[Frameworks] doc/exp sports film suggestions

[Christine Downing]

"Trobriand Cricket". ethnographic film 1975 - Jerry Leach - Gary Kildea
abbreviated on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZFNRc9mKk

cricket adapted with dances and chants by local tribes

https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/trobriand-cricket/notes/Curator’s
notes
by Pat Fiske <https://aso.gov.au/about/curators/#fiske-pat>
<https://aso.gov.au/about/curators/#fiske-pat>

When cricket was introduced to Papua New Guinea, it largely remained the
standard international version except for the Trobriand Islands, east of PNG
. Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism is a fascinating
look at one of the ways the Trobriand Islanders have coped with imposed
social change. They have taken the very proper game of cricket and
transformed it into an outlet for mock warfare and tribal rivalry,
inter-village competition, wild and erotic dancing, chanting and pure
entertainment. A Methodist missionary from Britain, William Gillmore, first
exposed them to cricket in 1903. He hoped it would reduce tribal fighting
and rivalry and encourage a new morality. The islanders have creatively
adapted the sport to the needs of their society in a way that reflects the
effects of colonisation by British and American troops during the Second
World War.

In his early twenties, filmmaker Gary Kildea became very interested in
Papua New Guinea. His father had been there during the Second World War as
an electrician and told the family many stories and showed them countless
photographs. PNG was a United Nations mandated territory that was
administered by Australia from 1919 until 1975 when they gained their
independence. In the early 1970s Kildea got a job in PNG at the Department
of Information Film Unit as a director-cinematographer and made films for
the administration. Later he started making ethnographic films. Kildea made
two films in PNG before Trobriand Cricket – Bugla Yunggu (1972), about the
Chimbu pig festival, and Concerning the Lives of the People (aka Bilong
Living Biling Ol, 1973) which was his first cinema vérité film (see Taking
Pictures <https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/taking-pictures/>, 1996,
clip one). Anthropologist Jerry Leach, who had been working in the
Trobriand Islands, contacted Kildea about working on a film with him, which
became Trobriand Cricket. The film introduced Kildea to anthropology, which
he found a ‘wonderful philosophy’.

Trobriand Cricket follows a ‘demonstration’ game played between two teams
(‘Scarlet Red’ and ‘The Airplane’) and shows all the basic rules. It is
contrasted by historical footage showing the British way of playing and
various ideas appropriated from colonisation. The cricket the Trobriand
Islanders play still uses a bat and a ball (although they are carved out of
wood and each bat is different); players score runs, field and make outs.
The number of players, however, depends on how many turn up – there may be
40, 50 or even 60 on each side. The only rule here is that the sides have
to have around the same number of players. The teams, which come from
different villages around the islands, bring their own umpires to affirm
the outs and perform war magic against the opposing team.

The teams each have a repertoire of chants and dances which they perform in
formation as they march on and off the field and throughout the game as
they celebrate every ‘out’. The dances have special meanings and may show
the prowess of a team or mock the opposing team. Some dances have erotic
themes or display provocative sexual innuendo intended for women
spectators. The game has been altered so that the host team is always the
winner. For the players, it’s not the scoring so much as the fine and
entertaining display they put on that matters.

Their cricket has evolved to take on warlike characteristics. The players
are adorned in colourful warrior dress and body paint. Their bent-arm
bowling looks very much like spear throwing. Historical footage (such as
soldiers marching in formation, airplanes flying, and preparation of
tapioca) is intercut with the game to show the inspiration for the
imaginative modifications the Trobriand Islanders have made. The film ends
with an exchange of food between the two teams and the host team putting on
a feast. Trobriand Cricket provides a remarkable example of how a society
can make something imposed uniquely their own. Trobriand cricket continues
to evolve and adapt to contemporary circumstances.

Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism was broadcast on
Australian television and the BBC in 1976. It screened at more than a dozen
major film festivals worldwide, winning the George Sadoul Award at the
Paris Film Festival, and the American Film and Video Festival Blue Ribbon
Award. It was also an honoree at the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the
American Anthropological Association, the Royal Anthropological Institute
(Great Britain) and the Society for Visual Anthropology. In 2006 filmmaker
Gary Kildea won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Festival Jury of the
American Anthropological Association.

On Wed, Jul 28, 2021 at 10:32 AM jjmartinod <jjmartinod at protonmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello frameworkers,
> Working on something new and am looking for references of
> documentary/experimental short films on sports.
> Would any have links/references to anything close to the topic?
> Deeply appreciated.
> salud,
> j-j
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -
>
> Sent with ProtonMail <https://protonmail.com/> Secure Email.
>
> --
> Frameworks mailing list
> Frameworks at film-gallery.org
> https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://film-gallery.org/pipermail/frameworks_film-gallery.org/attachments/20210801/b12c63ca/attachment.html>