News
TARANTISM REVISITED is nominated for Best Documentary Film at Preis der deutschen Filmkritik which is awarded annually by the German Film Critics Association. We are more than honored by this nomination and look forward to the award ceremony at the 75th Berlinale 2025.
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We are delighted to announce that our documentary film TARANTISM REVISITED premiered at DOK Leipzig – 67th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. And we are very happy that it has been awarded with the Golden Dove for feature-length film in the German Competition Documentary Film.
Jury statement: »The myth repeats itself, always the same and always different, in the bodies that rebel against the poison of a patriarchal order by dancing or face the toxic legacy of exploitative land use. Between archival research and re-enactment, sound and text compositions, gender and genre, this film develops an idiosyncratic language, resistant in the best sense of the word.«
We would like to thank the jury, the selection committee and the entire festival team for the wonderful time in Leipzig and are already looking forward to the next screenings.
Screenings
InScience Film Festival Nijmegen March 14th 2025 | 7 pm | LUX 5 | Q & A with the filmmakers
Stranger Than Fiction #27 February 2nd 2025 | 5 pm | Kölner Filmhaus Kino | Q & A with the filmmakers
60. Solothurner Filmtage January 27th 2025 | 12 pm | Palace | Q & A with the filmmakers
January 24th 2025 | 8.15 pm | Canva | Swiss Premiere | Q & A with the filmmakers and guest
67. DOK Leipzig November 2nd 2024 | 3 pm | Cinestar 5 | Q & A with the filmmakers
November 1st 2024 | 8.30 pm | Regina Palast 4 | Q & A with the filmmakers
October 29th 2024 | 3 pm | Cinestar 2 | World Premiere | Q & A
TARANTISM REVISITED
Germany/Switzerland 2024 | colour, b/w | 105 min. | Trailer | Press Kit
Synopsis
Apulia, 1959: Women in white dresses dance ecstatically in a small chapel. They jump around, spin in circles, roll on the ground, some even climb the altar. They are said to have been bitten by a poisonous spider. Images of this ›dancing mania‹, which requires a ritual exorcism with music, have inspired Italian anthropologists to travel to southern Italy. Equipped with tape recorders, film and photo cameras, they tracked down the phenomenon known as tarantism. TARANTISM REVISITED follows the extensive archival traces of these research trips and visits the places and landscapes of their origins. This cinematic quest is framed by the unique correspondence between the anthropologist Annabella Rossi and Michela Margiotta alias Anna, a 'tarantata'. By interweaving images and voices from the past with the present, the film questions the complex history and diverse forms in which tarantism lives on today.
Credits
script, direction, production Anja Dreschke, Michaela Schäuble
voices Birgit Minichmayr (German version), Luciana Caglioti (Italian version)
camera, montage Anja Dreschke
archival research, additional camera Michaela Schäuble
music, field recordings Carlo Peters
production EMB, Ethnographic Mediaspace Bern
Petit à Petit Cologne
in cooperation with Associazione Internazionale Ernesto de Martino, Archivio Franco Pinna
Archivio Radio RAI, Archivio Sonoro Bibliomediateca, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Casa Museo del Tarantismo a Galatina, Casa Museo Privato Michela Margiotta
Cineteca di Bologna, Collezione familiare/privata Arturo Zavattini
Collezione familiare/privata Chiara Samugheo, Fototeca Storica Nazionale Ando Gilardi
Home Movies - Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia, ICPI – Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale
Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Casarano, Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Torrepaduli
Museo Nazionale delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari di Roma and Club UNESCO Galatina
funded by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Universität Bern
Burgergemeinde Bern
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with
Michela Margiotta alias Anna, Assuntina alias Maria di Nardò, Luigi Stifani, Annabella Rossi, Ernesto de Martino, Simona Indraccolo, Vincenza Magnolo, Domenico Spagnuolo, Rosella De Benedetto,
