In afro-american religions, the act of looking at someone has a complex symbolic meaning and plays a key role in possession and healing rituals as well as in popular arts and crafts. Indeed, in these beliefs, seeing consists not only in receiving external input but also in expelling internal subjective energies through the eyes. Spirits, therefore, are described as incorporeal beings that have a supernatural power; they may be capable of conveying this power through the act of looking.

Despite being invisible, gods may at times be seen in dreams or as apparitions. Statues representing images are also attributed the power of seeing. Many ritual rules are linked with the act of looking, and the most important of these rules is the forbiddance of looking directly into the possessed' eyes during the ritual.

We must consider that the act of filming is precisely about seeing through a camera and capturing what cannot be seen otherwise. What happens, then, when we introduce a camera into an afroamerican possession ritual? How can cinema help us to understand the role of vision in these sorts of rituals?

Based on several fieldwork experiences and ethnographic films, this paper explores, on the one hand, the relationship between material, corporeal and mental images in afro-american context, and on the other hand, the potential of ethnographic cinema to be a methodological, analytical and representational means to get in contact with - and even make visible - that which cannot.

The main challenge of filming states of trance and spirit possession is to unite two different aspects of cultural reality, namely "the invisible knowledge of the gods, and the visible evidence of the possessed body," as the film theorist Catherine Russell has rightly pointed out. States of trance and spirit possession have inspired the modernist imagination perhaps more than anything else, as they typically exceed the limits of visual representation.

In my presentation I investigate different approaches to coping with the challenges that such phenomena pose to cinematic representation, focusing on filmic examples that were developed by pioneering documentarits: a.) Maya Deren's footage on Haitian voudoun ritual, shot between 1947 and 1953 b.) Jean Rouch's films on possession and sorcery in West Africa, mainly dating from the 1950s and c.) the films of a group of Italian filmmakers (i.e. Mingozzi, di Gianni, Mangini, Carpitella, et. al.) who set out to document ecstatic religious forms in southern Italy in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Each of these filmmakers developed new approaches to physical mobility and performance before and behind the camera, thus exploring what Deren referred to as cinema's specific "eye for magic".

In my paper I am primarily interested in analysing the processes through which possession rituals themselves have inspired and initiated innovations in filmmaking by means of combining - or blurring the boundaries between - ethnographic and experimental modes of practice.

In recent years many scholars have noted the proliferation of ecstatic practices that are reproduced and diffused via technical media on a global scale. In our contribution we explore the various facets of visualization by focusing on the different ways the camera is used by both, the filmmaker and the persons filmed in their various mediation-practices. In our current film project on Trance Mediumship and New Media in Morocco (work in progress) we encountered adepts of a possession cult who have stored recording of their rituals for more than 20 years in what we propose to call their "Trance-Media-Archives". Their attitudes towards visual representation is marked by ambiguity - in between the fascination to see what remains beyond conscious experience during possession and an uneasiness towards the circulating images of their sacred practices that unfold a life of their own. Our role as filmmaker is crucial: We presented sounds and images of our own shootage in Morocco in a video-installation (travelling-exhibition Animism, Antwerp and Berlin) and combined them with locally produced videos from local archives that circulate among healers, adepts and clients in Morocco and abroad. Referring to this installation we discuss the various politics of image making (and image breaking) that are at stake when technical media and personal mediumship interfere. From a filmic perspective, we are concerned with the question of how the bodily expressions of spirit possession can be represented through audiovisual media and how emotional, innate aspects of trance can be represented through the creative use of text, voice, sound, performance and space.

Zar is a possession cult that is widely prevalent in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. The Zar ceremony is held in Gondar, northern Ethiopia, and it involves being possessed by various spirits, qolle, who are believed to live in places that are scarcely inhabited by humans, such as the wilderness, deserts, lakes, and oceans. A spirit is believed to be of a certain sex, and each has a different home and character. The possessed body of the Zar spirit medium is referred to as Yäzar Färäs (literally meaning 'the horse of Zar') In this rhetoric, spirit possession can be understood as the spirit riding the body of the medium. Participants of Zar are described as amamaqi (literally meaning 'the one who warms up the space'), while the body of the medium through which the spirit departs is referred to by a word which best translates as 'coldness'. The ceremonial space has to be 'warmed up' by the dance, music, and various kinds of smells to awaken the spirits' power.

Since 2001, I have been filming the Zar scene in Gondar, following several spirit mediums, and producing ethnographic films. In this paper, I will be discussing how I approach Zar spirits in Gondar, Ethiopia audiovisually. Particularly, the cinematic approach that is employed for depicting the sensuous quality of the ceremony as well as portraying several spirits including Seyfou Tchengar, who is said to be one of the most powerful spirits in the region, will be discussed.

