Decolonizing Visual Anthropology: Locating Transnational Diasporic Queers‐of‐Color Voices in Ethnographic Cinema

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harjant Gill
Keyword(s):  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema

Ethnographic Documentary Production

Anthropology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harjant S. Gill
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Ethnographic Film ◽  
Scholarly Output ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
Definition Of

The term “documentary production” within anthropology characterizes the making and circulation of ethnographic research and scholarship which includes film and video as the primary medium of storytelling and communicating cultural knowledge. These categories evolve frequently and what constitutes a film as “ethnographic” cinema is a topic of lengthy ongoing debates. In his Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology entry “Ethnographic Film,” Matthew Durington provides an overview of some of these debates in attempting to narrow down theoretical frameworks and parameters of filmic ethnography. Ginsburg’s 1998 essay “Institutionalizing the Unruly: Charting a Future for Visual Anthropology” (cited under Foundations) charts the lineage of visual anthropology on the development of the subfield as “born of a union between anthropology and documentary film” (p. 173). From its earliest application within ethnographic research, some scholars have approached filmmaking as a methodological and analytical tool that privileges scientific rigor while others regard it primarily as a medium for storytelling and scholarly output. Early adopters of using film within anthropological research, including Mead and Bateson in their 1977 article “On the Use of Camera in Anthropology” (cited under Foundations), have openly quibbled about the role of the camera and the filmmaker in capturing culture on film. These disagreements have been useful in broadening the boundaries of ethnographic cinema, inspiring filmmakers to experiment with different ways of making meaning, as it has been customary from the genre’s inception led by pioneering figures like Jean Rouch, Robert Gardner, and Trinh T. Minh-ha. For a threshold for what constitutes “ethnographic film and media productions,” we can turn to Jean Rouch, who in his essay “The Camera and Man” (cited under Foundations) insists that ethnographic filmmakers must apply the same anthropological rigor—“spend a long time in the field before beginning to shoot (at least a year),” and thereby possessing an intimate understanding of the communities among whom they work while mastering essential “film and sound recording skills” (p. 40). Building on insights offered by Rouch and by drawing on scholarship from documentary and media studies, the goal of this entry is to outline the fundamentals of non-fiction filmmaking geared toward anthropologists who are already trained in ethnographic research. This entry also insists upon a more inclusive definition of ethnographic cinema, one that does not rely on the filmmaker’s academic pedigree as the primary criteria for inclusion into what has historically been a rather insular enterprise. Instead, a section of this entry is devoted to highlighting voices and perspectives from historically marginalized communities—queer, feminist, people of color, immigrants, indigenous filmmakers, who have been sidelined within the discipline of anthropology with its vestiges of colonialism. Another section of this entry highlights the need to decenter the hegemony of North American and European gaze when telling cross-cultural stories by focusing on transnational ethnographic and documentary production, specifically from countries in the Global South.

scholarly journals KABARDINO-BALKARIA ON THE SOVIET SCREEN: “ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM” BY ANATOLY TERSKOI

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
И.А. ГОЛОВНЕВ
Keyword(s):  
Silent Film ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Ethnographic Film ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
The Russian Empire

Исследование выполнено в рамках проекта РНФ № 21-18-00518, https://rscf.ru/project/21-18-00518 В 1920-х гг. в СССР получило развитие производство так называемых «культур­фильмов» о народностях и территориях страны. Эти фильмы имели популярность у зрителей, являясь для многих единственной возможностью совершить кино-путе­шествие по «Шестой части мира». И одним из наиболее популярных мест для съем­ки краеведческих фильмов стал Кавказ – картины, снятые в регионе, становились буквальным открытием этой территории для населения столиц и центральных областей. Была у этого процесса и политическая подоплека – проект создания «Ки­ноатласа СССР» – альманаха о советизации многонациональной страны. В статье рассматриваются непредставленные в гуманитарном обороте теоретические разра­ботки, посвященные развитию этнографического кино, и апробированные на практи­ке в виде киноматериалов о Кабардино-Балкарии, созданные режиссером А.Н. Терским при активном участии научного консультанта Н.Ф. Яковлева. Экран немого кино прямо или косвенно отражал силуэты идеологии и политики, идентичности и куль­туры самобытной территории в период исторической трансформации (из окраины Российской империи в автономную область СССР). Теоретические опыты Терского яв­ляются вкладом в науку, будучи одними из самых ранних отечественных концепций по визуальной антропологии. А в его кинокадрах просматриваются региональные осо­бенности реализации центральных программ советского строительства. Наконец, кинофильмы о Кавказе явились и выгодным экспортным товаром, широко демонстри­ровались в прокате заграничных стран, формируя в общественном сознании образ многоукладной горной страны. Делается вывод о потенциале этнографического кино­документа как исторического источника, и как актуального ресурса для применения в широком спектре современных научно-творческих практик. In the 1920s in the USSR, the production of so called “cultural films” about the nationalities and territories of the country was developed. These films were popular with viewers, being the only opportunity for many to make a film journey through the “Sixth Part of the World”. And one of the most popular places for filming local history films was the Caucasus – the films made in the region became a literal discovery of this territory for the population of the capitals and central regions. This process also had a political background – a project to create a “Cinema-Atlas of the USSR” – an almanac about Sovietization of a multinational country. The article examines theoretical developments that have not been presented in the humanitarian circulation, devoted to the development of ethnographic cinema in the USSR, and tested in practice in the form of film materials about Kabardino-Balkaria, created by film-director A. Terskoi with the active participation of the scientific consultant N. Yakovlev. The silent film screen directly or indirectly reflected the silhouettes of the ideology and politics, identity and culture of a distinctive territory during the period of historical transformation (from the outskirts of the Russian Empire to the Soviet autonomous region). Terskoi’s theoretical experiments are a contribution to science, being one of the earliest domestic concepts of visual anthropology. And his footage reveals regional features of the implementation of the central programs of Soviet construction. Finally, films about the Caucasus were a profitable export commodity – they were widely shown at the box office in foreign countries, shaping in the public consciousness the image of a multi-layered mountainous country. The conclusion is drawn about the potential of the ethnographic film document as a historical source and as an actual resource for use in a wide range of modern scientific and creative practices.

Anthropology and the cinematic imagination

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
David MacDougall
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
Second World

The anthropologist George Marcus has written that cinema helped to inspire the use of montage-like juxtapositions in ethnographic texts. In this chapter, the author argues that the emergence of a cinematic imagination, which imagines the world constructed around the viewer, had more effect on anthropological writing than the presence of films themselves. Concern about how the construction of documentary films represents reality also probably preceded similar concerns by anthropologists about the writing of anthropological texts. In the 19th and early 20th century, anthropologists conceived of images as a source of knowledge, but this waned as they turned to less visible aspects of culture. Interest in visual anthropology only revived after the Second World War with the work of Jean Rouch and John Marshall, the first of whom pioneered a form of intense, immersive cinema, and the second who employed filming and editing strategies that placed the viewer imaginatively within the three-dimensional field of the scenes filmed. This tended to counteract the perceptual and conceptual ‘flatness’ of earlier representations of culture. Malinowski’s and Evans-Pritchard's writing had contributed to a more immediate and rounded view, but ethnographic cinema confirmed it, making a significant contribution to anthropology as a whole.

scholarly journals ETHNOGRAPHIC CINEMA: TO THE PROBLEM OF GENRE BOUNDARIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
Саргылана Валентиновна Никифорова
Keyword(s):  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Direct Gaze ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
The Look

Представлен анализ «художественно-этнографического» фильма (так его позиционируют авторы) «Якутская свадьба. XIX век» (2016), в создании которого принимали активное участие ведущие ученые республики. Фильм являет пример антропологического постановочного кино. Визуализация фольклорного текста (обряда свадьбы) наглядно выводит культурные коды этноса, семиотический анализ которых предложен с целью определения жанровой специфики этнографического кино. Фильм как визуально-антропологическое исследование фольклорного текста предлагает интерпретацию хроматического кода якутской культуры (анализ семантики белого цвета в культуре скотоводов). Проведен анализ музыкального и акустического кода: протяжная песня невесты — реконструкция архаической мелоформы; анализ интонации участников ритуала — как речевая характеристика. Кроме того, представлен анализ кинетического, кулинарного, числового кодов культуры, визуализированных в фильме. На основе материалов фестивального кино и трудов современных исследователей в области визуальной антропологии обобщены характеристики этнографического кино. Предложены критерии, отличающие этнографическое кино от других документальных жанров. На наш взгляд, любая репрезентация, визуальная в том числе, сделанная человеком про человека, по природе своей является антропологической. Выявлено, что жанр этнографического кино предполагает детальное акцентированное рассмотрение быта; поиск схождений и отличий текстов культуры; научный комментарий (интерпретацию); направление коллективного восприятия (манипуляцию); создание иллюзии присутствия здесь и сейчас; стремление максимально передать ауру культуры; вживание или монтаж с индигенным кино; «встраивание» камеры, «включенное» кино, достижение естественности; иконофобию («избегание прямого взгляда»); включение зрителя в рефлексивную деятельность (эмпатию); обязательное созвучие эстетики фильма эстетике культуры; предпочтение взгляда «чужого»; «иллюзию нейтрального наблюдателя». Рассмотрены особенности стилистики документального кино по этнографии якутов, проблемы взаимного фреймирования в многоуровневом и поливалентном индигенном кино. Доказано, что этнографическое кино есть не только комментарий к культуре, и автопортрет — не самоцель. Фильм не ограничивается опытом реконструкции обряда, но представляет ментальность народа, является актом самосознания культуры. We analyze «artistic and ethnographic» (as the authors position it) of the film «Yakut Wedding. XIX century» (2016), in which creation the leading ethnographers of the republic took an active part. The film is an example of anthropological staged movie. Visualization of the folklore text (wedding ceremony), as a parade, displays the cultural codes of the ethnos, a semiotic analysis of which is proposed in order to determine the genre specificity of ethnographic cinema. The film as a visual anthropological study of folklore text offers an interpretation of the chromatic code of the Yakut culture (analysis of the semantics of white in the culture of herders). The analysis of the musical and acoustic code is carried out: the bride’s long song — reconstruction of the archaic meloform; analysis of intonation of the participants of the ritual as a speech characteristic. In addition, an analysis of the kinetic, culinary, and numerical codes of culture visualized in the film is presented. Based on the materials of festival cinema and the works of modern researchers in the field of visual anthropology, the characteristics of ethnographic cinema are generalized. Criteria are proposed, that distinguish ethnographic from other genres of documentary films. In our opinion, any representation, including a visual one made by a person about a person, is anthropological in nature. It is revealed that the genre of ethnographic cinema involves a detailed accented consideration of everyday life; search for similarities and differences of cultural texts; scientific commentary (interpretation); direction of collective perception (manipulation); creating the illusion of being here and now; the desire to convey the aura of culture as much as possible; implantation or indigenous films; "embed" the camera; «included» cinema, the achievement of naturalness; iconophobia «avoiding direct gaze»; the inclusion of the viewer in reflective activity (empathy); obligatory consonance of film aesthetics with aesthetics of culture; preference for the look of a «stranger»; «the illusion of a neutral observer». The features of the stylistics of cinematic ethnography of the Yakuts, the problems of mutual framing in multilevel and multivalent indigenous cinema are considered. It is proved that ethnographic cinema is not only a commentary on culture, and self-portrait is not an end in itself. The film is not limited to the experience of reconstruction of the rite, but it represents a mentality, is an act of self-awareness of culture.

