Ressenya de Mansur, Marcia, and Marina Thomé, dirs., The Sound of Bells (O Som dos Sinos), documentary film, Portuguese, 70 min.

Abstract

debates in the anthropology of religion is that 'religion' cannot be solely defined as a system of abstract ideas or beliefs about the sacred world, but must be understood as a complex and ever-changing set of mediation practices between different agents (practitioners, spirits, ancestors) involving specific material, sensory, and corporeal experiences. This is precisely the reason why cinema, the art of capturing life in motion par excellence, is so apt to explore and convey the kind of relationships that people establish with the 'hereafter'. In this regard, Marcia Mansur and Marina Thomé's The Sound of Bells, a magnificent documentary about the bell-playing tradition in the northeastern regions of Brazil, is an outstanding example of the kind of contribution that cinema can provide to the contemporary studies of religious phenomena.