On Vérité to Virtual: Conversations on the Frontier of Film and Anthropology

Abstract

From Vérité to Virtual: Conversations on the Frontier of Film and Anthropology (DER 2008) is a documentary DVD that explores ways of building bridges between practices of the social sciences (anthropology, communication), the humanities (philosophy, cultural studies, cinema studies), and the arts (documentary film, interactive media, performance). Presented as a keynote film at the meetings of the International Visual Sociology Association in Buenos Aires in 2008, and screened at events such as the International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade and the Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, From Vérité to Virtual offers preliminary steps in developing interdisciplinary practices of visual and cultural research that take into account questions of documentary truthfulness, collaboration and digital representation. The participants came together from across disciplines to join in a discussion about what the agenda for interdisciplinary visual anthropology might look like in this era of globalisation. The responses range from the theoretically provocative to the practical, and the participants also take up concerns about the role of visual research in academia. Participants include symposium panelists Phillip Alperson, Kelly Askew, Rebecca Baron, Michel Brault, Kathy Brew, Roderick Coover, Jayasinhji Jhala, Paul Stoller, and Lucien Taylor, as well as roundtable discussants Warren Bass, Noel Carroll, Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, Oliver Gaycken, Sarah Drury, Gordon Gray, and others. This article presents a significant extract of the film's transcript supported by a bibliography of related works.