Joanna Macy
This film was initiated through the death of my mother and the nearness of Sobonfus. Over several years I met people with different backgrounds, which I interviewed. While Heiner Heine (camera) was filming, I asked them the following questions:
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What are rituals? What is the purpose of ceremony? How does initiation happen and in which way do initiatory processes work?
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My journey became a research project, trying to be closer to what is at the core of a culture, what stabilizes, transforms and navigates humans. What is it, that synchronizes groups and on which level do we experience a connectedness that is potent and beyond the rational?
From this rich material Leyla Pirouzi was able to distill a first film (40 min) which brings key quotes into a poetic synthesis. A book on the theme of ritual with all interviews is planned, as well as the publication of the complete film conversations and a follow up
project with different protagonists.
This short film can offer inspiration to those who ask questions about the power and possibilities, the limits and risks of rituals. And it can give impulses to people who have a knowledge that ritual is a tool, which wants to be rediscovered and newly created, in
personal and professional contexts. At the same time the film is simply a firework of aphoristic content, unfolding its own pragmatic poetry.