Késheng Ja Waray Batbat. The Exhumation of Human Bones in an Ibaloi Community

Saturday, March 14, 10:50 am - 12:20 pm
Directed/Produced by Antoine Laugrand, Frédéric Laugrand, Jazil Tamang, and Gliseria
Magapin
2019. Philippines. 73 min.
Country/Region Featured: Philippines | Languages: Ibaloi and English

Also available for virtual on-demand viewing. Register at the Film Expo desk.
In-person Q&A with Antoine Laugrand, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ottawa

Filmed in the Ibaloi village of Shinayngan, Késheng ja waray batbat portrays a three-day ritual of exhumation and reburial performed to restore harmony between the living and the dead. Shot by Gliseria Magapin and Jazil Tamang, the film follows a family who, after dreams and illness, consult a mambonong and learn that a son’s damp tomb and incomplete burial rites caused misfortune. Through divination, offerings, dances, and feasts, the ritual reestablishes balance. Blending local authorship and ethnographic collaboration, the film offers a sensory immersion into Ibaloi cosmology and the enduring care that binds generations.

Southeast Asia, Philippines