THE VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ETHNOCULTURAL COMMUNITIES OF THE NORTH IN THE DOCUMENTARIES (THE FILM OIL FIELD)

Abstract

The article investigates the one of types of contemporary visual sources in Anthropology - the ethnographic films about the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. The authors focus on the documentary film Oil Field (Oil Field; Ivan Golovnev 2012) that depicts a life of the family Piak in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra. Focusing on the daily life of a Khanty family, authors develop a narrative structure, in which the protagonist Vasilii Piak received an identity and began to command the viewers’ emotions. Particular attention is paid to the visual representation of the traditional forms of economy (reindeer herding) in Khanty and Nenets culture, including the indigenous people’s relation to nature in the North. Authors consider also the interaction between indigenous peoples and oil companies in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The paper states that oil development has become the context of contemporary life among northern minorities. On the one hand, oil companies present an environmental and cultural threat to the indigenous inhabitants. On the other hand, they bring important elements of life to the North: fuel, food, roads, work, a system of benefits and other matters which have become part of the local northern reality. Thus, for many Khanty, oil companies are an important source of family income. This is perhaps one of the most difficult moments in situation of the relations of among contemporary northerners, who have already adapted to this tense but mutually advantageous proximity.