Signora Domenica, Flavia Sabato, Alessio Russo, Donatella Trono, Diego Carpitella, Rossella Ambaar De Luca, Ester Primiceri, Annalisa Marinello, Massimo Conte aka Ndilli, Clara Gallini, Luigi Donato Lecci, Salvatore Rizzo. Salvatore Simone, Donato Tarantino, Pierpaolo Ronzino, Christina Mastria, Gianvito Carlino, Giuseppe Anglano, Salvatore Coluccia, Anna Donadei, Irene Scarlino, Adele Caggia, i.a.script, direction Anja Dreschke, Michaela Schäuble
voices Birgit Minichmayr (German version) | Luciana Caglioti (Italian version)
camera, montage Anja Dreschke
archival research, additional camera Michaela Schäuble
music, field recordings Carlo Peterstranslations Michaela Schäuble, Paolo Miceli, Angela Wohleser
translation ›Lettere da una tarantata‹ Ulrich van Loyen (German) | Jasmine Pisapia, Michaela Schäuble (English)
additional translations, transcriptions Jessica Bollag, Andrea Bordoli, Valentina Sashivari, Elisa Gaia Anna-Palmira Haldemannproduction assistant Assuntina Betty Contaldo
studio sound recording Manuel Meichsner
sound mix Sound Vision, Vienna/Cologne
colour grading Fabiana Cardalda
subtitles textimbild, Till Rudolphdramaturgical advice Natali Barrey, Andres Veiel
technical consulting Chris Schaal
production consulting Bettina Braun
archival research consulting Monika Preischl
clearing Michaela Schäuble, Alessia Petitto
contact RAI Sila Berrutiproduction EMB, Ethnographic Mediaspace Bern | petit à petit cologne
funded by
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Universität Bern
Burgergemeinde Bernin cooperation with
Associazione Internazionale Ernesto de Martino, Archivio Franco Pinna,
Archivio Radio RAI, Archivio Sonoro Bibliomediateca, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia,
Casa Museo del Tarantismo a Galatina, Casa Museo Privato Michela Margiotta,
Cineteca di Bologna, Collezione familiare/privata Arturo Zavattini,
Collezione familiare/privata Chiara Samugheo, Fototeca Storica Nazionale Ando Gilardi,
Home Movies - Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia, ICPI – Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale, Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Casarano, Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Torrepaduli
Museo Nazionale delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari di Roma, Club UNESCO Galatinathanks to
Archivio Assoziazione Internazionale Ernesto de Martino, Archivio Sonoro della Puglia, Argia Project Sardinia, Casa Museo Privato Michela Margiotta in Ruffano, Club UNESCO Galatina, Comitato Festa San Donato di Montesano Salentino, Infopoint Galatina, La Casa del Museo del Tarantismo di Galatina, Le collezioni del Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Casarano, Museo della Civiltà Contadina di Torrepaduli, Milo Adami, Maurizio Agamennone, Alejandro Bachmann, Rosa Baldari, Donato Bandello aka Dino, Regina Barunke, Michael Baute, Stefania Baldinotti, Angela Beccarisi, Leo Beccarisi, Julia Bee, Christiane Büchner, Ada Calabretti, Andrea Cesari, Laura Coppens, Massimo Cutrupi, Maria Grazia De Benidittis, Stefano De Matteis, Fabio Dei, Lene Faust, Lorenzo Ferrarini, Anna-Lydia Florin, Alex Gerbaulet, Don Lucio Greco, Lilian Haberer, Marta Harrington, Beatrix Häusler, Mario Margiotta, Andrea Meneghelli, Marisa Iori, Jan Künemund, Antonio Leone, Petra Löffler, Michele Manzolini, Luigina Marino, Annalisa Marinello, Luigina Marino, Enzo Mazzeo, Maria Regina Galluccio Mezio, Maurizio Nocera, Kathrin Peters, Simone Pfeifer, Anna Lucia Rizzello, Elisa Romano, Roman Roitmann, Romualdo Rossetti, Anke Schäfer, Angelo Serra, Chris Schaal, Dirk Schäfer, Angelika Schlune, Sabrina Schneider, Rossella Schillaci, Regine Steenbock, Giovanna Stifani, Samantha Tesoro, Leandro Ventura, Donatella Vernaleone, Loredana Viola, Brigitte Weingart, Dorothy Louise Zinnspecial thanks to
Luigi Chiriatti, Salvatore Coluccia, Betty Contaldo, Luigi di Gianni, Thomas Hauschild, Simona Indraccolo, Ulrich van Loyen, Paolo Miceli, Vincenza Magnolo, Cecilia Mangini, Sara Nuzzo and her family, Flavia Sabato, Giuseppe Serra, Giovanna Stifani
Project
Tarantism is a Southern Italian possession cult in which the afflicted – mostly young, unmarried women – experience violent physical seizures. According to local concepts, this condition is caused by the poisonous bite of a tarantula spider and can only be cured through music and exorcist trance dancing.
