Representing Religion in World Cinema: Filmmaking, Mythmaking, Culture Making

273 Pages·2003·3.854 MB·English

by  S. Brent Plate (eds.)

Representing Religion in World Cinema
R /C /C
ELIGION ULTURE RITIQUE
Series editor: Elizabeth A. Castelli
How Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film
By Eric Runions
(2003)
Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage, and Geographical
Imagination in India
By Anne Feldhaus
(2003)
Representing Religion in World Cinema: Filmmaking, Mythmaking,
Culture Making
Edited by S. Brent Plate
(2003)
R R W C
EPRESENTING ELIGION IN ORLD INEMA
F , M , C
ILMMAKING YTHMAKING ULTURE MAKING
E S. B P
DITED BY RENT LATE
REPRESENTING RELIGION IN WORLD CINEMA
Copyright © S. Brent Plate, 2003.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan
Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United
Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the
European Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-4039-6051-1 ISBN 978-1-137-10034-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-10034-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Representing religion in world cinema : filmmaking, mythmaking, culture
making / edited
by S. Brent Plate.
p. cm. — (Religion/culture/critique ; 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion pictures—Religious aspects. 2. Religion in motion
pictures. I. Plate, S. Brent, 1966- II. Series.
PN1995.5.R47 2003
791.43’682—dc21 2003051179
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
First Palgrave Macmillan edition: December 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing 2008.
C
ONTENTS
Series Editor Preface vii
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Filmmaking, Mythmaking, Culture Making 1
S. Brent Plate
S O : R - C
ECTION NE E MYTHOLOGIZING INEMA
1. Jai Santoshi Maa Revisited: On Seeing a Hindu ‘‘Mythological’’
Film 19
Philip Lutgendorf
2. ‘‘My Story Begins Before I Was Born’’: Myth, History, and
Power in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust 43
Judith Weisenfeld
3. Orpheus on Screen: Open and Closed Forms 67
Linda C. Ehrlich
4. Between Time and Eternity: Theological Notes on
Shadows and Fog 89
Paul Nathanson
S T : R - R
ECTION WO E PRESENTING ELIGION
5. The Art of Presence: Buddhism and Korean Films 107
Francisca Cho
6. Pentecostalism, Prosperity, and Popular Cinema in Ghana 121
Birgit Meyer
7. The Islamic Apocalypse: Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s
Moment of Innocence 145
Lloyd Ridgeon
8. Performative Pilgrims and the Shifting Grounds of
Anthropological Documentary 159
Luis A. Vivanco
vi CONTENTS
S T : M F , M N
ECTION HREE AKING ILMS AKING ATIONS
9. Perfumed Nightmare: Religion and the Philippine
Postcolonial Struggle in Third Cinema 181
Antonio D. Sison
10. Pathologies of Violence: Religion and Postcolonial
Identity in New Zealand Cinema 197
Janet Wilson
11. Santería and the Quest for a Postcolonial Identity in
Post-Revolutionary Cuban Cinema 219
Edna M. Rodríguez-Mangual
12. ‘‘The Eyes of All People Are Upon Us’’: American Civil
Religion and the Birth of Hollywood 239
Kris Jozajtis
Contributors 263
Index 267
S E P
ERIES DITOR REFACE
RELIGION/CULTURE/CRITIQUE is a series devoted to publishing work that
addresses religion’s centrality to a wide range of settings and debates, both
contemporary and historical, and that critically engages the category of
‘‘religion’’ itself. This series is conceived as a place where readers will be
invited to explore how ‘‘religion’’—whether embedded in texts, practices,
communities, or ideologies—intersects with social and political interests,
institutions, and identities.
Representing Religion in World Cinema: Filmmaking, Mythmaking,
Culture Making poses the question of ‘‘religion’’ through the medium of
cinema, looking for religion not only in the content of film but in the form
and reception of cinematic representations. Both religion and film are
forms of mediation, this anthology argues, and therefore can be read
together to generate new theoretical insights about both what counts as
‘‘religion’’ and how cinema as a global form transforms our thinking about
myth and culture. The essays in this collection challenge the reader to
rethink all assumptions about ‘‘religion and film,’’ interrupt the hegemony
of both Christianity and Hollywood, and focus concentrated attention on
different centers of religious life and cultural production. Feature films
from Iran, South and East Asia, Europe, and the United States; locally
produced video and documentaries from Ghana and Mexico; experimental
genres from the Philippines, New Zealand, and Cuba—all of these forms of
cinematic mediation emerge in a collection of essays commissioned for
inclusion in this groundbreaking volume. As ‘‘religion and media’’ emerges
as a leading edge in the interdisciplinary academic study of religion, S. Brent
Plate’s collection in this volume makes a critical contribution to this newly
developing field. It is a great pleasure to include this anthology and its
essays in this series.
Elizabeth A. Castelli
RELIGION/CULTURE/CRITIQUE Series Editor
New York City
April 2003

I
LLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1.1 From Jai Santoshi Maa 27
Fig. 1.2 From Jai Santoshi Maa 27
Fig. 1.3 From Jai Santoshi Maa 27
Fig. 1.4 From Jai Santoshi Maa 32
Fig. 1.5 From Jai Santoshi Maa 38
Fig. 2.1 From Daughters of the Dust 47
Fig. 2.2 From Daughters of the Dust 52
Fig. 2.3 From Daughters of the Dust 60
Fig. 3.1 From Vertigo 78
Fig. 3.2 From El Amor Brujo 80
Fig. 5.1 From Passage to Buddha 115
Fig. 5.2 From Beyond the Mountain 118
Fig. 6.1 Ghanaian cinema and church 127
Fig. 6.2 From Mariska 132
Fig. 6.3 Billboard in Ghana 138
Fig. 7.1 From A Moment of Innocence 153
Fig. 7.2 From A Moment of Innocence 155
Fig. 9.1 From Perfumed Nightmare 186
Fig. 9.2 From Perfumed Nightmare 191
Fig. 10.1 From The Piano 204
Fig. 10.2 From Once Were Warriors 210
Fig. 11.1 From Los días del agua 228
Fig. 11.2 From The Last Supper 230
Fig. 12.1 From Birth of a Nation 248
Fig. 12.2 From Birth of a Nation 254