.
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Rare footage of cremation ceremonies, trance dances and ecstatic spirit possession in Bali. With live music composed and performed Jakarta musician by Iman Fattah.
Tanka (Color, 1976)
"An extraordinary film."-Melinda Wortz, Art News
Tanka means, literally, a thing rolled up. David Lebrun’s Tanka is brilliantly powered by the insight that Tibetan religious paintings are intended to be perceived not in repose, but in constant movement. The film, photographed from Tibetan scroll paintings of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, is a cyclical vision of ancient gods and demons, an animated journey through the image world of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
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Come early to see these unusual curios examining the female culture and day-to-day activities of “exotified” Balinese women as well as the “strange and savage” cultures of the South Seas. Both films will be projected and overlapped simultaneously
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Iman Fattah is a musician, sound designer and producer from Jakarta, Indonesia. His father is a legendary Indonesian musician Donny Fattah. Fattah has been active in Indonesian rock and experimental music scene for the past 15 years, playing guitar in his own band called Zeke and the Popo and RAKSASA. Additionally he produces music for films, theater and commercials. In 2010 Iman collaborated with cutting edge film director Joko Anwar Indonesian as sound designer in the award winning theatrical performance Onrop.
Website: www.imanfattah.com
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/imanfattah
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/imanfattah