Dead Birds

silent green

silent green Kulturquartier

Dead BirdsRobert Gardner (USA 1963, 85 min)In 1961, Robert Gardner led a large-scale expedition to the New Guinea Highlands to study and film the Dani people, with the support of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. Dani society is characterized by permanent ritualized war in which every death has to be avenged so that life regains its balance. Gardner concentrates on two protagonists - the warrior Weyak and the small boy Pua. The film features masterful montage and a lyrical commentary spoken by Gardner himself that is rich in metaphor and relates the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists, incorporating mythical elements. "It was an attempt to see people from within and to wonder, when the selected fragments of that life were assembled, if they might speak not only of the Dani but also of ourselves."(Robert Gardner)