The third “Video Vodou” film screening takes place TONIGHT (11/14) at 6:30 in the Champlain College Alumni Auditorium.

The film this week will be Judith Gleason and Elisa Mereghetti’s The King does not Lie: the Initiation of a Shango Priest

The film focuses on the elaborate rituals of initiation which confer priesthood in the religion called la Regla Lucumi  – more widely known as “Santeria” –  a New World recension of traditional Yoruba religion practiced in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and in urban centers throughout the United States and Europe.   The film offers an unprecedented and intimate view of initiation in these traditions.  The viewer follows the initiate into the very heart of the igbodu – the initiation chamber – where human and divine worlds intersect.

As we follow the initiate through a series of ritual events, a new perspective on ancient rites is revealed. The religion originated in Africa and the chants are sung in Yoruba. Rituals like these are the basis of ceremonies performed in churches and temples of established religions. Sacred stones washed in sacred, leafy waters become the energy for ritual purification and empowerment.