Abstract
AbstractFilm and text can be complementary modes of theory formation in the field of migration studies. If the theoretical potential of filmmaking is recognized in research, this also opens opportunities for teaching migration theory through film. This argument is illustrated here through the project Living like a common man, in which both film and text were used to observe, analyse, and theorize the migration experiences of young Indians to the UK - as ‘middling migration’. The resulting film offers a stand-alone argument that is used as teaching material in courses of migration studies; while accompanying texts make the argument explicit and clarify its significance for migration scholarship.
Highlights
While teaching ethnographic filmmaking, I have often sat alongside students in the editing room
Some students register for visual anthropology classes because they feel they are weak in theory and hope that they will do better as filmmakers
As a visual anthropology lecturer, my task is to debunk the myth of theory as a purely textual endeavour
Summary
I have often sat alongside students in the editing room. I watched them going through their materials, playing video after video, wondering how to start editing, intuitively starting to move files around, and soon enough, getting into a flow In the process, they analysed their materials, discussed and reviewed their analysis, and gradually developed an argument for their final film montage and accompanying paper. Besides illustrating how film can express as well as generate migration theory, this paper intervenes in a long-term discussion in visual anthropology about the relations between film and text, and ethnography and theory. In their efforts to defend ethnographic filmmaking as a mode of scholarship within a “discipline of words” (Mead, 2003), visual anthropologists have argued that film is an alternative venue for knowledge creation. I have developed this approach in conversations with my colleagues Mario Rutten and Isabelle Makay through collaborative ethnocinematographic research, and I currently develop it further with students in visual anthropology courses
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