Maya Deren - Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1985)

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From http://www.mysticfire.com/index.html?cart=1200389063594:

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Maya Deren takes us on a journey into the fascinating world of the Voudoun religion, whose devotees commune with the cosmic powers through invocation, offerings, song and dance. The Voudoun pantheon of deities, or loa, are witnessed as living gods and goddesses, actually taking possession of their devotees. The soundtrack conveys the incantatory power of the ritual drumming and singing.

"Maya Deren first went to Haiti as an artist . . . but the manifestations of rapture that seized her, transported her beyond the bounds of any art she had ever known."
— Joseph Campbell

From http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/deren.html:

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In 1947 Deren won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix Internationale. The same year she was also awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (10) to begin research on the Voudoun (voodoo) ritual in Haitian culture. A book, recordings of the sounds of the rituals, and the beginnings of a film were the results of her extraordinary research. Deren recorded two albums of Voudoun music “Divine Horsemen” and “Meringues and Folk Ballads of Haiti”. In 1953 she published the definitive study of the Voudoun ritual: Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti. Deren consulted with luminaries like Joseph Campbell and Gregory Bateson in her research and she shot more than 18,000 feet of footage during her three visits between 1947 and 1954. During her research Deren's position became ambiguous. On one hand she was distanced from the project, a medium for the transmission of ideas, but she was also closely involved in the ritual. Her insights on the Voudoun ritual emerge from her participation in the ceremonies. On one of her trips to Haiti, Deren was initiated as a Voudoun priestess.

In 1985 Deren's third husband Teiji Ito and his new wife Cherel assembled and edited the Haitian footage that had remained incomplete since Deren's death. The footage was spliced together to form an anthropological structure and a voice-over narration was added to clarify the details of the ceremonies. Upon its release, critics expressed reservations that the film was at odds with Deren's style and contrasted with her original conception of the film.