Uncanny Strangers
Director David Picard
Countries United Kingdom, Ireland, Madagascar
Duration 46 min
Synopsis
Uncanny Strangers is a 46 min non-fiction film shot in a fishing village in South Western Madagascar. The film follows the unfolding of different relations between the villagers and various human and non-human strangers - ancestor and tromba spirits, Western NGO workers, ecotourists, fish collectors, cattle rustlers and the ethnographic filmmaker. Through a series of everyday life episodes, it provides insights into the ontology of these relationships and the strategies employed by the villagers to make them work for their economic and political purposes. Through its specific ethnographic focus on the 'uncanny' qualities of such relations, the film points towards more generic issues related to hospitality practice, the constitution of selves through webs of relationships with others, and forms of collaboration in emerging transnational social field such as - here - environmental action.
Uncanny Strangers is a 46 min non-fiction film shot in a fishing village in South Western Madagascar. The film follows the unfolding of different relations between the villagers and various human and non-human strangers - ancestor and tromba spirits, Western NGO workers, ecotourists, fish collectors, cattle rustlers and the ethnographic filmmaker. Through a series of everyday life episodes, it provides insights into the ontology of these relationships and the strategies employed by the villagers to make them work for their economic and political purposes. Through its specific ethnographic focus on the 'uncanny' qualities of such relations, the film points towards more generic issues related to hospitality practice, the constitution of selves through webs of relationships with others, and forms of collaboration in emerging transnational social field such as - here - environmental action.