PANELOVÁ DISKUZE - CO JE TO ETNOGRAFICKÝ FILM? / PANEL DISCUSSION - WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM?
ČR, 2013, 150 min
Katedra antropologie ZČU v Plzni
26.01.2013 11:00
Together with experts we will discuss the question of filmmaking in anthropology: What is ethnographic film? How can its ethnographicness be characterized? Is there any difference between ethnographic film and a video documentary from field research? What are the advantages and limits of ethnographic film in comparison with text as a standard medium of academic production?
International guests
Johannes Sjoberg, Granada center, University of Manchester, UK
Jaroslava Panáková, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
Sophie Wagner, festival Ethnocineca, University of Vienna, Austria
The language of communication is English.
When inhabitants of rainforest walk under its canopy, they see resources for life. The ways of collecting, processing and utilization of these resources are based upon traditional indigenous knowledge which is for „western“ science examined by ethnobotany. The discipline generally focuses on cultural, social and economical relationships between plants and indigenous peoples. Movie camera is during field research used very rarely.Among the other goals of scientific expedition Wayvana Peru 2011 we have strived to answer the question: „Are methods of visual anthropology for preservation of traditional indigenous knowledge applicable? If so, what are pros and cons of this approach?“ The movie is part of „visual ethnobotany“ series and depicts „the story of resource“ piassaba palm (Aphandra natalia).
The film is an attempt to question the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed when using the feedback method. The feedback provided by the people involved (the young performers but also the elders) in the Babaluda Feast, turned out to be very important in offering an insight to the ways in which the Feast was depicted by the visual ethnographer. By recoding the shared visual ethnography, that was arranged in big groups in a large screening rooms, but also in small groups in private houses, the film will try to experiment the ways in which the visual narrative is constructed by looking at, the looked at. The montage method of the film will use a chronotopic montage technique (Bakhtin), in which the time and space unity will be enacted in a visual ethnographic present.
