Projects
About the project
Using performance and filmmaking not only for ethnographic documentation of Intangible Cultural Heritage, but also as a platform for imagining and intervening in futures. As anthropologists, we work with rural communities in North India in facilitating spaces where people of different genders, religions, castes and classes can come together to address social issues through vocal traditions.
Blog
Women’s Songs from Haryana & Bihar: Screenings at Indian Music Experience Museum, Bangalore
On March 15, 2025, I had the privilege of screening three of my films—Jakari, Ropani, and A Serious Wedding—at the Indian Music Experience Museum (IME) in Bangalore as part of their Women’s History Month program. This festival, curated to honor and amplify the contributions of women in shaping India’s musical landscape, provided a meaningful platform to showcase films that […]
Screening of ‘A Serious Wedding’ at SVA Film & Media Festival (AAA) 2024, Florida
Great news! Our film A Serious Wedding (@jcbravanva) has been selected to be screened at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival held as part of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting 2024 in Tampa, Florida, USA November 20–23. https://svafilmandmediafestival.org/program-tampa
A Serious Wedding (जे सी बी रवनवा) – New Ethnofiction Film!
A radical love story between a young man and a tree. Can the community’s songs help him save his love from being cut down?
Visual Anthropology Review 38.2
The cover of Visual Anthropology Review (VAR) recent issue 38.2 features Rajat Nayyar’s photograph of Aaji and her granddaughter in Bihar!
“Granular Activisms: Women’s Vocality and Multimodality in Rural North India”
Espírito Kashi founder Rajat Nayyar has just published his article “Granular Activisms: Women’s Vocality and Multimodality in Rural North India” in Visual Athropology Review (VAR) journal of American Anthropology Association (AAA).
Blu-ray disks of ‘Kashi Labh’ at Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA)
Blu-ray disks of our film Kashi Labh have arrived at the Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland!
Vocal Traditions & Filming-futures in India
November 21st, 2024 – Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival, AAA Conference, Florida | ‘A Serious Wedding’ | Event Link
July 25th, 2024 – European Association of Social Anthropologists Film Program, Barcelona | ‘A Serious Wedding’ | Event Link
May 14th, 2020 – German International Ethnographic Film Festival, Online | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
November 7th, 2019 – Elphinstone Institute Ethnographic Film Series, University of Aberdeen | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
June 4th, 2019 – 7th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association, Lisbon | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
April 30th, 2019 – 9th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival, Delhi | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
April 27th, 2019 – Riga Pasaules Film Festival – Kino Bize, Riga (Latvia) | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
March 27th, 2019 – Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival, Bristol (UK) | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
March 10th, 2019 – Sjón Anthropological Film Festival, Denmark | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
November 4th, 2018 – One With A Movie Camera, 7 Marburg International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
October 20th, 2018 – Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival, Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
October 5th, 2018 – 9th Medical Anthropology Young Scholars Network (EASA), Freie Universität Berlin | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
September 25th, 2018 – 7th Days of Ethnographic Cinema Film Festival, Moscow | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
August 20th, 2018 – Department of Media & Communication, SP Pune University | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
August 18th, 2018 – MaDeIT Innovation Foundation, IIITDM, Kancheepuram | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
July 27th, 2018 – Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
June 28th, 2018 – Department of Folklore, University of Tartu | ‘Kashi Labh’ | Event Link
November 30th, 2017 – 116th American Anthropology Association Conference, Washington DC | ‘DigitalBurhwal.in’ | Event Link
November 22nd, 2017 – 8th Festival Internacional do Filme Etnográfico do Recife, Brazil | ‘Ropani’ | Event Link
July 15th, 2017 – Collaboratory for Ethnographic Experiments (EASA Network) Workshop, Lisbon | I-Doc ‘Digital Burhwal’ | Event Link
June 9th, 2017 – FLASP: Learning by Doing Research in Anthropology, Universität Bremen, Germany | I-Doc ‘Digital Burhwal’ | Event Link
March 29th, 2017 – The Acoustics of Dwelling WORKSHOP, SIEF 2017, Germany | ‘Arrival of Devi’, a sonic manifestation | Event Link
February 24th, 2017 – 14th South Asia Graduate Student Conference (SAGSC), University of Chicago | Screening of ‘Ropani’ | Event Link
September 30th, 2016 – 5th International Festival of Ethnological Film „KRATOVO 2016“, Macedonia | Screening of ‘Janeu’ | Event Link
September 27th, 2016 – VI International Festival of Audio-Visual Anthropology, Moscow – Russia | Screening of ‘Janeu’ | Event Link
July 20-23, 2016 – EASA 2016 Conference, Milan – Italy | Screening of ‘Crossing a River, Losing a Self’ | Event Link
May 4th, 2016 – UChicago Center in Delhi | Screening of ‘Janeu’ | Event Link
April 26th, 2016 – Symposium “Word Power” | University of Tartu, Estonia | Screening of ‘Janeu’ | Event Link
October 9th, 2015 – 5th International Conference of Young Folklorists, Viljandi, Estonia | Screening of ‘Vivah Samksara’
May 22nd, 2015 – Student Ethnographic Film Festival, Zadar – Croatia | Screening of ‘Vivah Samskara’
March 18th, 2015 – Centre for Women’s Studies & Development, Banaras Hindu University | Screening of ‘Jakari’
November 27th, 2014 – The Institute of Musicology, Münster University, Germany | Screening of ‘Vivah Samskara’
September 21, 2014 – International Seminar on Indian Feminism in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh | Screening of ‘Vivah Samskara’
Associations
American Anthropological Association
Centre For Imaginative Ethnography
Ashoka University
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Emergent Futures CoLab (EFC)
Tallinn University
Espírito Kashi 