3SAI: A Rite of Passage, 2008. Single-channel, high-definition video projection, stereo soundtrack, 13 minutes 58 seconds
Introduction This film explores rites of passage and transitions in male identity through a visual and aural representation of the head shaving “rituals” of military recruits. Originally conceived as an artwork for a touring museum exhibition, ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a short, cross-platform, non-narrative documentary in the experimental, non-verbal genre. The film has no plot or script and its content is neither contextualised nor site-specific. It is a sequence of video and film footage documenting the head-shaving rituals of young recruits at the Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley, South Africa. Combined with landscape imagery, time-lapse and slow-motion cinematography, this presentation of an annual male rite of passage asks us to re-examine these moments of transition in masculine identity, and consider what is captured and what is lost ... Format The viewing format of ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a 1080p High-Definition cinematic projection from a Blu Ray video disc. The running time of the film is 13 minutes 58 seconds. Footage was captured using 35 and 16 mm film as well as High Definition video to obtain different viewing qualities and to capture frames in sufficiently high numbers per second to slow down the action to the required level. Saturated-colour 'documentary' scenes highlight a depiction of 'reality', while the more 'poetic' scenes are viewed in desaturated tones. Stereo ambient sounds of razors, immersive liminal spaces and other head-shaving paraphernalia form part of the final composed soundtrack. Synopsis We open on the emptiness of the Gariep Dam – a landscape of the Karoo in the Free State province of South Africa. The image is ambiguous. The ripples on the muddy water look like ripples in desert sand. The image is shattered by the violent jolting sound of a freight-train coupling resonating with a piercing military whistle. We cut to a line-up of young recruits waiting for their obligatory hair shaving at 3SAI. We join the queue. At first we witness a monotonous sequence of indifferent head shavings – the industrial hum of an electric razor – and then gradually the rhythm of a production line which increases in pace and intensity. Suddenly at the peak of this syncopated spectacle we are cast into a twilight realm of slow-time. We break through the military machine and witness a new head shaving in slow motion and in micro-close up format. There is now an intimacy and vulnerability that was not seen before – an altered state, abstracted, de-contextualised and open to interpretation. This then fades back into the contemplative spaces of the Gariep. The work critically engages the medium of film itself in the way it plays with time, changing the possible meanings of an experience as time slows down. What is captured? What is lost? ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a feature of an internationally touring museum solo art exhibition entitled ‘Transitions’ by Paul Emmanuel. In this art exhibition Emmanuel explores these themes using a variety of different media. The film however, is also independently screened at selected relevant international film festivals and art biennales.
AWARDS
2011
Nominee, Jury Prize, Best Experimental Film, 9th In-the-Palace International Short Film Festival, Balchik, Bulgaria
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2010
Winner, Jury Prize, Best Experimental Short Film, 5th Sardinia International Film Festival, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy
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2009
Winner, Jury Prize, Best Short Film, 4th Africa-in-Motion Short Film Competition, Africa-in-Motion International Short Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
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SCREENINGS
2025
USA, Massachusetts, Montserrat College of Art, Commencement 2025, May 16.
2019
Morocco, Biennale Internationale de Casablanca project space, REGARDS: PHOTGRAPHIE CAMEROUNAISE/DIGITAL AFRICA – CASABLANCA, 18 April – 15 June.
2018
South Africa, Western Cape, Cape Town, Cape Town Cruise Terminal, V&A Waterfront, Strauss & Co. Fine Art Auctioneers and Consultants, CONTEMPORARY ART, January 15 – 17.
2015
South Africa, Gauteng, Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg, FADA Gallery, TWENTY: ART IN THE TIME OF DEMOCRACY, July 11 – August 7.
South Africa, Free State, Bloemfontein, University of the Free State, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, REPRESENTATIONS OF OTHERNESS AND RESISTANCE, May 20 – June 19.
South Africa, Gauteng, Pretoria Art Museum, TWENTY: ART IN THE TIME OF DEMOCRACY, May 9 – 21.
USA, North Carolina, Boone, Appalachian State University, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, TWENTY: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM SOUTH AFRICA, July 11 2014 – February 7.
