Rina Sherman's photostream

Filmmaker, writer, ethnographer, photographer

www.rinasherman.com

View this Channel on Vimeo. Channel created by Rina Sherman.

A film about the music, dance and trance possession practices of the Otjiherero language speaking groups of Namibia and Angola. Ovahimba, Ovadhimba, Ovahakaona, Ovagambwe, Ovakuvale, Ovatua… all share a common culture and belief system. The film explores the various ways in which music and dance transcend their everyday lives from infancy to death.

Watch: youtu.be/-GcxIQMHiEM

Ovaryange tji veya / When Visitors Come is about the relationship between anthropologist, Rina Sherman and an Omuhimba family with whom she lived for seven years, filming and photographing aspects of their everyday and ritual lives. Halfway through her tenure in the field, Rina Sherman presented a multi-media exhibition, entitled The Ovahimba Years: Work in Progress in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. A group of young people from the community of Etanga travelled to Windhoek to participate in the exhibition. The film explores the evolution of this relationship that lead to the exhibition, shows the group of young people discovering the presentation of their cultural heritage at the exhibition, holding performances as part of the programme presented, and shows the resulting discussions and consequences of the exhibition, once everyone is back in Ovahimba country. When Visitors Come is a film about an anthropologist in situ, and evokes several notions central to fieldwork, such as the nature of the bond between the observer and the observed, the observed observer, participant-anthropology and emotion as possible vector or hindrance in fieldwork.

Watch: youtu.be/mzMn88mWBFg

A voyage through the music, dance and spirit possession pratices of the Otjiherero language speaking groups of north-western Namibia and south-western Angola. They are Ovahimba, Ovadhimba, Ovakuvale, Ovagambwe, Ovatjimba, etc.; around a unique linguistic heritage, their respective musical cultures are both similar and different. Music, singing, dancing and the spirit possession practices are present in their everyday and ritual lives from birth and accompany them to their graves.

Watch: youtu.be/Kui6HQny5Mk

Mariage or Ceremonial Headdress, or Ekori in Otjiherero is worn by women at their mariage ceremony or in more recent times by women on different ceremonial occasions. © Rina Sherman