Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon are two French artists and researchers who, in their own words, work as independent filmmakers and sound explorers. Together they produce experimental, ethnographic films and music recordings and creative direction and curatorship, based on material collected on numerous trips around the world.

For four years (2014-2018), they worked on the multi-media project “Híbridos”, born of their desire to delve into the different forms of rituals in Brazil, in terms of music and movement and to create a ‘digital body’ to provide better understanding of these practices.

The film “Híbridos – The spirits of Brazil”, directed and produced by both artists and co-produced by Brazilian Fernanda Abreu, is a musical journey into diverse rituals. In doing so it slowly weaves a new ritual, a cinematographic one.

It was produced entirely independently, outside the standards of the traditional circuit. This methodology allowed those participating in filming to use the material to celebrate their own cultures.

“In Brazil, we basically tried to research the extraordinary diversity of the transcendental act and show that an extraordinary amount of different approaches to reality are taking place in this land nowadays. Diversity in the way we look at reality, in the way we celebrate reality and life and, of course, nature at the core of it is essential for things to come,” says Moon.

In addition to the open, free content available online,11. “Híbridos – The Spirits of Brazil,” 2019, accessed August 14, 2019, https://hibridos.cc/po/. the producers are also putting on other forms of ‘cinema’, such as a full-length film being shown at festivals and screenings, site specific live cinema experiments around the world, immersive multi-screen installations and a complete collection of 75 short digital albums.

The complete work brings together a collection of over 100 films on rituals in Latin American countries and other parts of the world made by the producer Petites Planètes. According to Vincent Moon, interest is centred around the collective event of spirituality which throughout history, has often fallen into the restrictive trap of particular religious views.

In the light of the various contexts around the world of intolerance towards different forms of expressions of spirituality, Moon aims to kick back against the standardisation of realities. “I do see that one of the greatest problems we are facing as humanity is the standardisation of humans in relation to reality – the standardisation of the human vision. When this happens we all end up basically looking pretty much the same. We all fit into a politically correct view of what is good and what is bad and this vision of reality is clearly deep-rooted in religious views, not spiritual ones.”

He believes, therefore, that the essence of this study is the understanding that spirituality and the artist’s relationship with what is real are one and the same. For this reason, it is necessary to draw artists and poets back to the creation of reality itself.

HÍBRIDOS – The Spirits of Brazil

Almas e Angola
Oxosse Hunter’s Spiritist Tent, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Ayahuasca
Municipality of Feijó, Acre, Brazil, land of the healer Antonio Pedro.

Bom Jesus da Lapa
Pilgrimage to Bom Jesus da Lapa, Bahia, Brazil.

Congados
Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Ephigenia’s Kingdom Festivities, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Padre Cicero
Pilgrimage to Padre Cícero, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil.

Umbanda do Vale do Sol e da Lua
Temple of Vale do Sol e da Lua, Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Wai’á
The Xavante people, Canarana, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Yawanawa
The Yawanawa people, Terra Indígena do Rio Gregório, Acre, Brazil.

Candomblé
Terreiro Xambá, Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil.

Images from the Petites Planètes collection

Los diablitos de Tucume
Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Tucume, Peru.

Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Temple for Islamic prayers, Rajasthan, India.

Candombe
La Facala Herederos de Nyanza, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Dédales
Sufism and experimental cinema at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, Morocco.