Directed By: Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead
1952 | 22 min
Indonesia, United States

Friday, November 11: 5:00 pm

People Center

One of the earliest ethnographic films made by trained anthropologists, Trance and Dance in Indonesia was shot in the 1930s by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Edited years later by Mead, it is a remarkable record of the Balinese ceremonial kris dance, which depicts the struggle between the death-dealing witch and the life-protecting dragon and captures imagery of the dancers turning daggers against their chests.

Show in the Retrospective Shorts Program with Les maîtres fous and Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed

Part of the 35th Anniversary Retrospective