Overview

Sakpata is one of the main deities of the "Vodoun" pantheon in Benin (Dahomey at the time of filming, in 1958). Initiation into the cult of the Vodoun gives rise to a long seclusion in a "convent" where young neophytes learn the sung dances specific to their divinity. The first part of the film shows the dance being performed to thank someone for a donation. The shot was made using a spring-loaded camera stopping after thirty seconds, while the sound recording on a tape recorder was continuous; the editing was done (for the first part only) not from the image but from the sound. The temporal architecture of the music is thus respected as well as that of the dance, linking several figures, and this in spite of the blacks replacing the missing images.