3 papers in the library · 2 citations · publishing 2019-2021
Journal of Anthropological Films October 23, 2021 Roger Canals 1 citation
The film 'Chasing Shadows' portrays the Kyangyang prophetic movement in Guinea-Bissau, whose Balanta members communicate with ancestors through writing, glossolalia, divination, and spirit possession to heal and give advice. It explores the movement's cosmology and its interactions with Islam and Christianity.
Journal of Anthropological Films March 1, 2019 Roger Canals 1 citation
A young Puerto Rican university student, Bea, seeks help from mediums in San Juan after her personal and professional life deteriorates. A Peruvian-born medium, Pedro, guides her through a three-phase spiritual cleansing ritual to expel negative energies: a cleansing with a white dove, a purification in a tropical river, and an offering to the sea. The ritual concludes with Bea purifying her own home with a white dove. The narrative illustrates how divination and spirit possession practices in Afro-American and Puerto Rican contexts offer explanations and solutions for life's hardships.
Journal of Anthropological Films March 1, 2019 Mattijs van de Port
An essay film shot in Bahia, Brazil, explores the mystery of spirit possession without exoticizing or explaining it away. By filming possession ceremonies in close-up, the images reveal that viewers cannot know what they are looking at. Words from the filmmaker and interlocutors drift into silence, laughter, or screaming, refusing to pin down the phenomenon. The film invites audiences to embrace confusion and, through that confusion, consider the possibility of spirits.