Our Missionaries, Framing the Other

OUR MISSIONARIES
Martin Gruber | Guinea 2013 | 8 Min. | OmeU

A small village on the coast of Guinea, West Africa. Missionaries settled here in their effort to bring Christianity to this Muslim dominated area. The villagers still speak warmly about their visitors. Nevertheless, the missionaries left after some years – seemingly in a rush, leaving behind many of their belongings. The film “Our Missionaries” tells the story of a misconceived intercultural encounter throgh the villagers’ memories and images of the missionaries’ material legacy.

FRAMING THE OTHER
Ilja Kok & Willem Timmers | Ethophia, Netherlands 2011 | 25 Min. | OmeU

The Mursi tribe resides in the basin of the Omo River, in the east African state of Ethiopia. Mursi women are known for placing large plates in their lower lips and wearing enormous, richly decorated earrings, which has become a subject of tourist attraction in recent years. Each year, hundreds of Western tourists come to see the unusually adorned Mursi; posing for camera-toting visitors has become the main source of income for them. To make more money, they embellish their “costumes” and finery to appear more exotic to those outsiders. However, by exaggerating their habits and lifestyle in such a manner they are beginning to cause their traditional culture to disintegrate. Framing the Other portrays these complex relationship between tourism and indigenous communities.