Lina Fruzzetti and Akos Ostor have been working together, independently, and jointly for the past forty years, creating numerous books, articles, and ethnographic films. The films especially draw on the expertise of numerous friends and colleagues who shared directorial credit. Details are given in the attached list of films themselves.
Lina Fruzzetti Brief Bio and Works
was born in Keren, Eritrea, of an Italian father and an Eritrean mother. As a refugee, she grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, admitted in the Comboni Schools and after her graduation, she departed to the USA to attend college and post graduate work. She carried out fieldwork in India, Sudan, Eritrea, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Italy. She received her BA from Rosary College in 1966, MA from the University of Chicago 1970, and her PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1975. She joined the Anthropology Department at Brown University in 1975, She holds numerous national and international professional appointments and has taught at the universities of Khartoum, Dar Es Salaam, University of Helsinki and ISCTE (Lisbon), and IIT Gandinagar (Ahmedabad, India.) She served on many university-based committees and has been actively involved in national selection committees. Lina M Fruzzetti, Paul R Dupee, Jr. University Professor Emerita of Social Science
Amongst a few of Fruzzetti co-productions, “Singing Pictures” and “Songs of a Sorrowful Man,” are about the changing practices of traditional scroll painter/singers in a Bengali village near Calcutta.
Most recently co-director with long time partner Akos Ostor, of an ethnographic documentary feature entitled “In My Mother’s House” and the joint author of the forthcoming digital monograph, Asmara and Carrara, a Tale, and Two Cities.
Books by Lina M Fruzzetti
Transdisciplinary Ethnography in India: Women in the Field, with Rosa Maria Perez (2022)
When marriages go Astray: Choices Made, Choices Challenged (2013)
Culture, Power, and Agency: Gender in Indian Ethnography. L. Fruzzetti & S. Tenhunen (2005)
The Gift of a Virgin: Analysis of Women, Marriage, Ritual and Kinship in Bengali Society, (1982,1993)
Culture and Change along the Blue Nile with Akos Ostor (1989)
Concepts of Person: Kinship, Marriage, and Caste in India edited with Steve Barnett and Akos Ostor (1982, 1992)
Calcutta Conversations edited with Akos Ostor (2003)
Pinturas Cantandas: Arte e Performance das Muheres de Naya
Singing Pictures: Art and Performance of Naya’s Women,
edited with Akos Ostor (catalogue of an exhibition in English and Portuguese editions 2007)
“On Silencing Voices and Broadening Visions: Women, Literature, and Representation” (2006) Direccao e Cultura e Assuntos Sociais, Fundacao Oriente, Lisbon
Films by Lina M Fruzzetti
Seed and Earth with Akos Ostor, Alfred Guzzetti
and Ned Johnston (1995)
Khalfan and Zanzibar with Akos Ostor
and Alfred Guzzetti (2000)
Fishers of Dar with AKos Ostor, Amandina Lihamba
and Steven Ross (2001)
Singing Pictures with Lina Fruzzetti, Alfred Guzzetti, and A.N.Sarkar
Songs of a Sorrowful Man with Akos Ostor, Alfred Guzzetti, and A.N.Sarkar
Ákos Östör Brief Bio and Works
Ákos Östör is, among other things, an anthropologist, and a filmmaker.
Educated in Hungary, Australia, and the USA, he carried out fieldwork and documentary filming in India (West Bengal and Varanasi), Sudan, Tanzania, Italy, and Eritrea. He taught at universities in the USA, Portugal, Sudan, India, and Tanzania, and was a fellow at research institutes in Hungary, Australia, India, and the USA. Co-director/producer of numerous films he also authored many books, several relating to the films. Currently an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Film Studies at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
His co-productions, “Singing Pictures” and “Songs of a Sorrowful Man,” are about the changing practices of traditional scroll painter/singers in a Bengali village near Calcutta.
Most recently co-director with long time time partner Lina Fruzzetti, of an ethnographic documentary feature entitled “In My Mother’s House” and the joint author of the forthcoming digital monograph, Asmara and Carrara, a Tale and Two Cities.
Books by Ákos Östör
Europeans and Islanders in the Western Pacific (1981)
Culture and Power: Legend, Ritual, Bazaar and Rebellion in a Bengali Society (1984)
Culture and Change along the Blue Nile with Lina Fruzzetti (1989)
Concepts of Person: Kinship, Marriage, and Caste in India edited with Steve Barnett and Lina Fruzzetti (1982, 1992)
Vessels of Time: Temporal Change and Social Transformation (1993)
Making Forest of Bliss: A Conversation between Robert Gardner and Ákos Östör (2001)
Calcutta Conversations edited with Lina Fruzzetti (2003)
The Play of the Gods: Locality, Ideology, Structure, and Time in the Festivals of a Bengali Town (1980, 2004)
Pinturas Cantandas: Arte e Performance das Muheres de Naya
Singing Pictures: Art and Performance of Naya’s Women,
edited with Lina Fruzzetti (catalogue of an exhibition in English and Portuguese editions 2007)
Films by Ákos Östör
Loving Krishna with Allen Moore(1985)
Sons of Shiva with Robert Gardner(1985)
Serpent Mother with Allen Moore (1985)
Forest of Bliss produced with Robert Gardner (1986)
Seed and Earth with Lina Fruzzetti, Alfred Guzzetti
and Ned Johnston (1995)
Khalfan and Zanzibar with Lina Fruzzetti
and Alfred Guzzetti (2000)
Fishers of Dar with Lina Fruzzetti, Amandina Lihamba
and Steven Ross (2001)
Singing Pictures with Lina Fruzzetti , Alfred Guzzetti, and A.N.Sarkar
Songs of a Sorrowful Man with Lina Fruzzetti , Alfred Guzzetti, and A.N.Sarkar
Website of films and previews
http://www.der.org/films/filmmakers/akos-ostor.html
Web projects
Cycles of Life in a Bengali Town
http://learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/bishnapur/
Scroll Singers of Naya/Singing Pictures