Des Tarentelles

In southern Italy, in the 1960s, women danced into a trance to free themselves from the tarantula's venom. A remnant of an ancient rite, I set out to see what remained of it in Galatina on June 28th, a feast day. Reusing the trance images from Mingozzi's film Taranta (1962), I contrast them with the beauty of Puglia and what happens today on June 28th, when the tarantella is danced until the early hours. "Des Tarantelles" is a poetic reflection on transformation, the survival of rites in our contemporary world.