The Beauty of Ethnographic Films

With their accompanying ethical and technical challenges.

Black and white, old photo of a man’s side profile, writing a letter
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood via Pexels
Source: National Geographic (YouTube) — the “Voice of God” voiceovers

Modes of representation are standards and points of view that a film can follow, and lets the viewer know what to expect when they sit down to watch them.

[The] “feeling of one’s work disintegrating and being pulled back and reclaimed by the lives which generated it”.(McDougall, 2001)

“That’s the trouble with anthropology … there’s no way of probing further material. So we gradually developed the idea of film and tapes.” (Mead, 1995)

“Whether a film is capable of generating more complex statements seems to depend upon the filmmaker’s ability to make the film more than merely a report on a cultural encounter and, instead, embody it.”

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A Generation Z kid studying sociology and searching for the Fortress of Solitude.

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A. Sharma

A Generation Z kid studying sociology and searching for the Fortress of Solitude.