Preface: Perspectives on Ethnographic Film

Abstract

In 2011, The Australian National University celebrated sixty years of anthropology with a conference and exhibition that included panels and displays on the use of film within anthropology as a discipline. In the same year, the Centre for Visual Anthropology was set up at The Australian National University to highlight the work of internationally renowned ethnographic filmmakers and anthropologists across the university. The idea for this volume was inspired both by these milestones and by the presentations of those filmmakers and other practitioners in a Master of Liberal Arts program course, 'Masterclasses in Ethnographic Film'. In short, it is intended to mark the special place of ethnographic film at The Australian National University.The papers that follow present the perspectives of a diverse range of filmmakers, ranging from early career academics to well-established practitioners with decades of experience and international reputations. As will become clear when reading this issue, they have many connections and have influenced each others' approaches to filmmaking. The impact of key ethnographic films, which has inspired the filmmakers to push boundaries and to try new, innovative techniques, is also evident. The papers and discussions focus on key films made by each filmmaker, and clips of relevant film excerpts are made available as 'associated media files' on the ANU E Press web site.The first chapter, written by Howard Morphy, provides some historical background to ethnographic film within visual anthropology at The Australian National University. As Director, first of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research and more recently the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, Howard Morphy has been instrumental in providing an environment that fosters visual anthropology. From early in his career, he developed a particular interest in ethnographic film and has a continuing enthusiasm for visual research and filmrelated projects. He and his wife, Frances Morphy, met filmmaker Ian Dunlop in 1974 while carrying out fieldwork at Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land. From that time both were involved as advisors to the Yirrkala Film Project. In 1981, Howard Morphy suggested his former student Philippa Deveson to work as a research assistant for Ian Dunlop on the project. Deveson worked with Dunlop over many years and has in more recent years worked with Howard Morphy on his own multimedia and film projects.With input from her long-time colleague, Philippa Deveson's paper follows the trajectory of Ian Dunlop's filmmaking over a decade of fundamental change in approaches to ethnographic film that began about the mid-1960s, following the development of new lightweight cameras and synchronous sound. The paper highlights how these technological developments made possible a much closer engagement with the people being filmed. Cameras were able to follow people more flexibly and, with subtitles, it was now possible to both hear and understand what they were saying.Included within this issue are edited versions of two unique discussions, recorded in 2001, between the internationally recognised ethnographic filmmakers David MacDougall and Gary Kildea. Both filmmakers have had a long association with The Australian National University. Gary Kildea worked for more than twenty-five years in the Ethnographic Film Unit in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, where he joined Timothy and Patsy Asch during the 1970s. Howard Morphy's paper recalls the convivial Friday-evening film screenings organised about that time by Timothy and Patsy Asch and David and Judith MacDougall. In 1997, David MacDougall was involved in setting up the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at The Australian National University and was based there while editing the Doon School Series. David MacDougall continues to produce films as Adjunct Professor in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts.The first of the discussions focuses on Gary Kildea's classic observational film Celso and Cora (1983) and details Gary's impressions nearly two decades later in direct response to viewing sequences within the film. …