Keep the dance alive
A film by
Rina Sherman



Video, 75'/50', 2007/8

A film about the music dance and spirit possession practices of the Ojtiherero language-speaking groups of north-western Namibia and south-western Angola. They are the Ovahimba, Ovadhimba, Ovahakaona, Ovakuvale, Ovatjimba... They are different but share a common culture and belief systems. The film explores the various ways in which music and dance transcend their everyday lives from infancy to death.

Festivals and Screenings

Avant première : Novembre 2006 Institut d'Ethnologie, Neuchatel.
UK première : Juin 2007 - RAI 10th International Ethnographic Film Festival
US première: Novembre 2007 - Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, New York
French première: La SCAM, 12 December, 2007
Présentation en juin 2008, la Cinematheque de la danse à la Cinematheque francaise
Juin 2008 : XXII Parnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival
Août 2008 : 2008 EASA Film, Video and New Media Festival (Ljubljana, Slovenia
October 2008 : The IV Moscow International Visual Anthropology Festival «Mediating Camera»
Novembre 2008 : Amiens International Film festival
Mars 2009 : 2nd Women's Film Festival in Chennai, India
July 2009 : 16th World Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), Kunming, China.
September 2009 : Dockanema Film Festival, Mozambique
Octobre 2009 : Pompidou Centre: Vidéodanse 2009

From the filmmaker of When Visitors Come