Watch If Vagina Had Teeth: The Shona Rainmaking Ceremony in Western Mozambique (2009) Online Free
"Ritual reversals" or "rituals of rebellion" are concepts used for mock rituals performed in Southern and Eastern Africa. During fertility rituals, like rain ceremonies, women in their songs and dances demonstrate obscene behaviour while they behave like men. These are secret performances open strictly for elderly men and women. Still, we were invited to record the rain making ceremony in the land of Chief Chassuka, Manika Province in Mozambique, in order to document the ritual for the younger generations. These rituals are a fading tradition probably due to the special character of the songs and dances.
More Like This
Tarotxorcismo
2023
Stone Hatch
Stone Hatch documents the rare sighting of the birth of a stone circle. From it leaving the chamber of the Pictish souterain to its migration across the moors to its final destination in the Scottish highlands.
2023
Salvia Divinorum: A Western Approach
Salvia Divinorum is an often misunderstood and powerful psychedelic plant used by the Mazatec shamans in southern Mexico for centuries. This entheogen's mysteries are thoroughly explored, by Director Erin Wyche, from an American view point.
2022
Shadows of Light
Shadows of Light combines the loud and soft tones of life. The centerpiece is an Austrian mountain pasture where the summer solstice is celebrated with international artists and where tradition and zeitgeist are not contradictory.
2020
Le pouvoir des prêtresses égyptiennes
2019
An immersion into the Divine Feminine
By drawing a parallel between the Indian Durga Puja festival and other forms of celebrating the divine feminine, Santa Shakti reveals the Sacred Power beyond languages and religions.
2017
Sacred
Sacred explores cultural and religious ritual as it relates to life’s cycles: birth, adolescence, marriage, aging and other key passages of life.
2016
The Island of the Spirits
A small island, a great history. Long before giving its name to the country, the Mozambique island had a fundamental role in the Indian Ocean during centuries. Anchor point for caravels, meeting point for pirates, it is a melting pot of races. It raises its walls in the middle of the sea. Its winding streets full of life reveal small palaces, churches and white houses. Its inhabitants are eccentric characters, proud of the island's past history. As we wander through the streets we meet an historian, a maritime archaeologist, a fisherman, the "doorman" of the island, a dancer, many spirits...
2010
Great Rift - Der große Graben
2009
The Story of the Weeping Camel
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
2004
Wheel of Time
Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
2003
The Occult Experience
An examination of occultism as practiced in different parts of the world.
1985
Psychic TV: First Transmission
For over 30 years, the so-called First Transmission video from Psychic TV, has been the stuff of, well, “snuff film” legend. First advertised in the back pages of Thee Grey Book , The First Transmission was an ultra weird touchstone of the underground VHS tape trading scene of the 1980s.
1982
Here We Come A-Wassailing
A documentary on the surviving syncretic pagan midwinter customs of the British Isles, focusing on nine ritual celebrations ranging from the Moray Firth in the north, the Somerset Levels in the south, Humberside in the east, and County Kerry in the west. Featuring music by the Albion Band and narration by John Tams.
1977
Journey Into the Beyond
Mondo-style shockumentary about various aspects of the occult and paranormal. An investigation into the fringes of psychic spirituality with so-called experts, it includes demonic possession, exorcism, seances, Voodoo ceremonies, hypnotism, ESP, psychic surgery, and more. A warning bell alerts squeamish viewers to avert their eyes from the more graphic scenes.
1975
Savage Man Savage Beast
A notorious mondo film depicting unbelievable and bizarre rituals, animal killing and cruelty, and people being killed and eaten, all by either animals or humans against each other or themselves.
1975
New Guinea: Island of Cannibals
Mondo-style documentary in which a movie crew travels to newly independent Papua New Guinea to capture the customs and culture of the cannibal natives. Prepare yourself for death rituals, war costumery, crude tattoos, animal killings, and cannibalism.
1974
Africa Uncensored
Documentary film making at its best as it narrates very exotic and esoteric rituals of the primitive peoples of Africa.
1971
The Struggle Continues
A Luta Continua explains the military struggle of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO) against the Portuguese. Produced and narrated by American activists Robert Van Lierop, it details the relationship of the liberation to the wider regional and continental demands for self-determination against minority rule. It notes the complicit roles of foreign governments and companies in supporting Portugal against the African nationalists. Footage from the front lines of the struggle helps contextualize FRELIMO's African socialist ideology, specifically the role of the military in building the new nation, a commitment to education, demands for sexual equality, the introduction of medical aid into the countryside, and the role of culture in creating a single national identity.
1971
Drums from the Past
Filmed in May 1971 in Niger, this short documentary records a possession ritual performed by the Simiri people in response to a locust invasion. The ceremony centers on the beating of the archaic drums Tourou and Bitti, used to invoke spirit forces through music, dance, and trance. Shot in a single continuous take, the film documents a concentrated moment of collective ritual practice, reflecting Jean Rouch’s first-person ethnographic approach and direct participation in the event.
1971