Film and discussion: 'The possibility of spirits'

Together with the Gerardus van der Leeuw Student Association, we cordially invite you to watch and discuss the award-winning essay-film "The possibility of spirits“ by and with Mattijs van de Port, an anthropologist from the University of Amsterdam and the VU University, at our faculty.

Documentary films, may it be through ethnographic filming or visual anthropology, transport realities but also provide insights into foreign worlds. This makes it attractive for scholars as a medium: It enables a more “undisguised” access to other cultures and life scripts than the written word. But nevertheless, film is limited to a reproduction of the visible aspects of human life and cannotcatch the “invisible” structures of experience and social order.
In his film "The possibility of spirits“ , Mattijs van de Port, an anthropologist from the University of Amsterdam and the VU University messes up the conventions of filmmaking. He does that through the methodology of an “Essay Film” to retain the enigma of his subject matter: people becoming possessed by spirits in Brazil. It embraces the topic by neither turning possession by spirits into something exotic nor trying to serve explanations of the phenomenon and is thus an interesting answer to the question of how to deal with other realities than the own, especially in fieldwork. Mattijs van de Port himself will show the film and give insights into the process of producing it. We are looking forward to an inspiring evening with all of you!

Watch the TRAILER of Possibility of Spirits