USA, Massachusetts, Boston, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery & Mrs. E. Ross Anderson Auditorium, PERMANENT WAR: THE AGE OF GLOBAL CONFLICT, January 29 – March 7.
2014
USA, North Carolina, Boone, Appalachian State University, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, TWENTY: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM SOUTH AFRICA, July 11 – February 7, 2015.
South Africa, Johannesburg, Wits Art Museum, DOING HAIR: ART AND HAIR IN AFRICA, August 20 – November 2.
2013
France, Angoulême, École européenne supérieure de l’image / European School of Visual Arts, CONFÉRANCE DE PAUL EMMANUEL, October 8.
France, Paris, Le Cube, ‘TOUCH ME” FRANCE-SOUTH AFRICA SEASONS 2012-2013: CONFÉRANCE DE PAUL EMMANUEL, October 1.
France, Paris, Le Cube, LES ÉCRANS DE LA LIBERTÉ: DIGITAL ANTHROPOLOGY FESTIVAL, March, 20 – 21.
United Kingdom, London, Rio Cinema, 10th London Short Film Festival, AT HOME WITH THE LUDSKIS: MIDNIGHT MASS (Edition #7), January 12.
2012
South Africa, Bloemfontein, Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
South Africa, Cape Town, University of Cape Town Michaelis Galleries, NOT MY WAR, June 29 – July 25.
2011
USA, Baltimore, Goya Contemporary Gallery, TRANSITIONS MULTIPLES, September 8 – November 5.
South Africa, Johannesburg, 4th FNB Joburg Art Fair, TRANSITIONS MULTIPLES, September 23 – 25.
USA, Baltimore, Maryland Institute College of Art, TRANSITIONS, September 9 – October 2.
South Africa, Bloemfontein, University of the Free State, ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH masculinities conference, September 9 – 10.
Bulgaria, Balchik, 9th IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival, June 18 – 25.
Germany, Sylt Island, Rantum, Kunst:raum Sylt Quelle Foundation, TRANSITIONS, February 18 – April 24.
USA, Chicago, University of Chicago, Smart Museum of Art, BLACK BOX, November 9, 2010 – January 2.
2010
France, Toulouse, 19th Sèquence Court-Mètrage International Film Festival, BEST OF AFRIQUE DU SUD, August 19 – November 28.
Italy, Forlì, 7th Sedicicorto International Film Festival, October 4 – 10.
Italy, Sardinia, Sassari, 5th Sardinia International Film Festival, June 22 – 26.
Sweden, Göteborg, 26th Göteborg Book Fair, September 22 – 26.
Sweden, Gävleborg, Uppsala and Dalarna, 10th Videogud Video Konst Festival, May 27 – 28.
USA, Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, TRANSITIONS, May 12 – August 22.
United Kingdom, Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts, AFRICAN SHORT FILMS, 13 March.
The Netherlands, Rotterdam, 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, WHERE IS AFRICA? January 25 – February 5.
South Africa, Stellenbosch, Spier Gallery, TRANSITIONS, November 2009 – February 2010 & February 25 – March.
2009
United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival, AFRICA-IN-MOTION SHORT FILM COMPETITION, October 22 – November 1.
Canada, Victoria, Open Space Arts Centre, 12th Antimatter International Film Festival, October 9 – 17.
South Africa, Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg, ON MAKING: INTERGRATING APPROACHES IN PRACTICE LED RESEARCH, Colloquium, October 15.
South Africa, Grahamstown, National Arts Festival, Albany History Museum, TRANSITIONS, July 2 – 12.
South Africa, Durban, KZNSA Gallery, TRANSITIONS, June 2 – 21.
South Africa, Kimberley, William Humphreys Art Gallery, TRANSITIONS, April 15 – May 15.
South Africa, Bloemfontein, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, TRANSITIONS, February 5 – April 8.
South Africa, Cape Town, Design Indaba Film Festival, February 27 – March 1.
2008
Johannesburg, South Africa, Apartheid Museum, TRANSITIONS, September 27 – December 31.
