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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
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Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
Keywords
“Possession”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Year of production
“1977”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
Region
South America
1
Country
Brazil
1
Keywords
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Possession
1
x
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Ritual
1
Directors
Cross, Stephen
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1977
1
x
Status
Film
Umbanda
1977
52
‘
Directed by
Stephen Cross
.
Umbanda is a syncretic religious movement, combining elements from orthodox Catholicism with submerged African and indigenous Indian spiritual beliefs. In spite of past attempts to suppress it, Umbanda flourishes in the heterogeneous culture of contemporary urban Brazil. The film somewhat ambitiously seeks to give an exposition of the eclectic repertoire of the Umbanda movement. There is lengthy coverage of ritual performances, including interviews with mediums and their clients, which emphasise the role the movement plays in the management of personal malaise and affliction experienced as a by-product of change and urbanisation. The concluding sequences of the Sea Goddess, Yemenya – identified with the Virgin Mary – show the annual Umbanda festival where half a million participants from all over the country assemble on the beaches of Säo Paulo. The film’s strength lies in its graphic footage of spiritual possession and healing but it has been criticised for not providing a fuller account of the functioning of Umbanda groups, and the movement’s articulation with the political authorities in Brazil.
South America
Possession
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Ritual