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dam-l New film on Himba/LS




>PRESS RELEASE:
>
>THE HIMBA YEARS a project by Rina Sherman
>DANS LES FAUBOURGS D'OPUWOŠ a film by Rina Sherman
>
>
>Date: 11 April 1999
>Time: 18:00
>Venue: National Art Gallery of Namibia
>
>
>Presented by:
>
>THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY OF NAMIBIA
>THE FRANCO-NAMIBIAN CULTURAL CENTRE
>THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF NAMIBIA
>LOW TECH FILM ART / ART CINEMATOGRAPHIQUE ARTISANAL
>
>
>
>1. THE HIMBA YEARS
>A project by Rina Sherman
>
>Beyond Meaning in a Cross Cultural Experience - First Notes from the Field.
>
>
>THE HIMBA YEARS is a multi-disciplinary project based on the cultural
>heritage preservation of the Himba people. The objective of the project is
>to create a living trace of the way of life, thought system and history of
>the Himba. During the three years of project implementation, Rina Sherman,
>in conjunction with a community of Himba people, will make a documentary
>film and publish a book based on Himba oral traditions.
>
>After several months of living with a Himba community in Etanga in the
>north-western part of Kaokoland, Rina Sherman will present preliminary
>notes from her experience in the field.
>
>"Nothing, no formal education, life experience, travels, nor any cultural
>milieu could have prepared me sufficiently for the experience of the
>preparatory phase of the project THE HIMBA YEARS. Having lived in a foreign
>land for fifteen years with all it may imply to the individual in terms of
>loss, adaptation, acquiring social codes and linguistic skills, and having
>travelled extensively in Southern Africa since 1990, I thought myself to be
>ready to undertake this project; it has been a far more challenging and
>exhilirating experience than I could ever have imagined."
>
>Extract from THE HIMBA YEARS, PROGRESS REPORT 1, BEYOND MEANING IN A CROSS
>CULTURAL EXPERIENCE: NOTES FROM THE FIELD. Rina Sherman, Paris, March 1999.
>
>
>2. DANS LES FAUBOURGS D'OPUWOŠ
>(English title: IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF OPUWOŠ)
>A film by Rina Sherman
>
>Duration: 40 minutes
>Year of production: 1999
>Produced by Arte / La Sept & JBA Productions, France
>
>
>
>In Novemer 1998, Rina Sherman made a film on life in Opuwo for
>Franco-German cultural television channel Arte. The film is part of the
>series VOYAGE,VOYAGE in which author-filmmakers explore destinations of
>their choice throughout the world.
>
>Dans les faubourgs d'OpuwoŠ is an urban visual poem in which Rina Sherman
>explores the meeting of people and their cultures in Opuwo, a village in
>the heartland of Himba country. During the preparation of the project THE
>HIMBA YEARS, Rina Sherman spent two months in Opuwo. In this time, she
>discovered some of the hidden ways of the inhabitants of this town. The
>film is a personal account of her sojourn.
>
>
>"Opuwo may be a small and distant town, but it is not far from being
>representative of the history of Europeans in Africa. English, French,
>Portuguese, Germans or Afrikaners, all undertook the same voyage. A kind of
>quest to find a new world where the religious and economic problems they
>had fled would have remained in Europe. Alas, they realised too late that
>they carried these problems in themselves. The real voyage woud have been a
>return to the self they still ignored. The colonial period has irrevocably
>changed the course of history of Southern Africa. In Opuwo, the war is
>over. The women still wear Princess dresses, reminding us of recent history
>in the region.
>        But human beings also posses the capacity to overcome their wounds,
>to know that the brambles are crowned with roses. It is the case in Opuwo,
>where from one day to the next, the sun never illuminates a face in the
>same way. This sun that the landscape never ceases to evoke, shines and
>life resumes in that moment created by the encounter of sand and scorching
>heat. We carry in ourselves what we seek elsewhere ; Africa and her
>prodigies are in us."
>
>Extract from the text of the film "Dans les faubourgs d'OpuwoŠ", Rina
>Sherman, Paris, December 1998.
>
>
>Rina Sherman
>
>Rina SHERMAN is South African born and has been living in France since
>1984. A classical musician by training, she worked as independant theatre
>actress and as vision mixer for South African television (SABC), before
>turning to film making. In 1988 she became a French citizen and in 1990
>successfully completed a doctorate at the Sorbonne supervised by reknowned
>filmmaker Jean Rouch. Film maker, writer and researcher, her first novel,
>UITREIS, (Leaving) was published in South Africa in 1997 to critical
>acclaim. Her work is multi-disciplinary, incorporating anthropological
>research into her film making and writing, and allowing the language of
>film and writing to interact. Apart from writing and film making, Rina
>Sherman has also initiated several cultural projects. In 1996, she curated
>Jean Rouch's Southern African university tour. In 1997, she won a Villa
>Medicis Hors les Murs prize for her film archival research in Southern
>Africa. 1998, she was awarded a Lavoisier bursary by the French Ministry of
>Foreign Affairs for her research on the Himba people. Rina Sherman has been
>working on THE HIMBA YEARS since 1997 and has been living with a Himba
>community in Kaokoland since May 1998.
>
>
>Margie Orford
>P O Box 20120
>Windhoek Namibia
>Phone/fax 264 + 61 + 221657
>margie@namib.com
>