Documenting, Dramatizing, and Representing China's Porcelain World in Broken Pots Broken Dreams

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that a successful ethnographic film, like a good story, responds both to its film subjects and to its audience's expectations. I discuss why I made a film about Jingdezhen's porcelain workers (as opposed to a text) and the relationships, goals, ideas, and constraints that influenced the final film. I contextualize my process in a broader discussion of documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, looking at representation in documentary, sensory anthropology, and the conventions of Western dramatic writing.