Metamorfosis Documentation Project has embarked on a new project which explores the relation between the living and the dead. The cult of the dead is celebrated throughout Latin America in indigenous and mestizo communities. Known as Dia de Muertos or Todos Santos, these celebrations have roots in the cult of the dead of prehispanic indigenous cultures and in pagan and Catholic rituals. Each ethnicity, region and country have different ways of honoring their dead, all based on the same sense of responsibility and reciprocity to the ancestors. We will try to portray how these values and these different rituals about the proper way to honor the dead, the preparations for the celebrations, the altars and the communion with the dead strengthen family and community ties bringing about a sense of belonging and well being.
We will document a Day of the Dead celebration in different countries or ethnicities, and produce a documentary for each of the communities. The communities will be gifted with the rights to reproduce the documentary, and a community project will be developed and sponsored. The documentary and other results of these projects will be presented to international audiences, offering an intimate look at traditions markedly different from their own, and the opportunity to reflect on and more fully appreciate the importance of traditions and community rituals in their own cultures. An artistic and educational endeavor, our process is designed to foster respect and support for all cultures.
In our current project, in 2012 we will collaborate with the traditional Purepecha community of Santa Fe de la Laguna, where we will document Noche de Animas (Night of the Souls), their way of honoring their dead. The ritual honoring of the dead is a prolonged series of rituals, events and celebrations. Throughout the year homage is paid to the departed souls in different ceremonies, beginning six months prior to the celebration of Noche de Animas.
We will document these important events leading up to and including Noche de Animas. A feature-length documentary will be produced, in collaboration with the community. We will install the documentary in their Community Museum, striving to enhance the community's appreciation for the valuable role these rituals and celebrations hold in the fabric of their familial, social and cultural life.
The community requested that we develop our community project by providing and producing a film-making workshop to identified community members who have demonstrated an interest in documenting their rituals and traditions. This group will first assist in various capacities with the filming of the documentary. Later, when we return to the community with the completed documentary, we will conduct a two-week documentary film workshop for them.
A formal presentation of this project is scheduled for the spring of 2013 at the Santa Fe Art Institute, and additional presentations are planned for Albuquerque and northern New Mexico. The documentary will also be submitted to film festivals in the U.S. and Mexico, and submitted to PBS for broadcast consideration.
We completed the first of these documentations in Bolivia, where we documented “Todos Santos” in the village of Karallantayuq, Sub-Centralia Candelaria, Deparment of Chuquisaca. Todos Santos is the Yampará culture’s version of the Day of the Dead celebration. We documented for three weeks through the beginning of November 2010, culminating in the ceremonies of Todos Santos. We will be producing a short documentary and donating the rights to reproduce it to benefit the small community museum in Candelaria, run by the local weavers’ cooperative (Asociación de Tejedores); and we will be creating a space in the museum for the proper showing of the documentary to the visitors. A formal presentation is planned for the spring of 2012 at the Santa Fe Art Institute.
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