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Title
GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda)
Director
Leyla StevensDate
2023Origin
IndonesiaDescription
GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda) re-imagines performance lineages surrounding the mythological figure of the Rangda: Bali’s queen of the graveyard and patroness of black magic. The story of Rangda, and her alter incarnation, the legendary witch widow Calonarang, occupies a central role within Bali’s spirit cosmology and frames a narrative around an undesirable woman as a dangerous and deviant social disrupter.
However,alongside her feared otherness, Rangda is also conceived as a balancing force for spiritual order, and a powerful matriarchal protector. The film centres upon a matrilineal building and passing of knowledge around Rangda, channelling her presence through different bodies,performance genres and landscapes. GROH GOH proposes a matrilineal shapeshifting of Balinese art histories, as a counter to sustained colonial and touristic interpretations, and looks at how these stories migrate and reconfigure in diasporic contexts.
Not Available Online.
More Information
This film is part of Queer as Folk/lore, a QAMERAD x Otherness Archive collaborative film programme at Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest 2024. You can find more info about the programme below:
Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest Screening:
QAMERAD X Otherness Archive: Queer as Folk/lore
September 2024
"Fag-smoking behemoths, gender-bending fairies, reincarnated deer, queens of black magic—what’s on the horizon when queer desires reject mere visibility, and instead, manifest through these elusive, mythological characters? As global queer communities face increasing pressure to conform to neoliberal identity politics, these moving images from Indonesia turn back to pre-colonial folklore, escaping current regimes of control, from hetero-patriarchal representations to hegemonic State narratives. Within these works lie promising potential for radical liberation, where queer desires can live mythically and eternally, beyond recognition from society. This programme is curated by Rizky Rahad as part of SHARED CAMERA/DERIE, a QAMERAD x Otherness Archive collaboration supported by the British Council."