Ethnographic Film | My Job: Traditional Healer

The aim of the film "My Job – Traditional Healer" (Walter 2001) was to document healing practices conducted in the highlands of Chiapas, specifically showing common practices of the Tzotzil – the indigenous people in the southernmost part of Mexico. The film was titled directly by the shamanistic healer, Don Manuel from the indigenous community Chamula. Don Manuel works as a healer mainly for indigenous refugees and migrants from the highlands of Chiapas who live in the ladino-city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. His place of work is a wooden hut in front of one of the most important Catholic churches of the city. Don Manuel considers himself to be a traditional healer. My idea was to document the healing practices as a direct experience of experience without affecting the ritual itself. Therefore I worked with two cameras, one on a tripod and one moving, and decided to edit the piece in real-time, switching from one video-track to another, without changing the length of the ritual.