
"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.

"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.
2009-03-26
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6.4A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
6.8Former special forces operative Danny is forced back onto a remote island when a violent, secretive community takes revenge by abducting his daughter Alex, launching a relentless hunt against enemies prepared for his every move.
8.0An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
5.8Mercenary soldiers Jamie and Drew are hired by a large corporation to liberate Zangaro, a small African nation, from an despot. Havoc ensues.
6.7The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.
6.0A high priest tries to force a young beauty to marry a pearl trader who is masquerading as the god Balu.
6.1Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
6.8After the mayor of an idyllic island village discovers a child with mysterious powers awash on their shores, the once peaceful community devolves into civil war, torn over the belief that the child is the next saviour.
6.5A special-ops team is dispatched to fight supernatural beings that have taken over a European city.
6.4“Showrunners” is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.
7.1Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
8.1A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.
6.1A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
6.3Jackie Chan is one of the world's biggest action stars, famed for his wacky sense of humor, remarkable martial arts techniques, and willingness to perform incredible stunts without the use of doubles -- or a net. This video takes a personal look at Chan as he works on screen projects in Hollywood and Beijing and candidly discusses his life and work.
6.3Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
7.0The most comprehensive retrospective of the '80s action film genre ever made.
6.5Film adaptation of French economist Thomas Piketty's ground-breaking global bestseller of the same name: an eye-opening journey through wealth and power.
6.5When a woman's father goes missing, she enlists a local to aid in her search. The pair soon discover that her father has died at the hands of a wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation.
6.3Follow the production of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” as the cast and crew take on the incredible challenge of remembering T’Challa with a chapter befitting the late king. Through intimate behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, watch Shuri take on the mantel of Wakanda’s hero and face a new foe from the ocean’s depths in Namor.
6.0When a ruthless serial killer terrorizes a small Southern town, everyone becomes a suspect -- including local authorities. As the body count rises and the dark mystery deepens, the chief detective becomes haunted by the horrors of his past.
6.5Sacred explores cultural and religious ritual as it relates to life’s cycles: birth, adolescence, marriage, aging and other key passages of life.
9.0The documentary focuses on the annual Mani Rimdu festival of Tibet and Nepal, an event which encapsulates the Himalayan Buddhist experience.
0.0A 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.
7.1When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
0.0A 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.
4.7Documentary film making at its best as it narrates very exotic and esoteric rituals of the primitive peoples of Africa.
10.0By 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.
6.4Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
6.4Filmed 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.
5.2Mondo-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.
0.0Sick in Africa follows the true stories of several Mozambicans from the Yawo tribe who are ill, but searching for healing and answers.
5.3For 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.
9.0Shadows 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.
10.0A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconographies, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes production processes before becoming a spiritual object of devotion. - A sculpture believed to have been imported in town during Spanish colonial conquest, locally known as Mahal na Señor Sepulcro, is celebrating its 500 years. Meanwhile, composed of non-actors, Senakulo re-enacts the sufferings and death of Jesus. As the local community yearly unites to commemorate the Passion of Christ, a laborious journey unfolds following local craftsmen in transforming blocks of wood into a larger than life Jesus crucified on a 12-ft cross.
7.0Mueda was a massacre. The name is that of the village in Northern Mozambique where in 1960 it took place. The Portuguese colonial regime did the killing. In independent Mozambique, those inhabitants of Mueda who survived regularly re-enact the massacre in situ. They themselves play the roles of victims, assassins, and spectators. Ruy Guerra, now a Brazilian but born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo, the capital of Mozambique), filmed this extraordinary creation of liberated popular culture, intercutting it with first-hand interviews on the massacre. The mix is compelling, and the grave yet joyous spectacle unique.
6.0A 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.
0.0Pangolins are unique, bizarre, adorable creatures, but due to the demand for their scales on the illegal market, they’re also the most trafficked animal in the world. To turn the tide, wildlife veterinarian Elias Mubobo knows the solution rests in the hands of the local community — many of whom have never seen a pangolin in the wild.
6.6An examination of occultism as practiced in different parts of the world.