The film and reseach project ›Tarantism Rivisited‹ traces the multiple facets of a phenomenon that has been endemic to Apulia (Southern Italy) for at least five hundred years yet currently experiences an unprecedented revival and growth in popularity. In the past decade, tarantism and pizzicata music have become a crucial element of local popular culture which not only attracts ten thousands of tourists from Italy and abroad to large-scale festivals each year, but has also become part of the transnational world music scene, thus contributing to the construction of a new, neo-traditional local Apulian identity. Historian of religion and ethnographer Ernesto De Martino (1908-1965) was the first to study the socio-political implications of the phenomenon in his native Italy in the early 1950s. Taking his writings as well as the uniquely rich historic footage -16mm films, hundreds of photographs and sound recordings - that were produced in the scientific and artistic surrounding of his “expeditions” as a starting point, our project explores the strong impact that these iconic images continue to have on the way tarantism is perceived and performed today. To better grasp and convey to a broader audience the complex history and present-day mobilisation of tarantism as a tourist spectacle and politicised site of folklore, cultural heritage and female empowerment, we developed a multimodal research in collaboration with local performers, musicians and activists that results in two interlinked activities: the realisation of an essayistic documentary film and a complementary website comprising historic and contemporary photographs, explanatory texts, short video clips, sound pieces, interview excerpts and samples of tarantella music. The website will be launched by the end of 2024.
We primarily focus on the performance aspects of tarantism, thus highlighting its role as politicised multimedia event along with its importance as cultural and economic resource in the region. Furthermore, we attempt to create awareness for the fact that religious traditions are currently not per se disappearing into insignificance, but, quite to the contrary, are re-discovered, revived, and filled with new meanings in many places. With specific reference to the example of Apulian tarantism, we also intend to foster a better understanding of how tradition, heritage and cultural identity are presently created and mobilised through religious performances.
TEAM
Anja Dreschke is a visual and media anthropologist, filmmaker, and curator based in Cologne (D). Her research interests and publications focus on the theory and practice of audiovisual media at the intersection of experimental ethnography, essayistic film and artistic research. Based on multimodal ethnography, she realizes texts, films, photo essays, video installations, exhibitions and hybrid publications. She teaches at universities, film schools and art academies and works as curator for film festivals, museums, and other cultural institutions. In 2018 she was a fellow at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln and from 2019 to 2021 she was part of the selection committee of the Duisburger Filmwoche. Currently, she is an Interim Professor for Media Anthropology and Innovative Methods at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen. In summer term 2025 she is a guest professor for media theory and time-based media at the institute for theory and practice of communication at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK). www.anjadreschke.de
Michaela Schäuble is professor for social anthropology with a focus on media anthropology at the University of Bern (CH) where she also co-directs EMB-Ethnographic Mediaspace Bern. As a filmmaker and anthropologist her work combines ethnographic research with experimental essayistic film formats. She explores apparatuses of belief, specifically the role of embodiment and the senses, mediality and remediation in contexts of religious practice and experience. In recent years a central focus of her work has been on ecological perception and the question of what it means to deal with regimes of in/visibility and the marginalization of subaltern voices, grounded in fieldwork in Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean. Her films and installations have been screened at multiple film festivals including the HotDocs Filmfestival in Toronto, Duisburger Filmwoche, Worldfilm Festival of Visual Culture in Tartu, GIEFF, and other venues such as Grassi Museum, Schwules Museum Berlin, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, and Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.
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Contact
Anja Dreschke, Cologne, Germany
Michaela Schäuble, Bern, Switzerland
mail@tarantism-revisited.deInstitut für Sozialanthropologie der Universität Bern
Lerchenweg 36
3012 Bern
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