wedding songs
2025




“as you flee your body

reunited with your beloved

drifting, rebuilding worlds together

returning to that distance

that emerged during the final days

of these wedding songs”

Nehemia Mota 1598(?)


In 16th century Shingly (Kochi, Kerala ) Kabbalist Nehemiah Ben Abraham Mota was rumoured to have the power of levitation.  This film assembles the ruinous remnants of the places where these and other miracles occurred.  His legacy are a series of wedding songs precariously assembled and archived, danced to by an interfaith following who worship him as a village deity.  Using celluloid processed by hand, wedding songs is a collaboration with Mota’s light and the body of the film.






info

exhibition formats : 16mm release print, silent, 1.33 / HD (Prores)
duration : 13min51sec

acknowledgements : Main Film


Kolkata/Kochi (India), 2024