Angart Institute in cooperation with Slovenian Cinematheque, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM) and Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana and with the support of Embassy of Germany in Ljubljana kindly invites you to the 3-day Festival of Angart Film (FAF), which will be held between May 17th – 19th in Slovenian Cinematheque and MSUM. FAF will organize ethnographic film screenings, debates and round tables related to ethno-documentarist genres that transcend film and ethnography practices.
The focus of this year’s festival are screenings and debates on ethnographic film that have brought traditionally ethnographic topics and approaches into public view, through the intersection between art and science. The main screening of the festival will be the legendary ethnographic film Shamans of the Blind Country (Schamanen im Blinden Land, 1981) from the director, cultural anthropologist Dr. Michael Oppitz. The film is considered to be one of the most important works in the field of ethnographic cinema. Besides experts, film professionals from Slovenia and scholars from the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, festival events will be held in the presence of the director Dr. Michael Oppitz.
TUESDAY, 17 May 2016 (Slovenian Cinematheque)
18:00 Round table entitled: Ethnographic Film: Intersections between Art and Science with the following guests: Miha Horvat (Fundation son:DA), Miha Peče (Audio-Visual Laboratory, Slovenian academy of Sciences and Arts) and Dr. Michael Oppitz
20:00 A screening of two ethnographic films about Nepal will follow. We will present the film Akil (Hoffman, Dolcetta, 2015) and Takasera (Pinter, Pivač, 2016).
WEDNESDAY, 18 May 2016 at Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, +MSUM
18:00 A discussion about artistic, authorial, ethnographic film and anthropology will be held. It will be followed by the screening of Robert Gardner's, film Forest of Bliss (1986). Film, anthropology and art will be discussed by Dr. Sarah Lunaček Brumen (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana), Mr. Zdenko Vrdlovec (Dnevnik journalist and film critic) and director Dr. Michael Oppitz, Gardner's longtime friend and colleague.
THURSDAY, 19 May 2016 (Slovenian Cinemtheque)
16:00 Premiere screening of the restored and digitalized copy of the Dr. Michael Oppitz's film Shamans of the Blind Country. After the screening (20:00) we will have a discussion about the film with the director Dr. Michael Oppitz.
The film was shot in the high mountain world of West Nepal, between 1977 - 79, and is a precise, aesthetically and ethnographically perfected film, that leads the viewer into the mythology of Asian shamanism. The Kham Magar community of West Nepal, that Oppitz researched about, was according to him, the center of world shamanism, where more than thirty shamans occupied a relatively small area. Oppitz with admirable precision documented most of their healing practices and with the help of mythic narrative, (out)spoken by no one else than William S. Burroughs himself, invites the viewer to peek in the shamanistic rituals and oral heritage that constitute Kham Magar mythology.
The core of the film constitutes complex relations between humanly and supernatural, myth and ritual, illness and health. Through the optic of shamanism Oppitz succeeds to capture many different dimensions of life in Kham Magar community and shows the interconnectedness of their lives with mythology, that is interpreted through shamanistic rituals. We can thus witness a shamanic initiation ritual, through which an individual becomes not only a healer, but also a shaman that faces dark forces and communicates with ancestors, getting the power to "see" in the blind country. Shamans of the Blind Country, being a key work of visual anthropology, moves and breaks boundaries between documentarist, artistic and ethnographic film and widens the space for the interpretation of different disciplines.
We will wrap up the festival with festive banquet in the lobby of the Slovenian Cinematheque.
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Festival of Angart Film, organized by Angart Institute in cooperation with the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova and Slovenian Cinematheque engages and supports development of documentary, ethnographic and other film disciplines, that open and discuss important social topics and questions. The Festival builds upon years of Angart Collective's presence in Slovenian documentarist and ethnographic sphere. With organization of screenings, round tables and discussions it addresses important social issues through different aspects of film and social theory, activism and investigative journalism.
Festival is financially supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.
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