scholarly journals A Review of Ilya Utekhin, Chto takoe vizualnaya antropologiya: putevoditel po klassike etnograficheskogo kino [What Is Visual Anthropology: А Guidebook on the Classics of Ethnographic Cinema]. St Petersburg: Poryadok slov, 2018, 352 pp.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (45) ◽  
pp. 228-240
Author(s):  
Elena Danilko
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
Personality Types ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
Ethnographic Films ◽  
And Function ◽  
Key Questions

This is a review of anthropologist Ilya Utekhin’s What Is Visual Anthropology: A Guidebook on the Classic of Ethnographic Cinema. On the example of classical ethnographic films of the 20th century, the monograph considers the phenomenon of ethnographic cinema as an important part of visual anthropology. The book’s main intent is to show how outstanding projects that shaped visual anthropology as a discipline posed key questions for anthropology as a whole. These include nonverbal communication, the socialization and association of personality types with the dominant ethos of culture, the form and function of ritualized aggression in tribal society, obsession and communication with other beings, psycho-pathology, boundaries of normality, arrangement of specialized social institutes, boundaries of human beings and human projections in relations between human beings and animals. The review focuses on the key problems of developing visual anthropology as a discipline and how they were reflected in films.

scholarly journals Ethnocultural Communities of the North as Shown in Ethnocinema “Coast of the Chukchi Sea” by Grigory Smirnitsky: Shooting History

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
I. A. Golovnev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Emotional Context ◽  
The North ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
The One ◽  
Ethnographic Films

Purpose. History of visual anthropology in Russia is full of big names, heroic expeditions and classic films. Based on research and pursuing artistic goals, production of ethnographic films was also part of a grand Soviet experiment on creating a unique national identity. Soviet authorities used popular “cultural films” as a means of bringing together the peoples of the new Soviet Union on the screen. This article deals with exploring the film-image of the culture of the Chukchi on the example of a classic documentary film shot by Grigory Smirnitsky, a pioneer of the Soviet visual anthropology. The film was a result of the Chukotka expedition conducted by the film group of the Soyuzkino factory under the leadership of A. Litvinov, one of pioneers and icons of the national ethnographic cinema. The film “Coast of the Chukchi Sea”, the main result of the film expedition which has survived up to our days, was created by an A. Litvinov’s assistant, a young director and scriptwriter G. Smirnitsky. Due to the specifics of silent movies, this film is a kind of a cinematic text as it consists of approximately the same number of frames and text captions alternating in the narrative. In this regard, an effective method for analyzing this film applied in this article is its decoding, a «translation» into a text format. Result. The resultant film-text allows us to identify and analyze, on the one hand, the features of the screen image of the Chukchi culture of the early twentieth century. On the other hand, we analyzed the basis of the specific creative method of the director-researcher. G. Smirnitsky’s creativity is a perfect example of how a film potential can be used as a form of research cognition. The method discovered by the director in the expedition helps to combine research and documentary elements into a film so that the film could convey not only some information about the events shown, but also their figurative and emotional context. Conclusion. Based on the analysis of visual, textual and archival materials, we come to the conclusion that this documentary film phenomenon is a valuable historical source. Studying Soviet ethnographic cinema, including the film “Coast of the Chukchi Sea”, enriches the source base of modern science with audiovisual ethnographic materials and equips scientists with proven scientific and creative methods that could be used in modern research practice.

scholarly journals ВИЗУАЛИЗАЦИЯ ЭТНИЧНОСТИ В СОВЕТСКОМ КИНО: «СТРАНА ГОЛЬДОВ» АМО БЕК-НАЗАРОВА (1930)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Golovnev
Keyword(s):  
Archival Data ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
Text Format ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
Soviet Cinema ◽  
Ethnographic Cinema ◽  
Film Text