In the ethnographic documentary The Designs of Ronin (work in progress) I explore the Shipibo-Konibo practice of inducing dreams with the aim of encountering a powerful being who is central to the world-view of the Shipibo-Konibo with its equivalent among many other Amazonian peoples.

Ronin (serpent) is the mother of designs and teaches Shipibo-Konibo artisans in the art of making geometric patterns. Artisans try to remember and remake the designs that they have been taught in their dreams, by painting and embroidering them on fabrics. The final results of their work are not only beautiful designs to be worn on clothes or sold to tourists, but also the outcome of a fruitful relationship between themselves and Ronin.

Whereas many ethnographic documentaries aim at capturing and exploring human experience, dreams or powerful beings certainly face us with some challenges. In this presentation I reflect upon the process of making the film The Designs of Ronin and ask to what extent Ronin was given the role of a character, so present in the lives of the subjects but invisible on the screen.

This presentation takes the presence of the Holy Spirit to be problematic. In the light my published ethnography,"Holy Hustlers, Schism and Prophecy" (2011) and clips from my films on charismatics and Apostolic ritual in Botswana, a basic question is pursued.

How can and does the ethnographic film represents charismatic, spiritual realities not merely as they are felt to be powerfully present in Christian ritual but also as they are controversial and paradoxical, or suspect and dubious?

At issue is a tension between doubt and faith. Some participants visibly experience intense moments of felt contact, of "spiritual electricity", of vicarious suffering, of being transfigured by the Holy Spirit. Yet these moments wax and wane. The participants fall out among themselves. Trust gives way to skepticism and the questioning of motives. While the context of religious pluralism sustains much tolerance of difference, there is, nevertheless, dissent, schism, ongoing argument, occasionally confrontation. Among Apostles, what is intense is concern with lapsed faith during a war of good and evil, and among Christians in the long established churches, suspicion is widespread that not true Christians but charlatans prevail among Apostles and other charismatics.

The tension is not confined within churches, of course. Hence this presentation also takes up a wider, public debate, illustrated further with clips from a series of Counterpoint films on audience reception in Europe, Japan, and Botswana.

Le thème traité ici concerne les différentes formes de la relation avec une figure imaginaire qui apparaît dans chaque contexte ethnographique observé, à Madagascar et en pays lobi du Burkina Faso, comme un outil de construction et d'expression de soi. Dans ces deux exemples, nous avons utilisé l'écriture cinématographique, aussi bien dans l'élaboration des données que dans la construction des résultats, pour rendre compte de cette relation qui n'est jamais explicitée directement comme telle alors que sa compréhension est indispensable pour approcher la personne posée dans notre interrogation comme un être social qui prend la mesure de lui-même comme sujet dans ses relations aux autres mais aussi comme un être sensible qui exprime sa propre identité à travers l'expression de ses affects dans le champ du social. À nos yeux, l'utilisation de l'image est sans doute le langage le plus approprié pour introduire une telle problématique ce qui, nous le souhaitons, devrait faire débat….

What in a human needs to be removed, pushed aside, or transgressed in order to be healed? In Danish psychiatric healthcare it seems to be delusions and unstable emotions that prohibit the mind-brain "ego" from acting rationally and controlling its body. In neo-orthodox Islamic exorcisms among Danish Muslims it is rather the evil jinn, the limited scope of brain-intelligence, and the desires of the lower self that need to be overpowered so as to enable the "heart" to receive and submit to the divine message. Despite their differences both psychiatric healthcare and Islamic practices of exorcism seem to share the view that in order for healing to occur and for the "the good life" to be resumed, a violent sacrificial act is required. The challenge for both psychiatrists and Muslim exorcists is that the suffering of a soul is essentially invisible. The healer must therefore take on the role of seers, knowers, and masters of the invisible powers inflicting the pain in the patient. All filmmaking must in similar ways move between multiple sacrifices of visibility and invisibility. Cinematic sacrifices as well as sacrifices for healing are powerful, yet also dangerous practices that may easily become object of such serious charges as idolatry, iconoclasm, or quackery. This presentation explores the oscillation between making visible and making invisible in psychiatric and Islamic approaches to healing as well as in ethnographic filmmaking.

The last 10-15 years has seen an astonishing increase in the number of social groups that form with the purpose of capturing evidence of paranormal phenomena on camera. Popularly known as ghost hunting or paranormal research groups these individuals come together to explore, invoke and communicate with the otherworldly. At the heart of their activities is the intention to document proof of their own and others paranormal experiences through the aid of video recording equipment.

This presentation will explore the use of video to record paranormal phenomenon within these groups, and address how these recordings can provide a rich set of data for researchers that is captured truly in situ. To lead this discussion I will present my own data, captured during five years involvement running and participating in Modern Paranormal Group's prior to my current research-led interests. Through discussion of this data I will introduce the challenges that I have faced as a reflective and indeed retrospective researcher, and the ways in which I have attempted to overcome difficulties in analysing and presenting the 'paranormal experience' within my work.

