Filmography ┃Résumé d'un parcours
Rina Sherman's Dedicated Website
Rina Sherman┃Curriculum Vitae
Rina Sherman was born in South-Africa. She went into exile in 1984 and settled in France where she has been living and working since. She became a French citizen in 1988.
A classical musician by training, she worked as an independent theatre actress and as a vision mixer for South African television (SABC), before turning to film making.
In 1990 she successfully completed a doctorate at the Sorbonne supervised by Jean Rouch. Title: Aux origines d'une façon de voir : Du désir à la volonté de filmer.
Fiche┃Fiche
Her first novel, Uitreis, (Leaving┃En partance) was published in South Africa in 1997 to critical acclaim. Here┃Here┃Here
In early 2007, she published Le huitième mort de Tibhirine.
Writer, filmmaker and anthropologist, Rina Sherman has initiated and participated in several cultural projects. As early as 1983, she was a founder member of the performance art group, Possession Arts. Before leaving South Africa, she worked as an actress at the Dhlomo Theatre in Newtown, Johannesburg.
She was audiovisual director for the manifestation, South Africa: Music of Freedom, La Villette, 1995. This involved the curating of a retrospective of South African cinema, amongst other things.
Rina Sherman was awarded the French bursary, Villa Medicis Hors les Murs, in 1996 which enabled her to realize extensive research in the film archives of the southern african region.
In 1996, she organised Jean Rouch's tour of South African universities in collaboration with the French Institute in South Africa (IFAS) and the Mission for Cooperation and Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Namibia.
In 1997 Rina Sherman was awarded a Lavoisier Research Bursary by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the project The Ovahimba Years, a multimedia long-term research programme (drawings, oral tradition, video, film, photography) aimed at creating a living trace of Ovahimba cultural heritage.
For a period of seven years, Rina Sherman documented in multimedia various aspects of the daily and ritual lives of the Ovahimba. In 2003, she extended her research into south-western Angola, and has covered the entire Otjiherero socio-linguistic cultural heritage landscape. She is currently writing and editing films about her seven years with the Ovahimba.
The project received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, various European Embassies, The Ford Foundation and numerous private sponsors.
Professional Activities
1997-08
Development and implementation of the project, The Ovahimba Years, a multi-disciplinary research programme involving anthropology, cinematography and oral literary traditions. Currently processing seven years of data collection (film, video, photography, texts) in the field.
1998
Brouillon d'un rêve bursary (SCAM, Société Civile d'auteurs Multi-média) for the film project: Du côté de Stains, projet modified to:Anthropologue, le retour, projet title modified to Paris de mes exils.
Lavoisier Bursary awarded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) for the multi-disciplinary project: The Ovahimba Years.
1997
Publication of Uitreis (En partance), first novel.
Villa Medicis Hors les Murs Prize for: The Southern African Film Archive Project
1996
Jean Rouch, Southern African University Tour. Curator and project director.
1995
La Villette : Afrique du Sud - Musique de Libertés, Audio-visual Director: Creation of an audio-visual promenade, including an archive film, Welcome- Bienvenue
Curator : Retrospective of 50 years of South African cinema.
Director | Co-producer of a concert-film featuring Hugh Masakela, Dolly Rathebe, Dorothy Masuku, Mara Louw and a company of South African musicians.
ZDF, Formation Films, London. Production manager: Rouch in Reverse by Manthia Diawara
1992
FR3, BBC, NFI (Netherlands Film Institute): Madame l'eau by Jean Rouch. Post-production manager.
1992-91
Ima Productions : Feature film development - USA.
1990-89
Cobblestone Films, NY: Alexandre Trauner et la decoration au cinéma, 1st Assistant Director.
1984-82
South African Broadcasting Coorporation, Vision mixer: Drama & music productions
Graduate Studies
1990-86
Ph. D. Université de la Sorbonne, Paris I & X. Research Supervisor: Jean Rouch.
Undergraduate Studies
1982
Bachelor of Music (Hons.). University of the Witwatersrand
1980
Licentiate of Music, Trinity College of Music, S.A.
1981-77
Undergraduate studies: German, History of Art, Psychology, Anthropology.
Professional Development
1995-03
Course: Filming in 16 mm, FTIS
1992
Screen writing Workshop, Cinémathèque Française.
1991
Story Structure Course, Robert McKee, London
Film Directing Seminar, Paul Gray, London
1984
Workshop: Direct Cinema. Ateliers de VARAN, Paris.
