2011 PROGRAMME

Around the World in 90 Films

Plan your days! Explore the full film and sessions programme with prize screenings, workshops, special events. Consult the interactive map of film locations in 38 countries.
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FILM PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Royal Anthropological Institute is pleased to announce that the following Film Prizes have been awarded at the 12th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, London, 23rd - 26th June 2011.

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FORMER RAI FESTIVALS

11th RAI Film Festival, 2009
CTCC, Leeds Metropolitan University

10th RAI Film Festival, 2007
GCVA, The University of Manchester

7th RAI Film Festival, 2000
SOAS, University of London

The Poojari's Daughter #101

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15:00 hrs, Thursday 23rd June, Darwin LT
 
 
 
Director / Anthropologist: Gillian Goslinga
Year of Release: 2010
Duration: 66 mins
Country of Production: USA, India
Location: USA, India (Indian)
Language: Tamil (English sub)
Production: V. Krishnasami
 
 
 
The Poojari's Daughter opens with flashbacks of the South Indian priestess Rajathiammal “cutting the goat” and ritually having her head tonsured. The year is 2001, the place Madurai, Tamilnadu. Both these moments fulfill the priestess' deepest desires, to have herself filmed performing the annual goat sacrifice to the Saivite God Paandi that her famous priest father once carried out and to renounce her family life altogether. Using experimental film techniques that recall the work of Trinh Minh Ha, The Poojari's Daughter weaves dramatic footage of these rituals and temple life at Paandi Kooyil with Rajathiammal's moving narration of her process, interviews with close family, and brief narrations by the filmmaker. Together, these create a vivid and unforgettably intimate portrait of the devotional worlds of this remarkable woman and South Indian Hinduism.