Social and Cultural Anthropologist
Shot in Barcelona and Girona in the autumn and winter of 2022, ‘The Shepherd Resistance: Shepherding in Catalonia Today’ hears first-hand from four (semi)extensive shepherds, both male and female, how bureaucracy and public policies affect their lifestyle. We travel through mountains, valleys and forests with herds of goats and sheep to discover how the art of shepherding is at risk of disappearance. Despite its multiple environmental and social benefits, the shepherding lifestyle is currently being forced to adapt to the rules designed for the industrial production of meat and by-products in a process that is proving almost impossible for shepherds.
Kalarippayattu is a martial art that originated as a warfare technique in medieval Kerala. The members of the family institution Hindustan Kalari Sangam inherit Kerala’s ancient mythical and historical traditions. Today, the Hindustan Kalari Sangam is a Kalarippayattu training centre and Ayurvedic healing centre. Through their voices and daily activities, we explore how the institution’s members cope with the sociocultural changes taking place in a globalised world.
Title: The Aim is To Get “Moksha” (Liberation).Filmed in Idukki (Kerala, India) in January 2022, the documentary relates the stories of 9 families and a farming community dedicated to the production of spices (cloves, pepper, cardamom…) for sale through an NGO that supports organic production. Through interviews and the daily life of the farmers, we learn about how climate change, wildlife (elephants and monkeys) and the value chain in which their work is involved, affects them.
“The journey of my life” is an intimate documentary based on a long friendship with Diacarou Soumare. Diacarou arrived in 2012 by boat to the Canary Islands. On the first attempt he was repatriated to Mali, from where he had to reach his village in Mauritania with hardly any means. On the second trip he was given €50 and put on a plane to Barcelona. Diacaro tells us what it has meant for him to live in Spain for 10 years without documents. In 2022 Diacaro spent 2 months with his family in Mauritania. Through his eyes we deepen on two very different cultures and how them coexist inside him. We approach the meanings of mobility, migration and borders. We talk about gender and family, as well as economics and politics.