You're invited to view Dancing in Fire: Fire-walking and ritual healing in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. This documentary by anthropologist Alfred Pach, and film director Ramesh Khadkas takes us into the ritual world and social life of a rural Hindu community in Nepal. Based on six weeks of continuous filming and extensive interviews, the documentary presents a profound response to human suffering through ritual healing and communal support and renewal.

Over recent decades a number of families in this rural village had experienced “unnatural” deaths, which left their spirits unable to progress to the divine ancestral realm. Their only recourse was to induce illness and misfortune in order to be recognized and released from their unhappy existence.  In a dramatic sequence of possession seances and rituals culminating in the sacred fire-walking ceremony the dead were released into a divine state of being. This process is believed to alleviate those suffering illness and misfortune, and for living family members to process their grief. Individuals and family members can now move forward with confidence, relief and even joy as they participate in a communal celebration.

After the showing, Alfred Pach will be on hand to discuss the making of the film and to answer questions.