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Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1985)
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An honest if not captivating documentary, the drummers are the stars.
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(Credited cast) | John Genke | ... | Narrator (voice) |
| Joan Pape | ... | Narrator (voice) |
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Denmark:52 min (Cosmic Zoom Festival)
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Featured in Im Spiegel der Maya Deren (2002)
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If it's Maya Deren you're interested in, and not voudoun itself, then you might want to shuffle this one to the bottom of your list. It's not terrible but it is distinctly reminiscent of those old "film strips" you had to watch in junior high (if you're my age that is).
As an educational film 'Divine Horsemen' gives you some good general knowledge about Haitian voudoun beliefs and practices. It's very sincere and respectful, showing an admirable refusal to sensationalize the material. This isn't voodoo from the movies, some of it may have been being "performed" for tourists but it's definitely the real stuff, including actual sacrifices of chickens, a goat, and a bull.
Somewhat surprisingly for a Maya Deren film 'Divine Horsemen' suffers from being a little too straight forward. It amounts to fifty minutes of a rather dry narrator talking over grainy black and white footage of various dances and sacrifices to the different loa. The biggest problem with the film is that it's almost all shot in slow motion, in stark contrast to the audio. I'm sure Deren wanted to show the grace of the dancers, which is definitely more apparent when they're at half speed, but forty-five minutes of fast drums and slow dancers wore on my nerves a little. It's so one dimensional that your mind can't help but wander a little, which is aided and abetted by the spectacular, and nearly constant, drumming. Not a good tactic if you're hoping to engage both eye and ear.
In the final analysis this film probably will give you a better basic understanding of voudoun than the typical A&E documentary, but it's just a little flat considering it deals with such a vivid subject. Not Maya Deren's most fascinating work by a long shot.