Looking at themselves: Babaluda Luda

Original title Privindu-se pe ei insisi: Babaluda Luda

The film is an attempt to question the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed when using the feedback method. The feedback provided by the people involved (the young performers but also the elders) in the Babaluda Feast, turned out to be very important in offering an insight to the ways in which the Feast was depicted by the visual ethnographer. By recoding the shared visual ethnography, that was arranged in big groups in a large screening rooms, but also in small groups in private houses, the film will try to experiment the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed by looking at, the looked at. The montage method of the film will use a chronotopic montage technique (Bakhtin), in which the time and space unity will be enacted in a visual ethnographic present.

Author/s Mihai Andrei Leaha

Education: 2012 PhD Philology. European Studies Faculty, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, România. Thesis: Ethnographic Film and Anthropological Knowledge. Visually Researching Calendar Based Ceremonials. Work Experience: 2005 – present: Founding Member of the Orma Sodalitas Anthropolgica Association. 2007- present: Director of Triba Film, Independent Production Company. Films: “The Street Musician” anthropological video documentary, 20 min. Triba Film Romania 2012. “Looking at themselves: Babaluda Luda” anthropological video documentary. 33 min. Triba Film Romania 2012. “Broscatu. The Storyteller” anthropological video documentary, 62 minutes. Triba Film Romania 2012.

Research Mihai Andrei Leaha
Photography Mihai Andrei Leaha
Sound Mihai Andrei Leaha
Editing Andrei Crisan