The Good Death
Once banned by the Catholic Church and outlawed by governments, Candomble is a belief system whose participants were forced to practice on the fringe of society and in private for centuries. Deemed legal in the 1970s and now practiced openly, most traffic for intimate ceremonies occurs by heavy recruitment of tourist groups for Black Americans seeking to reconnect to their African heritage.
The Sisterhood of The Good Death is a group of elderly Afro-Brazilian women who still practice Catholicism publicly and privately maintain their stronghold in the African derived practice of Candomble. During the group’s one public festival, The Good Death will show the complicated history and uncertain future of this very popular yet anonymous group of women. The Good Death will not only explore the Sisterhood itself and the practice of Candomble, but it will also bring about the symbolic death of the anonymity of these women that so many flock to see.
