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Ngat is Death: Studying Mortuaty Traditions

Original title Ngat is Death: Studying Mortuaty Traditions

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What does it mean when anthropologists claim to study the cultural traditions of others by participating in them? This film follows the Dutch anthropologist Ton Otto, who has been adopted by a family on the island of Baluan in the South Pacific. Due to the death of his adoptive father he has to take part in mortuary ceremonies whose form and content are however forcefully contested by different groups of relatives. Through the ensuing negotiations Ton learns how Baluan people perform and develop their traditions and not least what role he plays himself. The film is part of long-term fieldwork in which filmmaking has become integrated in the ongoing dialogue and exchange relations between the islanders and the anthropologist.

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Author/s Christian Suhr, Nielsen and Ton Otto

CHRISTIAN SUHR NIELSEN
Christian Suhr Nielsen, born in Denmark, is a graduate student at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aarhus. He has produced a number of films for ethnographic and archaeological exhibitions at Moesgaard Museum and is the director of the film “Want a Camel, Yes?” (2004) about tourist-cameldriver interactions at the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. The last three years he has collaborated with Ton Otto on the production of “Ngat is Dead” and he is currently working on a new film about a large cultural festival, which took place on Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea in Christmas 2006.
TON OTTO
Ton Otto, born in the Netherlands, is professor of anthropology and ethnography at the University of Aarhus. He has conducted fieldwork in Papua New Guinea since 1986, most of the time on the small island of Baluan in Manus Province. He has published widely on his research with a special focus on issues of social and cultural change. From his first fieldwork (1986-88) he has used video recordings as part of his research and analysis but also as a means of exchange with the local people, who value receiving films on their culture. This is his first film intended for a wider public.

Research Ton Otto
Photography Christian Suhr Nielsen
Sound Steffen Dalsgaard
Editing Christian Suhr Nielsen