The course will trace the development of ethnographic film from its beginnings at the turn of the century to the present. In addition to looking at seminal works in the field, more recent and innovative productions will be viewed and analyzed. Topics of interest include the role of visual media in ethnography, ethics in filmmaking, and the problematic relationship between seeing and believing. Requirements include film critiques, a film proposal, and a final exam.

This course explores the history, theory, and aesthetics of ethnographic film. Our lectures and discussions will revolve around weekly in-class film screenings and focus on the entanglement of filmic representation with questions of epistemology and knowledge production in anthropology; representational politics in colonial and postcolonial domains; and the aesthetics and poetics of the real as they have been developed and critiqued by filmmakers and others. While our focus will be the history of ethnographic film and its development and innovation within anthropology, we will also explore a growing interest in sound, digital, and other media in the representation and circulation of ethnographic argument and engagement. In addition to looking at groundbreaking works in the field we will therefore consider recent and innovative projects, across a range of media platforms, that push and pull at the conventions of ethnographic realism and that make aesthetic exploration central to knowledge production.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills