Anthropological Film Research Articles

Research on the Application of Oral History in Anthropological Films

Research on the Application of Oral History in Anthropological Films

Unsettling narrative(s): Film making as an anthropological lens on an artist-led project exploring LGBT+ recovery from substance use

This paper explores My Recoverist Family, a film in which each of us had a different role: as anthropological film maker (Amanda); commissioner of the project and participant within it (Mark); and audience member and critic (Ali). The film shows a group of LGBT+ people using art to explore recovery from substance use with reference to their own biographies and wider social issues. The paper interrogates the interaction of visual and performing arts and storytelling in touching, articulating and representing the film’s main focus - the injustices of LGBT+ people. Using the idea of unsettling narrative(s), we analyse how the film makers privilege exploration over explanation, and glimpsed momentary understandings over narrative coherence, explanation and denouement. In order to align the writing process with the filmmaking methodology (influenced by anthropologist Tim Ingold’s (2014) understanding of the creativity of undergoing) we utilised a methodological tool that Ali contributed to developing called the scenic composition (Froggett et al. 2014). We argue that the paper’s significance is both substantive and methodological: artistically metabolised narratives make it possible to complicate ‘the stories being listened for’ (Woods et al: 2019); and this in turn begins to dismantle the binaries around which much current addiction treatment policy and practice is constructed.

Understanding the traditional customary law of the Yi people via ethnographic film \u2013 collaborative ethnographic film making process

This paper will take the film The Rules from Ancestors as the basis to discuss the “writing” process of ethnographic film, addressing how a contemporary visual ethnography can be realized through the presentation of a film on ethnic culture.The Rules from Ancestors is an anthropological film about the Traditional Customary Law of the Yi people in China, produced by the author of this paper in 2006. As an integrated anthropological film, its theoretical basis is the “holism” and “legal pluralism” of legal anthropology, and its stories are narrated through objective observation and interactive collaboration. The author attempted to construct an “intermediary context” within the film’s narrative structure. The aim was to establish an experimental visual ethnographic expression that progresses from “complicity” to “sharing”, to replace the traditional ethnographic mode of expression, localized fieldwork. In so doing, I hoped to explore the possibilities of collaborative knowledge production between the photographer, the subject, and the audience, as well as a non-unidirectional methodology for the flow and transfer of knowledge.Through the exploration described above, this paper attempts to respond to the ongoing debate on the relationship between visual anthropology and written anthropology. Is anthropological film a “self-contained system reaching the same goal with different methods”, or simply an “auxiliary tool” of written anthropology? Based on an ethnographic introspection on anthropological filmmaking practices, this paper will provide explicit support to the former standpoint, as well as a discussion on methodology.

Collaborative audio-visual rhetoric: A self-reflexive review of collaboration in anthropological film projects

Through a self-reflexive review of collaboration in two anthropological film projects conducted during the period from 2013 to 2018, we address the dilemmas that are at stake when producing and distributing audio-visual images of vulnerable subjects (for example, refugees), and the consumption of so-called "subject-generated" imagery. The poetical and political strategies of audio-visual forms of anthropological (re)presentation as well as the existing shortcomings related to those topics, such as the 'refugee crisis', which is caught in the current context of our media-saturated society is explored. We suggest the notion of "shared anthropology" as a framework for exploring the critical potential of collaborative audio-visual rhetoric. From this perspective, we discuss the films Unless the water is safer than the land, in which performers re-enact the narratives of refugees; and Passager, a collaborative film project between an audio-visual anthropologist and a young Afghan refugee who left his country in search of safer living conditions. We explore how these films can be conceptualised as distinctive forms of "collaborative audio-visual rhetoric".

Interdisciplinarity and Collabo­rative Filmmaking in Anthropological Cinema

Anthropological cinema is the most representative form of visual anthropological research, due to which it can be considered a kind of calling card of visual anthropology. It is confirmed by facts from the history of the scientific discipline and by constant, continuous interest in anthropological films both from researchers and from the audience. This is caused by variety of different factors, though the key ones are the “visual turn” in the 20th century culture, the development of cinema and television, mostly in the second half of the 20th century, and the media-oriented socio-cultural direction in the period of postmodernism.We can see that the 20th century, despite a lot of negative events, was a fertile ground for the foundation and further development of visual anthropology. However, nowadays we can still observe new different trends in the development of this scientific direction. The increase in the number of interdisciplinary researches, the high degree of involvement in collaborative work of researchers from various scientific spheres, the advancing level of audiovisual media democratization and popularization, and the continuous development of filmmaking technologies — all these, clearly, are modern factors that determine the further direction and specificity of the development of visual anthropology and, in particular, anthropological cinema.This article considers and analyzes the above-mentioned characteristic features of the anthropological cinema of the postmodern period. Special attention is paid to the development of interdisciplinary contacts between visual anthropology and related scientific disciplines, the democratization of video production and the sphere of audiovisual media, and the direction of collaborative anthropological filmmaking.Study and analysis of these features of the anthropological cinema of the postmodern period can help to identify further ways for development of academic and applied visual anthropology in the socio-humanitarian sphere, to understand the nature of media relations within the framework of visual anthropological research, and to determine the role of author-researcher in contemporary visual anthropological discourse.

문화 인류학적 영화의 공정성에 대한 연구 : <지옥의 지배자>, <액트오브 킬링>, <침묵의 시선>을 중심으로

문화 인류학적 영화의 공정성에 대한 연구 : <지옥의 지배자>, <액트오브 킬링>, <침묵의 시선>을 중심으로

Translating ritual into film – Notes on Paul Henley’s ‘spirit, possession, power, and the absent presence of Islam: re-viewing Les Maîtres Fous’

In his 2006 article for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, ‘Spirit Possession, power, and the absent presence of Islam: re-viewing Les Maîtres Fous’ (Henley, 2006, pp 731-62), Paul Henley gives an in-depth analysis and re-examination of the seminal classic “Les Maîtres Fous” by the late French film director Jean Rouch. One of the most striking elements in the text is the rift Henley detects between what he calls ‘Rouch The Author’ and ‘Rouch The Film-Maker’. The article goes to great lengths in its analysis of possible new viewing angles for the anthropological material at hand, being the hauka – cult in Accra, West-Africa – as observed in the film. Henley has a clear view on all possible alternative interpretations and re-viewings of the film from an anthropological point of view, but seems to struggle when it comes to juxtaposing these with the reality of the film. He chooses to make a sharp division between the two sides of Jean Rouch (‘Author/Anthropologist’ and ‘Film-Maker’) without ever delving into the historiography of anthropological films at the time, nor the influence Rouch was under from directors such as Luc De Heusch and Alain Resnais. He also neglects to place Rouch’s work within the broader context of filmhistoric developments of the 1950’s. Henley’s paper does not attempt to address these questions and there is the clear choice of interpreting the work only from an anthropological point of view. This paper will address these gaps, offering a few possible explanations which address Rouch’s work as a director, a side that should complete the anthropological data in Henley’s paper. This text will provide a basic layout for understanding the cinematographic choices Rouch made, placing them in a larger framework and making a case for the interpretation of the film on its own terms and not only as an (seemingly) objective account of an anthropological study. Key words: Jean Rouch, Paul Henley, Luc de Heusch, anthropological film, self-reflexivity

コミュニケーションを媒介し生成する民族誌映画 : エチオピアの音楽職能集団と子供たちを対象とした映画制作と公開の事例より( 人類学と映像実践の新たな時代に向けて)

コミュニケーションを媒介し生成する民族誌映画 : エチオピアの音楽職能集団と子供たちを対象とした映画制作と公開の事例より( 人類学と映像実践の新たな時代に向けて)

DOCUMENTING HUMAN NATURE: E. RICHARD SORENSON AND THE NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILM CENTER, 1965-1980.

This article analyzes the development of the National Anthropological Film Center as an outgrowth of the Smithsonian's efforts to promote a multidisciplinary program in "urgent anthropology" during the 1960s and 1970s. It considers how film came to be seen as an ideal tool for the documentation and preservation of a wide range of human data applicable to both the behavioral and life sciences. In doing so, it argues that the intellectual and institutional climate facilitated by the Smithsonian's museum structure during this period contributed to the Center's initial establishment as well its eventual decline. Additionally, this piece speaks to the continued relevance of ethnographic film archives for future scientific investigations within and beyond the human sciences.

MEREPRESENTASIKAN SENI PERTUNJUKAN TRADISI MELALUI PENDEKATAN ETNODOKUMENTER

To perform the representation of an art tradition is not simple. We need approachment method because the rites have sense of spirit and myth. This is the same as we record the sense of life from local genuine people with the way of life in their culture system. Therefore we must be very careful when we recorded and represented the whole spirit of local tradition culture of their social life. This note was trying to analyze how we could represent the performing of an art tradition through film or video, from two point of views, in two different disciplines: Visual Anthropology and Documentary Film. Camera or audiovisual is a research tool for Anthropology. Sinematography is a process of an abstract observation but it is quite different from the fieldworker’s inscribe notebook where the information is preserved in literate code. Sinematography could gather selected and specific information, recorded the realism of time and motion or the psychological reality from varieties of interpersonal relations. With the camera we can analyze the way of action of an art tradition was performed, where so many elements are in motion together. In this situation human memory and notebook records become wholly inadequate. This note was written with the purpose of not to some normative answer about where the ideal point of view between anthropology and documentary approachment method. Between two distinguished approachment point of view, maybe we could have another creative approachment in same reason with comparative perspective, to records and to represent the performing of an art tradition in their own reality.Key word: documentary, tradition art performing, visual language

What is anthropological about The Perfect Human?

Abstract Jørgen Leth has classified The Perfect Human as an anthropological film. But is the film anthropological at all? This article explores Leth’s connections with anthropology and finds that he is more inspired by anthropological framing than he is by anthropological research methods.

WOMEN IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILM

Visual anthropology has never been fully incorporated into the anthropological mainstream. For a long period, anthropological films have been considered only as an objective recording of reality to be used in further analysis and then stored in film archives – as it is also considered to be an audio-visual aid in the teaching process. My field experience supports the ever-dominant thesis that visual anthropology, the same as written texts, is a narrative means to impart anthropological knowledge. In this case, the focus is on the anthropology of women – a topic, which in social sciences and in films was ”invisible“ until the 1970.

Peter Biella, director. The Chairman and the Lions.2012. 46 minutes. Maa and Swahili, with English subtitles. Tanzania. Documentary Educational Resources. $19.95.

DOCUMENTARIESPeter Biella, director. Chairman and the Lions. 2012. 46 minutes. Maa and Swahili, with English subtitles. Tanzania. Documentary Educational Resources. $ 19.95.Men don't know much about lions anymore or how to kill them, laments a Maasai elder in Chairman and the Lions. documentary, directed by Peter Biella, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, finds inspiration in the research of its producer, Kelly Askew, a fellow anthropology professor at the University of Michigan. It follows the trajectory of Askew's article Of Land and Legitimacy: A Tale of Two Lawsuits (co-authored with Faustin Maganga and Rie Odgaard; Africa 83 [1], 2013), which examines poverty, property rights, and land conflicts in the Lesoit village. It also reflects, to a lesser extent, Askew and Odgaard's The Lions of Lesoit: Shifting Frames of Parakyo Maasai Indigeneity (in Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity, edited by Michelle Harris, Martin Nakata, and Bronwyn Carlson, UTS ePress, 2013), an exploration of song and ritual among the Maasai. Chairman and the Lions has already received numerous accolades, most notably the 2013 Jury Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and the 2013 First Prize at the ETNO Film Festival for Ethnographic and Anthropological Film, and it was screened at a number of other prestigious film festivals.Framed by the training of young Maasai warriors in the technique of lion hunting, the film gives voice to Frank Kaipai Ikoyo, who, at thirty-three, is the chairman of the Tanzanian village of Lesoit. He was elected at the unusually young age of twenty-six, due to his completion of primary school; however, his nuanced understanding of the nation-state, paired with his appreciation for community processes, has made him successful in combating both the real and figurative lions that plague his people, including land grabbers, bush lawyers, unemployment, outmigration, and poverty. Within the confines of the film, Ikoyo faces land disputes over village property and an exploitative legal contract, along with the arduous job of persuading mothers to send their daughters to school.Reflecting these subnarratives, Chairman and the Lions is most successful in its deconstruction of the dichotomy between traditionalism and modernism. Indeed, the film convincingly demonstrates that these factors coexist in compelling and often contradictory ways. For instance, Ikoyo's voice-over contextualizes the Maasai as a migrant people, and their permanent housing as a new development enforced by the national government. As encroaching farmers attempt to steal their land, however, the ensuing lawsuit calls into question the validity of Lesoit as a village. …

Killing King Kong: the camera at the borders of the tropical island, 1767-1937

This paper discusses the role of the border of the island as a complex aesthetic zone in the journals of early European and American navigators in the South Seas (such as George Robertson, James Cook, Benjamin Morrell and Charles Wilkes) and in 1920s/1930s American films set on tropical islands. The fascination of the early explorers’ descriptions of islands as viewed from the water, across a distance that is physical as much as cultural, resides in the entanglement of perception, expectation and imagination that marks these journeys as both intense and profoundly uncertain visual experiences. In the 1920s, US-American representations of tropical islands gained new currency as American tourists trooped to the South Seas. As I argue, the strong visuality of the early accounts is one of the reasons why cinema could so readily pick up on them. In films like White Shadows in the South Seas (1929) and The Hurricane (1937), the imaginative transformation in the gaze from the water is associated with the camera as it explores the island in lateral tracking shots. These films cast a critical look on contemporary Western enthusiasm for ‘exotic’ cultures and locations in which they nevertheless participate. Resonating with contemporary anthropological and documentary film practices, emphasizing authentic representation of native cultures (Malinowski and Flaherty, respectively), they nevertheless point to the camera’s own crossing of the island’s border as an act of appropriation. This appropriation becomes explicit in King Kong (1933) as, armed with cameras and guns, the diegetic film crew violently crosses the borders of/on the island. Significantly, it is only after Kong’s death at the highest point of another island (Manhattan) and at another border, now between land and sky, that he fascinates the masses as an aesthetic spectacle. The film, then, meditates on the relations between border crossing, death and the production of aesthetics.

Making Anthropological Films in Vietnam: First Steps and Prospects

This article traces a history of anthropological filmmaking in Vietnam. Although the subject has been taught in universities here in the past decade and support has recently increased, it remains theoretically and practically underdeveloped. Its initial growth resulted from outside influences with sparse internal funding from the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Questions facing local anthropological filmmakers include: What is anthropological film, anyway? How does this differ from Vietnamese-style ethnographic film? Anthropological film is well situated to present the different ethnic cultures, which is in line with the government's aims, thus opening up opportunities for political and financial support for filmmaking.

The Polyphony of Ceriana: The Compagna Sacco by Hugo Zemp, dir.

American AnthropologistVolume 114, Issue 4 p. 696-697 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY Film Reviews The Polyphony of Ceriana: The Compagna Sacco by Hugo Zemp, dir. Anna L. Wood, Anna L. Wood The Association for Cultural EquitySearch for more papers by this author Anna L. Wood, Anna L. Wood The Association for Cultural EquitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 November 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01527.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume114, Issue4December 2012Pages 696-697 RelatedInformation

Bastards of Utopia by Maple Razsa and Pacho Velez

American AnthropologistVolume 114, Issue 3 p. 529-531 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY Film Reviews Bastards of Utopia by Maple Razsa and Pacho Velez Jessica Greenberg, Jessica Greenberg Northwestern UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Jessica Greenberg, Jessica Greenberg Northwestern UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 August 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01455.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume114, Issue3September 2012Pages 529-531 RelatedInformation

Fashioning Markets: Muslimah Designers and Economic EmpowermentFashioning Faith. Video. Produced and directed by Yasmin Moll through New York University’s Program in Culture and Media. Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources, 2009.