На материале этнографического кинодокумента «Страна гольдов» классика советского кино, Амо Бек-Назарова, в статье проводится рассмотрение направления художественной документалистики как примера визуально-антропологических опытов в СССР на рубеже 1920-х – 1930-х гг. Анализируя архивные данные, дневники режиссера и свидетельства современников, автор статьи прослеживает эволюцию упомянутого кинопроекта в связи с параллельными процессами в политике и кинематографе. В изучаемый период кинематографисты СССР апробировали различные форматы визуализации этничности, конструируя советский миф об освобожденных революцией народностях нового Союза, в чем нуждалось партийное руководство. Основываясь на показательном примере творчества режиссера Амо Бек-Назарова, в статье прослеживается использование возможностей этнографического кино как ресурса по созданию эффективных для внедрения в общественный оборот экранных образов: традиционного бытования (образ «темного прошлого») и нововведений социализма (образ «светлого будущего»). Коль скоро фильм «Страна гольдов» представляет собой своеобразный кино-текст, состоящий из примерно равнозначного количества перемежающихся в повествовании кинокадров и текстовых титров, то методом анализа фильма явилась его исследовательская расшифровка – «перевод» в текстовый формат. В статье анализируется потенциал кино как формы визуальной антропологии, и фильма как многокомпонентного исторического источника, отображающего на экране культуру снимаемого и снимающего, отражающего силуэты культуры и идеологии своего времени. Делаются выводы о фильме «Страна гольдов» как многослойном историческом киноисточнике и о творческой методологии режиссера по сочетанию документальных и художественных приемов в процессе этно-кинематографической работы, как актуальной для изучения и использования в современной визуально-антропологической практике.Based on the material of the ethnographic documentary «Country of Golds» by the classic of Soviet cinema, Amo Bek-Nazarov, the article considers the direction of artistic documentary as an example of visual and anthropological experiments in the USSR at the turn of the 1920–1930s. Analyzing archival data, director’s diaries, and contemporary testimonies, the author traces the evolution of the mentioned film project in connection with parallel processes in politics and cinema. In the period under study, Soviet filmmakers tested various visualization formats of ethnicity, constructing the Soviet myth of the peoples of the new Union freed by the revolution, which the party leadership needed. Based on an illustrative example of the work of director Amo Bek-Nazarov, the article traces the use of the capabilities of ethnographic cinema as a resource for creating effective on-screen images for traditional use: traditional life (the image of the «dark past») and innovations of socialism (the image of the «bright future»). As soon as the film «Country of Golds» is a kind of film text, consisting of approximately the same number of film frames and text captions alternating in the narrative, the method of analysis of the film was its research decoding – «translation» into text format. The article analyzes the potential of the cinema as a form of visual anthropology, and the film as a multicomponent historical source that displays the culture of the film being shot and shot, reflecting the silhouettes of culture and ideology of its time. Conclusions are drawn about the film «Country of Golds» as a multi-layered historical cinema source, and about the director’s creative methodology for combining documentary and artistic techniques in the process of ethno-cinematic work, as relevant for study and use in modern visual anthropological practice.

British Women Amateur Filmmakers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes ◽  
Heather Norris Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Gender History ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
And Gender ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
Film Making

In the rapidly growing study of amateur film, this groundbreaking book addresses the development of British women's amateur visual practice. Drawing upon social and visual anthropology, imperial and postcolonial studies and British, Commonwealth and gender history, the authors explore how women in Britain and overseas, used the evolving technologies of moving imagery to create visual stories about their lives and times. Locating the making, watching and sharing of women's recreational film-making against wider societal, technological and ideological changes, British Women Amateur Filmmakers discloses how women from varied backgrounds negotiated changing lifestyles, attitudes and opportunities as they created first personal visual narratives about themselves and the world around them. Using non-fictional films and animations, the authors invite readers to view films through different interpretative lens and provide detailed contexts for their case-studies and survey of over forty women amateur filmmakers. Whether in remote communities, suburban homes, castles, missionary or diplomatic enclaves, or simply travelling as intrepid sightseers, women filmed their companions, other people and their surroundings, not only as observers but often displaying agency, autonomy and aesthetic judgment during decades when careers, particularly after marriage, were often denied in film and other professions. Research across Britain on films in private hands and specialist archives, interviews and extensive study of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC's) collections enable the authors to reposition an activity once thought of as overwhelmingly male and middle class.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document