Resisting the closuresof realist representatione.g. Luis Bunuels
portrayal of the horror of colonial culture
Documentary before documentaryBody as main attractionEadweard
MuybridgeVisibility / sensations / commodification of the body
transformed by new technologyEthnotopias of Early CinemaNotions of
travel in early actuality filmsPlaying primitiveReturning to early
cinema works to build linkage with contemporary society
The undisciplined gazeZoology, pornography,
ethnographyChallenging and breaking down the techniques of
masteryContainmentVoyeurisme.g. Su Friedrichs Hide and Seek
(1996)
Framing people: structural film revisitedFormal minimalismFixed
StarePanopticonic effectsTension created between viewer and
viewede.g. Chantel Akerman
Other realitiesEcstatic ethnography: filming possession
ritualsMaya Deren, Jean Rouch, Bill ViolaTrance dancePure visual
knowledgeDiscourse of the subjectivity of othersFound footage as
ethnographyBruce Conner, the Archive Project, Abigail
ChildHistoriography of radical memoryFocus on single image, single
bodies, single gesturesA sign/index of cultural loss of memory
(amnesia)
Auto-ethnography: journeys of the selfPredecessor: Personal
cinemaDiary filmmaking (Jonas Mekas, Chris
Marker)Trajectories:Auto-biography self-representation politicizing
the personal***emphasis on the micropolitics of everyday life;
subjectivity is inscribed
representation subjectivity experience cultural history
TrajectoriesFrom:a paradigm of lost and vanishing
culturesRepresentation of other culturesTo:a paradigm of cultural
transformationDiscourse of culture in representationVideos fast
disseminationVideos capability for preserving and
restoring,Fragmentation, recombination, colorizationVideos
accessibility (home, public)
Experimental Ethnography
Experimental ethnography involves, above all, dismantling the
universalist impulse of realist aesthetics into a clash of voices,
cultures, bodies, and language. (p. xvii)
Reference:
Russell, Catherine 1999: Experimental Ethnography: the work of
film in the age of video. Duke University Press, Durham and
London.
