Linda Connor, an Australian anthropologist and renowned photographer, mainly researches on Indonesian traditional therapies and now works as the chief of the Department of Anthropology in Sydney University. The Asch couple had cooperated with Linda in shooting A Balinese Trance Séance and Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali, which unveil the Balinese Shamans.
Cremation rites are the most elaborate rites of passage performed by Balinese householders. Poor families may wait years before accumulating enough resources to cremate their dead, who are buried in the meantime. This film is about a group of villagers in Central Bali who cooperated to carry out a group cremation. It had been 15 years since they last held…
Bringing rice, flowers, and woven coconut leaves as offerings, clients visit Jero in her household shrine to figure out the cause of their son’s death. Jero ,the witch lights an incense brazier, sprinkles holy water, and recites mantras as preliminaries to trance. Several ancestors and the young son speak through her voice, revealing the exact reason of his premature death…