FILM  ABOUT  RITUALS   SURROUNDING  DEATH  ON  BALUAN

 

Ngat is Dead: Studying Mortuary Traditions

 

A film by Christian Suhr Nielsen and Ton Otto; filmed on location in Papua New Guinea; 2007, 59 minutes, English subtitles

 

Time: Friday June 6, 10.00 hours (Dutch premiere)

Place: Tropentheater Kleine Zaal, Linneusstraat 2, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Site: http://www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl/2en/fs.html (English)

And: Ton Otto will be present (on and off screen)

 

What does it mean when anthropologists claim to study the cultural traditions of others by participating in them? This film follows the Dutch anthropologist Ton Otto, who has been adopted by a family on the island of Baluan in the South Pacific. Due to the death of his adoptive father he has to take part in mortuary ceremonies whose form and content are however forcefully contested by different groups of relatives. Through the ensuing negotiations Ton learns how Baluan people perform and develop their traditions and not least what role he plays himself. The film is part of long-term fieldwork in which filmmaking has become integrated in the ongoing dialogue and exchange relations between the islanders and the anthropologist.

 

Camera, editor: Christian Suhr Nielsen

Sound: Steffen Dalsgaard

Producer: Ton Otto and Christian Suhr Nielsen

 

Contact: Christian Suhr Nielsen

T: +45 31600031

E: christiansuhr[at]gmail.com

 

Christian Suhr Nielsen, born in Denmark, is a student at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aarhus. He has produced a number of films for ethnographic exhibitions at Moesgaard Museum and is the director of the film Want a Camel, Yes (2004) about tourist-camel driver interactions at the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. He is currently working on a new film about a large cultural festival, which took place on Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea in 2006.

 

Ton Otto, born in The Netherlands, is professor of anthropology at the University of Aarhus. He has conducted fieldwork in Papua New Guinea since 1986, most of the time on Baluan in Manus Province with a focus on issues of social and cultural change. From his first fieldwork he has used video as part of his research and analysis but also as a means of exchange with the local people, who value receiving films on their culture. This is his first film intended for a wider audience.