Magic, Memory & Mimesis—the “Power” of the Historical Moving Image to Possess?

Abstract

In 1936 and 1937, Diana and Antoinette Powell-Cotton made a film that purported to show a healing practice involving possession. Over seventy years later, the film produced the start of a possession state in an audience from the same region in which the film was made. This paper uses the explanations given by those in the audience for this near possession to challenge some frequently cited thinking on the mimetic, magical power of film to possess. It offers an alternative approach to the viewing of archive film drawing on a form of mimesis rooted in habitual bodily memory. This mimetic relationship allows for an immanence of past in the present dependent on the past experience of the viewer rather than the power of the image.

Keywords:

• Mimesis
• Possession
• Bodily memory
• Archive film
• Habit

Acknowledgements

The assistance of Erasmus Stephanus and the friends and family of Tate Nighlai was invaluable in the research and writing of this article. I am also grateful to the staff of the Powell-Cotton Museum for their encouragement and support. The names of participants have been changed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

[1] When I watched this section back and synched the 2009 viewing with the archive film, I saw that people were clapping in time with the people singing in the 1937 film.

[2] If one wants to reverse this comparison, possession can also be seen as a mimetic act through which, like film, the past is brought into the present through the presence of the spirit of a dead ancestor.

[3] One occasion, one viewer in a market place was offended by this choice of film he said “they think we don't know about these things”, meaning it was patronizing to come and show something so obvious.

[4] Whilst conducting the research on which this article is based I attended a cattle show, which marks the return of the cattle from the cattle posts. The prize cattle were corralled through the crowds, women in formal dress celebrating with dancing, singing and ululation. The young cattle herders stood to one side and entered a ritual state, they could not be spoken to and no eye contact could be made. They mimed the movements of the bulls, pawing the ground, charging and raising their arms like the wide horns of the cattle. The crowd urged them on into a deeper and deeper trance state.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant number PTA-033-2006-00028.