While few of us like overly didactic films, this one errs by revealing too little, too late, and then too quickly. It is not until the very end of the film that we learn these details. The film feels like raw data with most of the interpretation and all of the analysis, especially for a student audience, left to the viewer. What messages do the filmmakers wish us to take away? Is the film primarily a condemnation of pervasive social and economic inequality and neglect? Willets Point clearly has been neglected for years, lacking basic infrastructure and services. But why? Is it a condemnation of the Willets Point redevelopment plan in particular or all similar urban renewal projects? Not many people in the film seem to have much to say about the city’s plan; perhaps they lack the time and energy to think about it. Is Foreign Parts a piece of salvage ethnography meant to visually document a highly photogenic cultural scene before it disappears? It is a story of survival? Certainly the people profiled are scrappy survivors whose humanity comes across despite the bleakness of their personal plights and the environment they occupy. Foreign Parts is beautifully filmed and has won several awards, including the Opera Prima (for best first feature) and the Jury Prize in the “Filmmakers of the Present” competition at Locarno. It was also an official selection for the New York Film Festival. The filmmakers are skilled, and they have chosen a photogenic place and people to film. (Willets Point was also the setting for the 2007 fictional film Chop Shop by Ramin Bahrani.) Unfortunately, we did not find much anthropology in Foreign Parts, and with one exception we do not think it would be successful in the classroom, especially with undergraduates, and certainly never in its entirety. The pace is exceedingly slow, and it is only at the very end of its 80 minutes that the filmmakers provide a small amount of crucial contextual information. We doubt that most anthropology undergraduates would get that much out of it without a lot of guidance, supplemental reading, and patience. It might, however, be successfully used in an anthropological film course as an example of an almost purely observational film that could push students to think about the nature of “ethnographic” film. Paravel and Sniadecki’s approach is to let the data—the visuals, the sounds, the comments of a few—speak for themselves, without commentary or narrative structure. In conclusion, we found the film frustrating and at times tedious yet oddly captivating, largely due to its visual strength.