Languages
English - fluent
French - fluent
Afrikaans - fluent
Dutch - fair reading, understanding & speaking
German - basic understanding & speaking
Otjiherero (Otjihimba) - good working knowledge
Publications
Books
Uitreis (Leaving), Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1997
Le huitieme mort de Tibhirine, Editions Tatamis, Paris, 2007┃Editions Lazhari Labter Editions & Le Soir d'Algérie, Alger, 2007.
Video interviews
Archives audiovisuelles de la recherche - AAR
Mise en ligne par la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme / ESCoM d'une série d'entretiens vidéo et d'autres informations sur divers aspects de l'étude mutlidisciplinaire ethnographique Les années Ovahimba.
Sept années chez les Ovahimba 2006, 01h50
Rina Sherman revient dans cet entretien sur son expérience de terrain chez les Ovahimba avec qui elle a passé de nombreuses années. Elle nous explique la complexité des relations avec les Ovahimba, son rapport avec la langue locale, son approche en anthropologie visuelle et nous parle également des pratiques musicales de ce peuple.
Que la danse continue, 2007, 2h05
Des sept années passées « chez les Ovahimba », Rina Sherman a rapporté une grande quantité d'images sur lesquelles elle travaille au quotidien pour nous faire découvrir toute la richesse de ces peuples Ovahimba, Ovadhimba, Ovahakaona, Ovagambwe, Ovakuvale et Ovatua qui tous partagent une même culture, un même système de pensée.
Son dernier film intitulé : Keep the Dance Alive | Que la danse continue porte sur les pratiques de musique, de danse et de transe de possession des groupes de langue Otjiherero du nord-ouest namibien et du sud-ouest angolais.
La discussion avec l'auteur met en exergue les grands thèmes traités dans le film qui explore les différentes façons dont la musique et la danse transcendent la vie quotidienne de ces peuples de leur petite enfance jusqu'à leur mort.
Articles
When Elsewhere Becomes The Here and Now: Seven Years of Fieldwork with the Ovahimba
in AnthropoPages no. 5-6, March 2006, Terrains vécues : Terrains revécues, Edition Ici et Ailleurs - GRAEA (Groupe de recherches et d'actions en ethnologie et en anthropologie).
Les années Ovahimba
Le film africain & Le film du sud, novembre 2002, no. 41, pp 45-56.
The World Turns Like the Horns of a Kudu: From the Self to the Other and Back
Die Republikein, 2002, translated from the Afrikaans. Read
Thus Came "The Ovahimba Years"
Die Republikein, 1998, translated from the Afrikaans
The Ovahimba Years Work in Progress
Exhibition catalogue, published by ACA┃LTFA, 2002, ISBN: 999 16-50-94-6.
Exhibitions
The Ovahimba Years: Work in Progress┃Les annees ovahimba : Travaux en cours
A multimedia exhibition comprising a series of soundscapes composed of everyday sound of Ovahimba lives, which overlapped from one space to another, inviting the visitor on a trajectory of Ovahimba life through a variety of displays of which photographs, drawings, cultural objects, film screenings, performances and conferences.
Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre in Windhoek,
Namibia in 2002.
Afrique du Sud : Musiques de liberté, La Villette, Paris, 1995.
Audiovisual director:
Creation of an audiovisual promenade.
Curating of a retrospective of South African cinema.
Directing of an archival film, producing and directing of a concert-film of the event.
Conferences
→ Couleurs sur corps- CNRS - Parure Ovahimba : "Street Fashion" - Expressions identitaires Conference de Rina Sherman, Ethnographe - novembre 2007
→Museum Representation of Cultural Diversity
Ovahimba Knowledge Exchange Visit and Exhibition
Migration in Museums: Narratives of Diversity in Europe
Organized by: Network Migration in Europe e. V., International Council of Museums Europe (ICOM), Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines (Dudelange Luxemburg)
October, 2008, Berlin
→ Emotion in Multimedia Ethnographic Fieldwork
Text, image and sound. Narrative in all its forms: new technologies, new questions, an International conference organized by the online journal ethnographiques.org, 16-18 November 2006, Institute of Ethnology, University of Neuchâtel
→ A Coke for Your Face: The Ovahimba and Their Image
Associations for Anthropology in Southern Africa, Annual Conference, University of Namibia, May 2000.
Complete Filmography
