WHY I FILM RITUALS

A ritual is a culture distilled to its most potent drop.

It is not merely an act, but a living pulse - woven from the myths passed from generation to generation, powerful symbols that trigger deepest tremors or instill hope.

Here, in the smoke and the chanting, in-between painted skin and trembling hands, the unspoken becomes visible. Grief cracks open. Joy erupts raw. Surrender morphs into ecstasy.

I film rituals because they do not explain. They unleash!

You may struggle to understand a culture by reading its ancient scripts. But stand in the thick of its rituals - where the drums sync with heartbeats, where fragrant offerings fuel the fire - and suddenly, you experience the world just the way THEY do. No more words whose meaning is lost on you! It is sweat, it is salt, it is the knife’s edge. Unescapable in their tangible presence.

This is why I point my camera where others look away. Not to document, but to witness - and let the ritual’s teeth sink into me, too. In that surrender, my films become more than a mirror. They become a bridge.