Surrealist journal Minotaure is not far removed from stories of women mounted by genies. How does Rouch, through his filmography, discover the possession dance as a moment of initiation and sharing, around the world of the invisible, asserting the heuristic exception of cinema?

Concentrating on the object of the movie camera, the film director's voice, and the involvement of the body, I intend to underline the importance of moviemaking in meeting, and sharing imaginary realities. The following works will be analysed:

Initiation à la danse des possédés (1949). Trance finds meaning with the voice of Rouch, who names, unveils and tells the story of Africa. The fact that Rouch's first film is titled as an initiation is meaningful.

Horendi (1972) is abrupter. Its silence and lenghty sequence shots allow a good understanding of his physical route on the field. Film techniques including slow motion and synchronous sound redefine the relationship between dancers and musicians. Horendi is an initiation rite : for the film director, for the people of the Niger loop, and for the audience.

Tourou et Bitti (1971), appears to be the end of Rouch's initiation, leading him to the «ciné trance». This term must be questioned. Anthropology lives on myths : that of the «shared anthropology» is one of them. To understand this sharing, a dream of Rouch, I intend to explore the director's conception of anthropology, which attaches great importance to the imaginary. Through the eye of the camera cinema brings about a sharing of imaginary worlds.

This presentation deals with two categories of ceremonies among the Muslim shamans in Central Asia. During these ceremonies, the shamans negotiate in various ways with the spirits. In the first category of ritual, that is uncommon and quite rare, the shaman calls his helpers spirits and invite them to enter his body in order to strengthen their mutual friendship. In the second category, that is more common, the shaman heals a sick with the help of his helpers spirits, and fight the evil spirits who possesses the sick. In both cases, the manifestation of these invisible spirits is observable only in the bodies of the shamans and of the sick.

These manifestations of spirits will be presented and analyzed through two rituals I have filmed in 1995 and 1996, four years only after the collapse of the USRR, when such shamanistic ceremonies were authorized. The first film concerns a group of Kirghiz female shamans at Gulja (southern Kirghizistan) who gathered exceptionally in order to meet their helpers spirits. The second film deals with a healing ritual performed by a couple of Kazakh shamans near Chimkent, in southern Kazakhstan.

During its more than one hundred year history; Iranian Documentary Cinema has worked over various anthropologic subjects. As many tribes live in Iran each having their own believes, ideas and customs; these believes are considered in many Iranian anthropologic documentary films. One of these customs is belief in ghosts, fairies and elves and any other super human forces, in general, which has either benevolent and spiritual intensions or devil ones. These believes is very strong in the lives of Iranians especially those who live in rural areas. Filmmakers in Iranian documentary cinema have chosen many different narrations to talk about these believes including different symbols and signs enabling them to introduce these forces with an ethnographic view, like mountain, sea and desert or poem, music, work and animal signs.

As these forces are amalgamated with the men lives; those filmmakers who have worked somehow in anthropologic field also would experience this field too. This essay is an effort to assess narration procedure of these super human forces in Iranian documentary cinema.

Methodology:

Research procedure here is analytical and by using visual sources, and interviews with documentary filmmakers and film experts. And it is going to reach to a concise recognition of visualizing super human concepts in Iranian documentary cinema.

This research questions usage of cinematographic and directorial narrations, and also ethnographic view.

The documentary investigates the similarities and differences between psychiatric and traditional treatment for mental illness in the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga through a focus on spirits, in relation to patient experience and the role of stigma in prognosis.

It contains observational footage of both traditional and psychiatric modes of treatment a long with excerpts of video interviews on psychiatric perceptions of traditional healing and traditional healers perceptions of psychiatric treatment. The importance of film and media in colouring people's understanding is also covered, through a comparison of healer's and psychiatrist response to scenes in Hollywood films watched by patients and used by them to confirm the value and efficacy of traditional healing. The film will be of interest to a wide audience interested in the experience and treatment of mental illness in the developing world. Studies have confirmed the increasing world mental health burden being faced in the third world. There is also increasing recognition of the need to link local and psychiatric modalities of recognising and dealing with mental illness, given the low numbers of psychiatrists and facilities in many developing countries to treat all mental illness. This film thus will contribute to both research and further action in this important area.

This paper deals with (re)presentation of spiritual healing practices believed to have preventive and curative properties on several ailments, including mental health problems. Photos and videos from ethnographic research projects carried out in India and Indonesia will be used to illustrate and reflect on how to visually represent such practices. In particular, discussion will be prompted on the issue of capturing and representing practices that violate basic human right principles (as set, for instance, in the UN convention) and result in suffering imparted to the ill person.

The focus of the presentation will be on how to visually capture and present the "spiritual" and, more specifically, spiritual healing practices in a set moment, where the ethnographer is the non-participating witnesser of these practices.