Section News

Abstract:For your convenience, this month's Section News PDF includes bookmarks for each section. After opening the PDF, select the “Bookmark” tab on the left side of your screen, and click on the name of the section you are interested in reading.American Ethnological Society (AES): Caitrin Lynch, ed.Anthropology and Environment Section (A&E): Terre Satterfield, ed. “Environmental Anthropology and Sustainable Development in China” by Bryan TiltArcheology Division (AD): E Christian Wells, ed.Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA): Bianca C Williams and karen g williams, eds. “Global Circulations: A View from the Caribbean” by Tami NavarroAssociation for Feminist Anthropology (AFA): Damla Isik and Jessica Smith Rolston, eds. “Three Decades of Feminist Archaeology” by Colleen MorganAssociation of Indigenous Anthropologists (AIA): Valerie Lambert, ed. “On Firm Footing and Forward” by Jason YounkerAssociation for Latina and Latino Anthropologists (ALLA): Luis FB Plascencia and Pablo González, eds. “Una Red en Peces: Transborder Alliances Between US Chicanos and Indigenous Communities in Baja California” by Pablo GonzálezAssociation for Political and Legal Anthropology (ALPA): Mona Bhan and Noelle Molé, eds.“Law, Culture and the Boundaries of Geographical Indications” by Erica A FarmerAssociation for Queer Anthropology (AQA): David L R Houston, ed.Association of Senior Anthropologists (ASA): Paul Doughty, ed.Central States Anthropological Sociey (CSAS): Evelyn Dean‐Olmsted and Angela Glaros, eds.Council on Anthropology and Education (CAE): Steve Bialostok, ed. “Get Ready for the 2011 Annual Meeting” by Greg TanakaCouncil for Museum Anthropology (CMA): Margaret Bruchac, ed. “Answering a Grand Challenge by Transforming Access to Museum Collections” by Alex W BarkerCulture and Agriculture (C&A): Susanna Donaldson and Joan Mencher, eds. “Upcoming SfAA Meeting” by Joan MencherEvolutionary Anthropology Society (EAS): John P Ziker, ed.General Anthropology Division (GAD): Luke Eric Lassiter, ed. “2011 Call for Nominations” by Christopher A FurlowMiddle East Section (MES): Yasmin Moll, ed. “Recap of MES in New Orleans” by Gregory StarrettNational Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA): Eva Friedlander and Tara Eaton, eds. “Consulting: The Move to Practice from Academia” by Betty J HarrisNational Association of Student Anthropologists (NASA): Keri A Canada, ed. “Letter from the Field: Practicing Anthropology at Intel Corporation” by Kathi KitnerSociety for Anthropological Sciences (SAS): Stephen Lyon, ed. “Abstract of ‘Encrypted Humor and Social Networks in Rural Brazil’” by Thomas Flamson and H Clark BarrettSociety for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC): Lloyd Miller, ed.Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC): Peter N Jones, ed.Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE): Vasiliki P Neofotistos, ed. “Message from the SAE President” by Deborah Reed‐Danahay; “What is Left for Anthropology to Say about Europe?” by Marcy Brink‐DananSociety for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN): Alyson Young and Kenneth Maes, eds. “Adolescent Culture and Food Consumption in Tanzania” by Elizabeth DanforthSociety for the Anthropology of North America (SANA): David Kamper, ed. “Augmenting Interaction: Design and Use of Assistive Communications Technologies” by Christopher R EngelkeSociety for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR): Jennifer Selby, ed. “2010 Clifford Geertz Prize” by Sue KenyonSociety for the Anthropology of Work (SAW): Theresa Preston‐Werner, ed. “Susanna Donaldson Receives Wolf Prize” by Ann Kingsolver; “SAW Welcomes Student Involvement” by Theresa Preston‐WernerSociety for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA): Anru Lee and Bridget Love, eds. “Material Asia: Join the Discussion in Jeonju, Korea” by Laurel KendallSociety for Humanistic Anthropology (SHA): Frederic W Gleach and Vilma Santiago‐Irizarry, ed.Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA): Annelou Ypeij, ed. “The Survival of Andean Pastoralism” by Ralph BoltonSociety for Medical Anthropology (SMA): Kathleen Ragsdale, ed. “The Medical Anthropologist as Interventionist: Culturally‐Based Approaches to Public Health Problems” by Stephen L SchensulSociety for Psychological Anthropology (SPA): Jack R Friedman, ed. “Boyer Prize Winner 2010” by Yehuda C Goodman; “Stirling Prize Winner 2010” by Claudia StraussSociety for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA): Jayne Howell, ed. “Farming the Crescent City Tour” by Sandra McLeanSociety for Visual Anthropology (SVA): Wendy Dickinson, ed. “Anthropological Film Festival in Israel” by Nurit Kedar; “Introducing the Ultrashorts for the SVA Film and Interactive Media Festival” by John Bishop; “SVA Film and Interactive Media Festival” by Karen Nakamura

Paradise Delayed: With Hany Abu‐Assad in Palestine

This article takes us on a journey through occupied Palestine to the ancient city of Nablus, where Palestinian film‐maker Hany Abu‐Assad was location scouting for the shooting of his globally celebrated Paradise Now (2005). The travelogue is a meditation on the interplay between film and fact, fiction and reality, the joy of creative defiance and the mendacity of colonial domination. The ethnographic practices of visual anthropology and academic film studies are taken critically to task for undermining the art and creative energies of a people in their transcendence of a siege condition.