Trailer "Dance with the Wodaabes", A film by Sandrine Loncke, 90', 2010

In the heart of the Nigerien Sahel, far off the beaten "asphalt" track, thousands of Fulbe Wodaabe nomads gather every year for a gigantic ceremony named the geerewol.
For seven full days and nights, following the solar cycle, two lineages are opposed in a genuine ritual war, with for only weapons song and dance.
The stakes of war, the clear challenge: stealing women.
The ultimate purpose: to break in peace after having mutually expressed recognition of cultural conformity.
According to the Wodaabes, giving up these ceremonies - the only gathering where community links are woven - would entail their dissolution as an original cultural entity.
But the ecological crisis striking Sahel makes the organization of such gatherings more and more difficult.
As a result of ten years' research and friendship, the film is based on an active listening of the ritual's protagonists : fearing that the tradition may die out, they chose to tell us their experiences and their understanding of the event.
Their words gradually shed a whole new light on the ritual and sumptuous choreographic cycle that plays out before our eyes.

'Dance with the Wodaabes' is my first documentary. It was finished in January 2010.
The film won the first prize Nanook-Jean Rouch at the 'Festival International Jean Rouch 2010' in Paris and the second prize at the 'Festival du Film de chercheur 2010'.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Loncke
• Fulbe
• Fulani
• Wodaabe
• Niger
• Africa
• Dance
• Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Anthropology
• Religion

[SandrineLoncke]

Hi ! The film is now available in France, in different libraries and museums : at the "Bibliothèque Publique d'Information" of the Beaubourg Center (Paris), at the médiathèque of the "Musée du Quai Branly" (Paris) and on the intranet of "La Cité de la Musique" (Paris).

I am also trying to find a distributor in the US.

Best regards and thanks for your comments.

[babelyezca]

I would like to know when the entire film will be available on DVD or on the web. I saw a short report of the Wodaabe and Gerewol dance on Nat Geo and I started researching on the Internet about them, but there's not too much information of it.

I'm from Peru and I haven't found books of this subject.

[SandrineLoncke]

Hi babalyeca

Unfortunatly the film is not yet available. But you can give me your email address and I will let you know when the DVD is published and how you can get it. Here is also a french book on this subject. It is out of print, but you still can find it in libraries or on amazon.fr : "Les Peuls Bororos, Nomades du Sahel", de Jean-Marc Durou et Sandrine Loncke, éd. Vilo.

Best regards,

Sandrine

[Sniibul]

I really would like to see this documentary! When is it available to the public?

[SandrineLoncke]

@Sniibul : Sorry. I just find your mail today. The film about Wodaabes in the Brooklyn Museum is not the same. I have recently finished this film (februar 2010). It has been screened in several festivals in France and even received two prizes. But it is not yet distributed.

If you give me your email address, I can tell you when the DVD is published.

Why are you so interested by this subject ? Did you go to Niger ?

[noirrosa]

These men are so beautifull. I am a woman I wish i was here at this gathering of such beautifull men

[atpmusic1]

What a beautiful thing, to see the story behind the story of these amazing people...in the west this phenomena, the Gerewol, might remind one of a giant night club, with rave dance parties that last 7 days...except it meets at a different location and only once a year...with the character of glam rock! How unusual is that? But in case of the Wodoobe, Sandrine shows us the true history, revealing that it's a social event that has replaced wars. We should learn how. Hope it's released in the US!

[ola6861]

@babelyezca no estoy sorprendido que no hayas encontrado nada ,esta tribu es talves la mas compleja del mundo desendiente aria y pura hija de africa te imaginas sus shamanes?

[Bokicazver]

Thank you for the film ! They are so UNIQUE and  different then anything in Africa !

I hope they will preserve this festival for future generations...

[Thutmosis7]

@Zamzaki1 That's so true. Agree

[Zamzaki1]

@Thutmosis7

They are what the Ancient Egyptians looked like, before external admixture.

[BomUlrikJens]

Film is wild! BUT PLEASE; get your subtitles sorted out so they're physically possible to read (with your eyes). Look at Dutch or Scandinavian subtitling. Speed matters. :-)

[lagros000]

this film have to be out some where i will do some reseach to try to find it. if it on youtube it have to be some where

[tedoymisojos]

This is so confusing to watch