Germany

19'25'', 2019

DIRECTED BY

Isabel Bredenbröker, Philipp Bergmann

PRODUCED BY

Isabel Bredenbröker

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Philipp Bergmann

EDITED BY

Iacopo Falsetta

CONTACT

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“Now I am Dead” is an ethnographic film on death in a Ghanaian town. The story takes an unexpected turn when the filmmaker’s grandfather suddenly passes away back in Germany. Baffled by the coincidence, in between assisting an undertaker, visiting the morgue, attending funerals and inspecting cemeteries, she asks for advice. How to respond to the death of a far-away family member whilst shooting a film on death in West Africa? Help comes from friends and collaborators: an undertaker, a neighbor, a research assistant and friend, a priest. The narrative transforms from meta-critical docu-fiction into an immersive tale, blurring the lines between the other culture and one’s own as well as between life and death.

Philipp Bergmann is artistic director of Shedhalle Zurich, together with Thea Reifler. He works in the fields of opera, visual anthropology, visual arts, film, musical theater and performance. His works address the narration and representation of cultural heritage.

Isabel Bredenbröker is an anthropologist and filmmaker working on issues within material and visual culture studies, specifically the materiality of death, critical reflections on the role of the ethnographer, postcolonial realities in West Africa, cleaning practices and negotiations of ownership in public space.