Anthropology of Film - Anthropological Film 3102-LAFM
Anthropological film (as well as visual anthropology) undergoes nowadays a renaissance. New festivals and new film productions are abundant. Still, that does not mean that the anthropological film has clear and generally accepted definition. One thing is more and more clear - anthropological film cannot be just a simpler form of transmitting anthropological knowledge. Anthropological film should not serve as a visual version of anthropological books. Films with critical angle can show human being in his/her whole sensual entirety. Film engaging all senses of a viewer is able to pass on certain experiences more fully. It offers kind of insight, which might be hard to verbalize and paradoxically does not have to be reduced to visual category. Film is able to transmit meanings that are difficult or impossible to codify, the ones that Roland Barthes calls "obtuse meanings".
This seminar is a continuation of "Introduction to visual anthropology" and its goal is to get a closer look at the phenomenon of film. During the seminar the students will discuss selected films and some written texts.
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Having completed the course, students:
- are acquainted with examples of contemporary anthropological films;
- understands that anthropological films can be a way of doing and presenting fieldwork parallel to the "written anthropology"
Assessment criteria
active participation, essay or review of an anthropological documentary film
Bibliography
K. Askew & R. R. Wilk (red.), The Anthropology of Media. A Reader, Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002.
M. Banks, & H Morphy (red.), Rethinking Visual Anthropology, Yale UP 1997.
I. Barabash and L. Taylor, Radically Empirical Documentary. An Interview with David and Judith MacDougall, "Film Quarterly", Vol. 54, nr 2, Winter 2000-01 [or extended version in "American Anthropologist"].
J. DeBouzek, Etnograficzny surrealizm Jeana Roucha, "Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa" 3-4/1992.
The Future of Ethnographic Cinema, [Rezolucja powstała po dyskusji na temat filmu etnograficznego, 2006].
F. Ginsburg, 'Culture/Media: a (mild) polemic' , "Anthropology Today" nr 2 1994.
F. Ginsburg, Mediating Culture: Indigenous Media, Ethnographic Film, and Production of Identity, w: K. Askew & R. R. Wilk (red.), The Anthropology of Media. A Reader, Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002.
A. Grimshaw, Kino antropologiczne Jeana Roucha, "Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 47-48, jesień-zima 2004, s. 45-74.
A. Grimshaw, The Ethnographer's Eye. Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology, Cambrigde UP 2001.
A. Grimshaw, From Observational Cinema to Participatory Cinema - and back again? David Macdougall and the doon school project, "Visual Anthropology Review" 2002, nr 1-2 + e-mail correspondence between Grimshaw and MacDougall].
P. Henley, Putting film to work. Observational cinema as practical ethnography, (w:) Working Images. Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography, Sarah Pink, László Kürti and Ana Isabel Afonso (eds.).
P. Hockings (ed.), Principles of Visual Anthropology, Mouton de Gruytes, Berlin 1995.
P. Loizos, Robert Gardner na Taiti albo odrzucenie realizmu, "Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 33, 2001.
"Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa" nr 3-4/1992 oraz 3-4/1997.
"Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 47-48, jesień-zima 2004.
D. MacDougall, Kino transkulturowe (cz. I), "Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 47-48, jesień-zima 2004, s. 77-98; (cz. II) nr 49-50, wiosna-lato 2005, s. 321-333.
D. MacDougall, Beyond Observational Cinema, w: P. Hockings (red.), Principles of Visual Anthropology, Mouton 1975 (2nd ed. 1995).
D. MacDougall, Transcultural Cinema, Introduction - L. Taylor, Princeton UP 1998.
B. Keifenheim, Krytyczne uwagi na temat antropologii wizualnej, "Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 54-55, lato-jesień 2006.
M. Przylipiak, Poetyka filmu dokumentalnego, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego 2000 [i 2003].
K. Olechnicki, Antropologia obrazu. Fotografia jako metoda, przedmiot i medium nauk społecznych, Oficyna Naukowa, Warszawa 2003.
J. Ruby, Mówić do, mówić o, mówić z albo mówić przy, przeł. K. Kosińska, "Kwartalnik Filmowy" nr 47-48, jesień-zima 2004, s. 20-44.
J. Ruby, Towards an Anthropological Cinema. Some Conclusions and a Possible Future, (in:) tegoż, Picturing Culture. Explorations of Film and Anthropology, The University of Chicago Press 2000.
J. Ruby, Picturing Culture. Explorations of Film and Anthropology, The University of Chicago Press 2000.
J. Ruby, Is an Ethnographic Film a Filmic Ethnography?, http://astro.temple.edu/~ruby/ruby/is.html
S. Sikora, Fotografia. Między dokumentem a symbolem, Czuły Barbarzyńca i ISPAN, Izabelin 2004.
E. Weinberger, The Camera People, [w:] L. Taylor (red.), Visualizing Theory. Selected Essays from V.A.R 1990-1994, Routledge 1994.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: