A documentary film about donsoya, the knowledge of initiated hunters in Burkina Faso
All profits from sales and rentals go to the hunters who appear in the film!
Get the film KALANDA - The Knowledge of the Bush and all the content from the Extras package: 6 short documentaries and almost two hours of the music of the hunters.
Download DRM-free or stream the full documentary (62 min.), with subtitles in English, French and Italian.
A digital copy of the film authorised for public screening in an educational context where an admission fee is not charged, and for loan to the members of an educational institution's library.
Six short documentaries and almost two hours of the music of the hunters:
- Numuya - the blacksmiths of Bobo Dioulasso
- The Taxidermist - a story of hippos and men
- Masks from the Bush - when animals and spirits roam the village
- Slaughterhouse ABF - a piece of sensory ethnography
- How to Make Things with Words - medicinal water made of words
- Making more Things with Words - amulets made of words
- Diakalia Traoré and Bakari Ouattara - 9 tracks featuring two donso harps
- Yere Majigi group - 6 tracks mixing donso harps and xylophone music
The Film
"...a deep mix of filmic and ethnographic sophistication is on display in Kalanda, surely making it a superb debut film and a very memorable experience..." Steven Feld
In some parts of West Africa, hunting is much more than killing animals. A donso is no common hunter, but a healer, a diviner, a ritual specialist and amulet maker.
KALANDA - The Knowledge of the Bush is a unique initiatory journey into the knowledge of donsoya from the perspective of the filmmaker. It was filmed during a year of research in Burkina Faso, thanks to the filmmaker's initiation and practice of donsoya.
His teacher becomes a narrator who carries him and the viewer through a variety of experiences, showing the richness of the knowledge of donsoya. The camera and sound recording techniques work to position the viewer in the shoes of the apprentice: the whole documentary mixes autobiography and reconstruction, continuously blurring the line between teachings and ction. Filming involved the hunters in a collaborative process, layering observational footage, experimental video, out-of-sync sound and still photography.
The Filmmaker
Lorenzo Ferrarini is an anthropologist based in Manchester UK, where he teaches ethnographic documentary at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester. Before moving to Britain he studied anthropology and ethnomusicology in Milano, Italy, where he collaborates with the LEAV – Ethnomusicology and Visual Anthropology Lab at the University of Milan since its establishment, in 2005. Here he developed his passion for photography and learned to shoot and edit video, in addition to various techniques of field sound recording.
He completed two extensive researches on Egyptian migrants in Italy (2007-2008) and donso hunters in Western Burkina Faso (2011-2019). In both cases he used radically participant and participated methods, sharing everyday practical activities and the conception of his media projects.
KALANDA - The Knowledge of the Bush is his first feature-length documentary, and it will be followed by the upcoming The Sambla Baan.
