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Experimental Ethnography - Film Theory Course
Six-week course every Monday 7-9pm from January 6 to February 10
see details here:
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/film/Experimental
_Ethnography_Film_Theory_Course/
Course Leader: Barbara Knorpp
Tickets are £70 / £65 Concessions / £60 Members for the full course, or you
can book each week individually for £12 / £11 Concessions / £10 Members.
This course will provide opportunities to watch classic and experimental
ethnographic films and to critically engage with the politics of image
making. Starting from silent cinema and an early fascination of modern
western audiences for non-western rituals, magic, and dance the course will
give a historic overview on how ethnographic film has changed from seemingly
scientific accounts to fiction or staged authenticity, to experimental film
and indigenous filmmaking.
Week 1 - Introduction to Ethnographic film: Early Documentary film
The history of silent cinema and early documentary film reflect a growing
interest in popular anthropology and travelling. Anthropology is closely
linked to the emergence of cinema but is also connected quite
controversially to the power of the Empire and colonialism. Drawing from the
period of the 1920s and 1930s documentary films we will discuss the examples
NANOOK OF THE NORTH, MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT
CITY and DANCE AND TRANCE IN BALI in relation to representation of the
Œother¹ and exoticism.
Week 2 - Peoples without Land: Pastoral Nomads in East Africa
David and Judy MacDougall¹s film TO LIVE WITH HERDS: A DRY SEASON AMONG THE
JIE marks a turning point in ethnographic filmmaking. The strength of this
film lies in its intimate depiction of seemingly ordinary life and people¹s
openness to speak in front of the camera. MacDougall calls this style
Œunprivileged camera style¹. We will also watch some of Leslie Woodhead¹s
THE WOODABE A TV documentary made as part of the Disappearing World Series,
Granada Television and Werner Herzog¹s WOODABE: HERDSMEN OF THE SUN
Week 3 - Jean Rouch and Cinéma Vérité
French filmmaker Jean Rouch who is probably most well-known for his
CHRONICLES OF A SUMMER, is one of the most controversial figures in
ethnographic filmmaking. While working as an engineer in Senegal, Rouch came
into close contact with his workers¹ families and their stories. He started
to collect ethnographic data on rituals and native life and collaborated
with local people who acted in his films and helped writing the storyboard.
As one of the founders of cinéma vérité, Rouch sees the camera as an active
agent to create truth, as a provocation. The film LES MAÎTRES FOUS has been
highly criticised by both sides of the political spectrum for its
misrepresentation of Africans. Other films we will discuss are MOI, UN NOIR
and PETIT À PETIT.
Week 4 - Senegalese Filmmaker and Anthropologist Safi Faye
The Senegalese filmmaker and anthropologist Safi Faye started filmmaking
after acting in Jean Rouch¹s PETIT À PETIT and is credited as the first
commercial woman filmmaker in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her second feature KADDU
BEYKAT is a remarkably beautiful film shot in her home village. The story
revolves about a young couple, Ngor and Columba, who are unable to marry as
the bride prize depends on good harvest and times are tough. Using fictional
elements and performance influenced by Brecht¹s epic theatre, Faye¹s
Œethnography at home¹ focuses on everyday life while being highly political;
it is a film that discusses urbanization, monoculture and corruption
strictly through the eyes of the villagers to whom she devotes her film.
Week 5 -ŒThe Exiles¹ and Native American on film
The filmmaker Kent MacKenzie spent much of his student days in the streets
and bars of Los Angeles where he befriended a gang of American Indians
during the early 1960s. Writing a script that follows the stories and dreams
of urban life of his friends, the film THE EXILES, offers a refreshing
perspective on people who are forced to live in exile away from their native
lands and traditions. Rather than a gloomy realist portrait Kenzie¹s
chronicle remains wonderfully light and warm-hearted. More known in classic
Westerns than in ethnographic films, Native Americans have been frequently
used as stereotyped Œwild¹ people who fight against Western civilization.
Either demonised or romanticised, Native Americans have been systematically
silenced and exploited. We will be discussing representation in classic
Westerns as well as recent examples of indigenous comedy SMOKE SIGNALS.
Week 6 - Media as Protest: Indigenous Filmmaking in Brazil
The Brazilian photographer and political activist Vincent Carelli has been
supporting Amazon Indians land rights since the 1970s. His VIDEO IN THE
VILLAGES series is a program to train native people in filmmaking and create
video libraries to keep records of traditions and languages, which are on
the verge of dying out. The media are here an effective tool in political
struggle, especially regarding land rights and access to natural resources.
THE ARGOUTI PEANUT by Paturi Panará is one of the great examples of
indigenous filmmaking, which offers insights into daily life of fishing and
gathering herbal medicine, shamanistic healers and football. We will touch
on other examples of Œparticipatory video making¹ and discuss how
ethnographic film can empower and disempower people in the quest of their
own identities.
About the Course leader:
Dr Barbara Knorpp is Associated Lecturer in Visual Anthropology at Brunel
University and has a background in Anthropology, Theatre, Film and
Television Studies, and Art History. Previously she has worked in both
fiction and documentary film in Germany, Japan, and Australia; currently she
is writing an ethnography of the National Film Archive and has advised the
National Portrait Gallery on the George Catlin Exhibition of American Native
portraits. Her current project deals with 1970s postcolonial African Cinema
and film as cultural heritage in collaboration with the BFI.
NB - the full films WILL NOT be shown during the classes, but extracts will
be shown to support the discussions.
Please book directly via Hackney Picture House website!
Best wishes
Susanne Hammacher
Film Officer | Festival Manager
------------------------------------
The Royal Anthropological Institute
50 Fitzroy Street
London W1T 5BT
UK
tel +44-(0)20-7387 0455
fax +44-(0)20-7388 8817
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13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Edinburgh 13 16 June
2013 : http://raifilmfest.org.uk
RAI Anthropology and Photography Conference, British Museum, London, 29
31 May 2014
http://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-photography/
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