Cinematic Rituals: Bridging Ethnographic Description and Identity Reinvention
The upcoming international symposium titled "Cinematic Rituals: Bridging Ethnographic Description and Identity Reinvention" is set to take place on December 2-3, 2026, at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Agadir. This event seeks to delve into the complex interplay between various rites—such as rainmaking ceremonies, agricultural rituals, seasonal celebrations, and other divine invocations—and their representation in film. These practices hold a unique position in cinematic history, situated at the intersection of ethnographic and anthropological cinema, symbolic fiction, and the dynamics of identity reinvention, as noted by scholars like Colleyn (2009) and Grimshaw (2001). Films often portray these rituals as memories of a threatened or idealized rural world, expressions of an enduring cosmology, and as aesthetic, narrative, or political devices. Such cinematic representations challenge the boundaries of ethnographic description, staging, and cultural performativity, as discussed by Turner (1969) and Bell (1997).
Filmmakers face significant narrative and visual challenges when attempting to convey the sacred nature of these rites, a concern highlighted by Letoulat (2016). This raises the question of whether films align with Houseman's (2012) perspective, which encourages viewing rituals as networks of relationships among participants and non-human entities, including spirits, ancestors, objects, images, words, and places. Regardless, the cinematic representation of rituals reveals tensions relating to heritage preservation and self-representation amidst the dichotomies of modernity and tradition, globalization and localization, as well as linguistic marginalization and cultural claims, as illustrated by Merz (2015) and Merolla et al. (2019). These issues are pertinent not only in international cinema but also in the multilingual cinematic production of North Africa, exemplified by films like _The Unknown Saint_ (Morocco, 2019, directed by Alaa Eddine Eljem), _Adrar n Baya_ (Algeria, 1997, directed by Azzedine Meddour), and _Sat tadanguiwine n Imouran_ (Morocco, 2001, directed by Abdellah Dari).
Call for Papers: Submission Guidelines and Topics
This symposium invites participants to explore these themes through analyses of fictional films, favoring a comparative and interdisciplinary approach. Suggested topics for discussion include but are not limited to:
- The role of cinema in preserving, reconstructing, or fossilizing ritual practices.
- Filmic auto-ethnography and the reappropriation of traditions.
- The transition from lived rites to represented and claimed rites.
- The symbolism of rain and ritual as allegorical or mythical motifs in films.
- Exoticization, folklorization, and the deconstruction of colonial and postcolonial perspectives in cinematic representations of rituals.
- The ritual as a cinematic narrative device (initiation, crisis, resolution).
- Films depicting ritual loss and rural modernity.
Submissions must be made in French and should include a proposal of 300–500 words along with a brief biographical and bibliographical note. Interested researchers are encouraged to send their submissions to the designated email addresses provided in the original announcement.
Key dates include a deadline for proposals extended to May 15, 2026, notifications of acceptance by June 15, 2026, and a final submission deadline for articles by August 30, 2026. Accepted articles will be published in the journal _Filigranes_.
As reported by inalco.fr.
