| Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification | |
| Director: | Barbara McCullough |
| Producer: | Barbara McCullough |
| Starring: | Yolanda Vidato |
| Music: | Don Cherry |
| Cinematography: | Ben Caldwell Peter Blue Roho |
| Editing: | Barbara McCullough |
| Runtime: | 6 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification is a 1979 short experimental film directed, produced, written, and edited by Barbara McCullough. It is McCullough's first film and is generally considered a pioneering experimental film by an African-American woman.[1] The title card is: "In West African societies, a story-teller charged with maintaining legacies, histories, knowledge and traditions in oral form."
Milanda (Yolanda Vidato) prepares for and partakes in a purification ritual.[2] [3]
The primary theme of the film is about African-American women within the African Diaspora. The use of surreal lighting and unclear narrative convey the confusion and displacement experienced by African-Americans.[4] Milanda walks through a desolate wasteland with a confident detachment, representing African-American women's resilience despite harsh racial inequalities and a bleak outlook. The titular ritual augments this trope: Milanda's expulsion of clothing, water, and waste invoke African diaspora cosmology.[5] David E. James wrote that the film is an "...inter-artistic work that combines collage, the avant-garde jazz of the Los Angeles native Don Cherry, and themes of history, folklore, magic, and the specificity of black feminism."[6] In an interview, McCullough explained that the film "is really about touching [an] ancestral past."[7]
McCullough was inspired to make the film when her close friend had a mental breakdown.[8] The film was initially shot on black and white film. It was then colored to mimic an infrared color film strip.[9]