Introduction to Ethnographic Film

Pre-requisites for enrolment

The course is designed for students at all levels and experience, only an interest anthropology, ethnographic film or documentary film is necessary.

Content of Course

This short course is designed to introduce students to the field of ethnographic film. It will aim to outline the basic ideas and goals of the form, as well as the challenges that its practice reveals.  The course will also aim to introduce the differing and contrasting approaches to ethnographic film both historically and today. The course will simultaneously introduce students to the position of ethnographic film within anthropology and documentary film, and highlight its influence on both. The course will feature a screening each week, combined with lectures covering the focus of the week, and conclude with a post-film group discussion. The films to be screened will cover both historical and contemporary ethnographic film, and introduce students to contrasting filmmakers, and approaches to the genre.

1. What is an ethnographic film? An introduction and definition to the genre and its place within anthropology and cinema. Screening: The Hunters, John Marshall.

2. Cinematic language and meaning making in visual anthropology. From documenting reality to creative documentary film. Screening: Forest of Bliss, Robert Gardner.

3. Visualizing the other. Representation and the role of the anthropologist and filmmaker. Screenings: The Axe Fight, Tim Asch and Secrets of the Tribe, José Padilha.

4. Beyond observation: Focus on Jean Rouch.  Participatory cinema and the filmmaker as a catalyst to social anlysis. Screening: Chronicle of a Summer, Jean Rouch.

5. Narrative, cinema and ethnographic film today. How does ethnographic film fit into today’s film landscape? Screening: Sweet Grass, Lucien Casting Taylor.

Teaching method(s)

The course is structured around 5 x 3hr lecture/screenings, with each lecture being made up of a 75min lecture, an approximately 75-90min screening, and 30min teacher led group discussion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Better understand the development of ethnographic documentary film;

• Describe the main concepts and goals in ethnographic cinema;

• Outline major themes and challenges within the form;

• Discuss contrasting approaches to the genre.

Sources

Core Readings

Recommended:

• Banks, M. 1992. 'Which Films are the Ethnographic Films' In Crawford, P & D Turton (eds) Film as Ethnography, Manchester UP: 116-29

• Barbash, I. and L. Taylor. 2001. 'Radically Empirical Documentary: An Interview with David and Judith MacDougall'. Film Quarterly 54 (2): 2-14.

• Castaing-Taylor, Lucien. 1996. ‘Iconophobia’ Transition 69:64–88.

• Heider, K. 2006. Ethnographic Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.

• MacDougall, D. 1998. Transcultural cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

• Rouch, J. 2003. 'The Camera and Man' in Cine-ethnography / Jean Rouch, S. Field (eds.), pp.29-47. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

• Ruby, J. 1993. The Cinema of John Marshall. Reading: Harwood Academic.

Class Handouts

Summary notes will be provided.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.