Dragging chains

Original title Dragging chains

“Dragging chains” moves between observation and conversation as the apparent obscurity of Grenada’s Jab Jab tradition is unravelled. Filmed during the carnival season of 2023, audiences are immersed in a sensorial spectacle of oil, chains and rhythm, while the stories told by local practitioners provide a backdrop of contemporary interpretation. As the spectacle unfolds, the initial exotic appeal gives way to deeper questions of resilience, protest, and colonial after-effects. Dragging Chains is a student film created as part of my Master’s thesis in visual anthropology at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway. It is the result of four months of fieldwork done in Grenada from April to August 2023. The film is complimented by a written thesis, but has been created to work as a standalone product as well.

Author/s Emil Victor Hvidtfeldt

Emil Victor Hvidtfeldt is a visual anthropologist from Copenhagen, Denmark. He is educated in ethnographic filmmaking at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway.