From: Benin, Africa Watch: Trailer, JustWatch, Hoopla, Kanopy, Tubi, Amazon Prime Next: Batuque, Golden Fish, African Fish, N!aiContinue reading “In Search of Voodoo – An Educational Documentary of Voodoo Culture”
From: Comoros, Africa Watch: YouTube, AlJazeera Next: Batuque, In Search of Voodoo, Flesh Out
How can you tell that The Grand Marriage is a made for TV documentary? Well, besides from the obvious signs: that it’s made by a TV news network (Al Jazeera), and fits into an hour long TV segment with room for a small commercial break in the middle, you can also tell in the way that it’s made. For example, it starts with an opening introductory montage of shots from scenes to come later in the film. It’s there to try and grab the attention of any TV viewers currently watching the network in an attempt to get them to stay to watch the whole show. The content is also aimed at the armchair traveler. Just as the opening montage gives viewers a flavor of the documentary to come, the informative content is designed to appeal to viewers interested in world news and culture: those likely to be on the Al Jazeera channel. The level of detail and specificity is not necessarily something that viewers would otherwise directly seek out at the cinema or on streaming services.
One thing that makes The Grand Marriage standout versus other TV documentaries, is that it’s told completely by the locals. There’s no narrator, and therefore no one serving as a mediator to translate the locals words into something more palatable to our own customs. It allows the Comoran people to present their customs and culture from their own point of view, unchallenged by a foreign perspective. We’re the only one who can judge and interpret them. That being said, that does not mean that the documentary is completely free of bias. It could be that the people speaking are all from a particular class or background that gives us a less rounded view of Comoran culture. The groom, for example is a former government minister. But it does give the locals the power to represent themselves.
The Grand Marriage is worth a watch because it gives viewers an insight into Comoran culture through one of it’s biggest cultural customs. The grand marriages are the status builders of Comoran society. Plus they involve a lost of Comoran society – as you can see from the incredible number of attendees. The documentary doesn’t just show the main event, but all the preparatory ceremonies that go with it. It also gathers a range of voices to comment on the ceremony, from the bride and groom to be themselves, to the whole community involved to give a balanced perspective. So if you’re interested in learning a bit about Comoran culture, this is a good film to start with.
If you want to watch more cultural documentaries from Africa, check out Batuque, a look at music from the Cape Verde islands. You could also check out In Search of Voodoo from Benin, which looks at the west African voodoo culture.
Or if you’d like to see some more films centered around marriage, check out Saudi Runaway, featuring a Saudi girl trying to escape from an arranged marriage, or Flesh Out, featuring a Mauritanian woman bulking up for her groom.
Piedra Sola, like Notturno (one of the other films at this year’s AFI Fest), is beautifully shot. Set in the hamlet of Condor in the northern highlands of Argentina, it contains a lot of otherworldly landscapes and local ceremonies that look unusual to foreign eyes.
However, the exceptional images hint at a higher meaning that isn’t really decipherable in the film. For example, there’s the opening shot of a horse with its two front legs tied, hopping over a rocky hill at dawn. It’s a striking image, and beautifully captured in low light conditions, but it’s not clear how it fits into the narrative of Piedra Sola. The horse never reappears and doesn’t have too much of an impact on how we perceive the film, except to create intrigue. That’s not to say the film needs to have a narrative – it doesn’t – however, the scenes don’t feel like they all come together to unlock the mystery that they each contain. It feels more like a collection of sublime images than something complete.
This also comes across in the focus of the film, the lama herder. We see him go travel to a nearby town to sell his wares and get involved in the local festival, but beyond that we don’t have much of an understanding of him. It’s made vaguely aware that his livestock is being attacked by a puma, but it’s never clear if this is imagined, real, or an allegory for something else. His silence and emotionless face don’t give away any of his feelings either way. He is as mysterious as the collection of images that make up Piedra Sola.
His lack of agency also comes across as a bit problematic. Combined with his silence and lack of emotion, it presents another image of the passive Latin American indigenous person. Like Cleo in Roma and Justino in The Fever (two more films directed by non-indigenous directors), things happen to the lama herder that he quietly reacts to. Instead of initiating things himself, he only responds to things around him, which makes him seem a bit characterless.
There’s also the exoticization of the isolated Andean community. The director, Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf beautifully captures the ceremonies and the hamlet, but he also others it. The unique culture is viewed with a gaze that highlights the differences between the highland culture of Argentina from the city culture of Buenos Aires. It makes their culture seem a bit rustic and old fashioned, situating the community as if it exists in another world and time.
If you’re looking for a beautifully shot, esoteric movie set in the remote highlands of Argentina, you’ll love Piedra Sola. However, the mystery in the images and narrative make it hard to access, whilst the exoticization and passivization of the portrayals of the remote community make it hard to love.
Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.
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