The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with Corine Sombrun and Audrey Breton, moderated by Shanny Peer

In order to get over the death of Paul, the love of her life, Corine (played by Cécile de France) leaves Paris for a few weeks to work as a sound engineer recording a shamanic ceremony in a remote corner of Mongolia populated by reindeer herders known as the Tsaatan. But her meeting with the shaman Oyun upends her plans, as Oyun tells Corine that she has received a rare gift and must be trained in shamanic traditions. She resists at first and returns to France, but she can’t shake off the shamanic visions and decides to return to Mongolia to begin her initiation... and discover a bigger world. This movie is based on the experience of Corine Sombrun, as told in her autobiographical account Mon initiation chez Les Chamanes, who served as an advisor on the film. Since returning from her own experience in Mongolia, she has worked for 10 years with neuroscientists and psychiatrists in France doing brain research to understand the shamanic experience.

Fabienne Berthaud is a French writer, actress, screenwriter, and director. She started her career as a film and theater actor, and wrote four books and the script for a short film that she also co-directed. When, in 2001, she discovered the psychiatric institution La Chesnai for a novel, she decided to film the clinic. Frankie (2005) was her feature début as a director, followed by Little Sometimes (2010), Sky (2016), A Bigger World, and Little Man Tom (2021).

Corine Sombrun grew up in Africa and returned to France to study musicology, piano, and composition. Working for the BBC World Service, she was sent to Mongolia, where a highly respected local Dahradshaman recognized her as having unique shamanistic capabilities. She was invited to undertake rigorous and intense training to become a Shaman, and after eight years she became the first Western woman fully trained in the Mongolian shamanic tradition. Her unique experience in the practice of shamanic trance and her ability to self-induce it has been a topic of interest for scientists. She has been collaborating with researchers since 2006, in order to show how this shamanic trance modifies the circuits of cerebral functioning. With researchers, she developed “Cognitive Trance Training,” a sound-loop-based program to help people experience an altered state of consciousness and learn how to self-induce it. Corine also collaborates extensively with artists, and she has written several books, translated into many languages, including In Geronimo’s Footsteps, Les Esprits de la steppe, and Mon initiation chez Les Chamanes, which was adapted for cinema in A Bigger World.

Audrey Breton holds a PhD in Neuroscience and is a researcher at the TranceScience Research Institute.

Shanny Peer is the Director of the Columbia Maison Française and holds a Ph.D. in French Studies from NYU. She is a co-curator of the Being in the World film festival.

This screening is part of Being in the World: People and the Planet in French and Francophone Cinema, a film festival curated and presented by Columbia Maison Française, with additional support provided by Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Columbia Climate School, Knapp Family Foundation, Paul LeClerc Centennial Fund, Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Columbia Global Centers | Paris, Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, Alliance Program, and European Institute.

Look out: This event is open to the public without entrance fees. Proof of vaccination for nonstudents of Columbia University will be required to attend events at Teachers College. If you’re not feeling well, stay home, even if you have mild symptoms. If you were in contact with someone who’s sick, stay home while you watch for symptoms.

This event is open to the public without entrance fees. Proof of vaccination is required if you’re not a Columbia affiliated. Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home, mask, and take other precautions, including getting tested and seeking a further assessment.

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Time: 7:00 PM — 10:00 PM EDT

Free!

Registration