Ethnographic film

emergence of ethnographic film is believed to have begun with the foundation of documentary film. In 1922, filmmaker Robert Flaherty released the first documentary, Nanook of the North. This narrative documentary film essentially led to generic conventions that documentaries then developed over decades (Fisher 13 September), despite its portrayal of its subjects as spectacle. Soon, film had also found its way into the anthropological world. Anthropologist Margaret Mead and her partner Gregory Bateson applied the camera as a medium for scientific observation. The two took their ideas of filming and photographing culture to Bali, Indonesia as well as Papua New Guinea, creating a series of films and photographic studies in the 1950s. Mead came to be known as the pioneer of visual anthropology, being the first to use film as representation anthropologically. Although, ethnographic filming practices developed profoundly in the hands of filmmaker John Marshall who emerged as a self- reflexive, politicized filmmaker. John Marshall’s filmic practice transpired in difference from the former versions of documentary film as that of spectacle or science in a way that utilized the two, yet…

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Naga the Eternal Yogi Naga the Eternal Yogi is an ethnographic film found on Netflix. It is set in present day India which stars Sharvan Puri, Amba Bharti and Sanatan Swami. This film examines the naked yoga gurus of India called Yogis. A yogi is a practitioner in yoga who sees himself in the universe and the whole universe in himself. Their worship existed in India for thousands of years, during the pre-verdict era, long before Hinduism. Through spiritual practice, they connect to the…

audience for this film are students and scholars. Furthermore, I also had the opportunity of watching the film without the use of narration and for a moment I was confused and I was not really sure what Rouch was explaining. For this reason, Asch “never subscribed to the orthodoxy of ‘no narration.’ Before many…

Robert Flaherty is cited in creating the first documentary, with Nanook of the North, made in 1922, this film was wildly successful and generated obsession around this new genre documenting real people. Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson eventually adapted this filmic practice as a tool for documenting cultures for scientific purposes, founding the field of visual anthropology. Flaherty and Mead’s influence can be tracked to filmmaker John Marshall, who challenged the paradigms of spectacle and…

Criticisms of Nanook of the North and Dead Birds: Worries of Authenticity and Lasting Implications Films have been seen as windows for everyday people to experience and see new and different things. With ethnographic documentary films, people are able to see real parts of the world that are not always visible in their current, everyday lives. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922) and Dead Birds (Robert Gardner, 1963) are both ethnographic documentaries, revered as revolutionary for their…

Collage is another technique that participates in the film’s construction of palimpsests. Defined as a collection of heterogeneous materials, collage has long played a role in the Latin American documentary tradition. In Familia tipo, however, the device is put to specific use. It permits Priego to reorder fragments and establish new relationships among them, thereby deconstructing an inherited family archive. Priego’s use of collage is not straightforward, but rather reflexive in nature. She…

The plot synopsis of Ram Reddy’s Thithi (2016) indicates why such a simple film has consistently found its way to film festivals both national and international and has been already numbered among the most genuine examples of feature-length ethno filmmaking in Indian Cinema. The film Thithi, is about the death of a 101-year-old patriarch called Century Gowda and how three generations of his family react to his death. The opening sequence of the film begins with death of Century Gowda and the…

Film One: Haddon’s earlier film was designed to show to Westerners the curious lives of people around the world; but it was also one the first step towards the creation of ethnographic films today. Though Haddon documented (for only four minutes) the lives of the natives of the Torres Strait, he did it in a way of an outsider rather than immersing himself into the culture; the film was taken as if one was looking into a fish tank at the curiosities inside. In the way however, it does show the…

Throughout Jean Rouch’s filmic career he experiments with cinema, pushing the boundaries of ethnographic film, showcasing a range of styles. Chronicle of a Summer embarks on the simple journey of asking strangers if they are happy in order to explore how camera’s change behavior. This film epitomizes Rouch’s exploration of cinematic truth, however, I am left questioning if it is the camera or Rouch who provokes his subjects into performance. Rouch’s exploratory career can be tracked through…