Ecstasy, Choreography and Re-Enactment: Aesthetic and Political Dimensions of Filming States of Trance and Spirit Possession in Postwar Southern Italy
Visual Anthropology January 1, 2019 M. Schäuble 1 citation
Trance and spirit possession rituals, which often defy visual representation, inspired modernist filmmakers. This article examines how Italian documentary filmmakers Luigi di Gianni, Cecilia Mangini, and Gianfranco Mingozzi developed innovative audiovisual techniques to capture ecstatic religious expressions in postwar southern Italy, such as Apulian tarantism. By blending ethnographic and experimental modes—using high-contrast lighting, silhouettes, montage, abstract sound, fictionalized commentary, and re-enactments—their films rejected realist-observational narratives. Compared to earlier trance films by Maya Deren and Jean Rouch, these Italian works fabricate an antirealist aesthetic that fosters a radically humanist stance, heightening sensitivity to human experience.