Balinese Trance Séance and Jero on Jero
Film Titles: Balinese Trance Séance and Jero on Jero
Filming Dates: Balinese Trance Séance (1979); Jero on Jero (198).
Filmmakers/Task: Balinese Trance Séance and Jero on Jero: Timothy Asch (Ethnographic Filmmaker, Co-Producer, and Cameraman); Patsy Asch (Editor, Co-Producer); Linda Connor (Sound Person, Narrator, and Translator).
In Balinese Trance Séance, Jero Tapakan, a spirit medium in central Balinese, works with a family whose son has died in her shrinehouse. Before the main séance occurs, we are given background information on Jero and her craft. The family members wish to contact their dead son’s spirit so they find out how he died and how they should proceed with his cremation services. The family has brought with them a variety of offerings; rice, flowers, and woven coconut leaves. As pre-trance ritual, Jero lights an incense brazier, sprinkles holy water, and speaks mantras. Several relatives and eventually the spirit of the dead son speak through Jero. He informs his relatives that sorcery was the cause of his death, while he instructs them on his cremation.
In Jero on Jero, filmed two years after a Balinese Trance Séance, Jero is observed watching herself in the first film. She offers us her reactions as she watches and listens to herself. In this film we get a further exploration of many of the themes of Balinese Trance Séance, including possession, sorcery, and the medium’s humility in the face of supernatural spirits. We are also provided with other information from Jero, such as the importance of her maintaining the appearance of her home. This film adds great insight to the séance in Balinese Trance Séance, because Jero becomes a critical viewer herself of that film. In this way she narrows the gap between the film and the audience by providing her observations.
Both of these films are ethnographic films in that their themes and situ...