Tarantism Revisited | Stranger Than Fiction | mit Filmgespräch

In the organizer's words:

TARANTISM REVISITED

D/CH 2024 - 105' - OmeU - Director: Anja Dreschke, Michaela Schäuble

With director Anja Dreschke as a guest!

Apulia, 1959: Women in white dresses dance ecstatically in a small chapel. They jump around, roll on the floor, some even climb onto the altar. It is said that they have been bitten by a spider. Their dance craze requires a ritual exorcism with music. Images like these inspired Italian anthropologists to travel to southern Italy. They used tape recorders, film and photo cameras to track down the phenomenon of tarantism.

The essayistic documentary follows the many multimedia archival materials that were created on this research trip. It brings out the female voices of those affected, who turn out to be experts on their own performances. A special relationship developed between the researcher Annabella Rossi and the "Tarant ata" Michela Margiotta, with their correspondence taking center stage. Even today, the images of female frenzy are disturbing, telling of the loss of control by husbands, families, science and the church. In contemporary Apulia, the film finds living forms of tarantism, tamed as folklore, attractive for tourism. There are new poisons that have infested the system. They too must be danced out. Jan Künemund DokLeipzig

As part of the Stranger Than Fiction documentary film festival!

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