Public Screenings of Documentaries: Liminality and Power
Events
As part of the Autumn School “Liminality and Power”, Ilia State University will host a series of public documentary film screenings on 7, 8 and 9 October 2026, exploring ritual, liminal states, cultural transformation and the relationship between ethnography and film.
The three evening programmes bring together documentary works from Georgia and Southern Italy, offering different perspectives on ritual practices, cultural memory, possession and experiences of liminality. Each screening will be introduced and followed by a discussion.
Film Screening Programme
7 October 2026 | 19:00 – 21:00
Salt for Svanetia (1930), Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
Kolkhida (1967), Directed by Soso Chkhaidze
The evening programme will present two Georgian documentary films concerned with social and cultural life in Georgia.
Introduced and moderated by: Nini Shvelidze
8 October 2026 | 19:00 – 21:00
Documentaries by Luigi Di Gianni
The screening will present selected short documentaries by Luigi Di Gianni (1926–2019) known for having created an extensive audiovisual archive of Italian and Mediterranean rituality. He widely collaborated with anthropologists, although his objective has always been to make cinema – “cinema poverissimo”, with very little financial support. Palpably influenced by German Expressionism and the concept of the “haunted screen”, his short documentaries focus on scenes of possession and liminal states and thereby create their own effects of “cine-trance”.
Introduced and moderated by: Prof. Ulrich van Loyen
9 October 2026 | 19:00 – 21:00
Tarantism Revisited (2024), Directed by Anja Dreschke and Michaela Schäuble
Tarantism Revisited explores the long history and continuing afterlife of tarantism, a possession rite from Southern Italy, and the ways in which the ritual has been represented, remembered and re-enacted over time.
Special guest: Michaela Schäuble, co-director of the film, will be present at the screening and participate in the discussion.
Michaela Schäuble is a Swiss-based German anthropologist and filmmaker. After exploring how memory, gender, and religion shape national identity and political extremism in the Eastern Mediterranean, she has worked largely on the afterlife of cults, their folklorization, and re-enactments. Together with filmmaker and anthropologist Anja Dreschke, she directed the essayistic documentary Tarantism Revisited, focusing on the long durée of a possession rite in Southern Italy and the interior and exterior images it has created over time.
Introduced and moderated by: Prof. Florian Mühlfried
General information
The film programme is part of the Autumn School “Liminality and Power”, organized by Prof. Ulrich van Loyen (Ilia State University). The Autumn School is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies of Ilia State University.
Format: Public film screenings and discussion
Working language: English
Dates and time: 7, 8 and 9 October 2026, 19:00 – 21:00
Venue: Ilia State University, Building G, Conference Hall G106 (1 Giorgi Tsereteli Exit 1-3 )
Attendance: Free
2026