Film Studies Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Other library resource(s)
Anthropological documentaries from Digitalia Film Library by Call Number: Streaming videoA small collection of anthropological documentaries from around the world.
Ethnographic film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286The relationship between visual media and anthropology has a long history growing out of the imperializing impulses of the 19th century, and anthropologists—as well as others such as cultural explorers, scientists, geographers, journalists, and travel writers—have long used forms of visual media to document their impressions of and perspectives about what we might call the cultural “Other”: cultures that have seemed different, exotic, or fascinating to us.
Ethnographic video online by Call Number: Streaming videoEthnographic Video Online is a comprehensive online resource for the study of human culture, behavior and society around the world. The collections contain over 1,300 hours of streaming video, including ethnographic films, documentaries, select feature films, and previously unpublished fieldwork.
A short definition for ethnographic films
A practice of documentary film and of visual anthropology informed by the theories, methods, and vocabulary of the discipline of anthropology, involving use of the film camera as a research tool in documenting whole, or definable parts of, cultures with methodological awareness and precision. In its strictest definition, ethnographic film constitutes a form of academic research, with an intended audience of scholars of anthropology.
Kuhn, A. & Westwell, G. (2012). "Ethnographic film." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 Dec. 2015.
Finding library resources for ethnographic film
Resources about ethnographic film are scattered throughout the GN 347's and PN 1990's. To see what our catalog has, click on one of the following subject searches:
- indigenous filmsYou can add a country's name to the search to see what we may have in the collections.
Introductory reading(s)
American ethnographic film and personal documentary: the Cambridge turn by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780520275621American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary is a critical history of American filmmakers crucial to the development of ethnographic film and personal documentary. The Boston and Cambridge area is notable for nurturing these approaches to documentary film via institutions such as the MIT Film Section and the Film Study Center, the Carpenter Center and the Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard. ...
Ethnographic film by Call Number: Baker-Berry GN 347 .H44 2006ISBN: 9780292714588Publication Date: Rev. ed.Even before Robert Flaherty released Nanook of the North in 1922, anthropologists were producing films about the lifeways of native peoples for a public audience, as well as for research and teaching. In this new edition, Karl G. Heider thoroughly updates Ethnographic Film to reflect developments in the field over the three decades since its publication, focusing on the work of four seminal filmmakers--Jean Rouch, John Marshall, Robert Gardner, and Timothy Asch.
Handbook of participatory video by Call Number: Baker-Berry GN 347 .H36 2012ISBN: 9780759121133Participatory video is a growing area of research and an increasingly popular tool among practitioners, researchers, and NGOs working with communities around the world.
Return to the land of the head hunters: Edward S. Curtis, the Kwakwạkạ'wakw, and the making of modern cinema by Call Number: Baker-Berry GN 347 .R47 2014ISBN: 9780295993447Photographer Edward Curtis's 1914 orchestrally scored melodrama In the Land of the Head Hunters was one of the first US films to feature an Indigenous cast. This landmark of early silent cinema was an intercultural product of Curtis's collaboration with the Kwakwạkạ'wakw of British Columbia meant, like Curtis's photographs, to document a supposedly vanishing race. But as this collection shows, the epic film is not simply an artifact of colonialist nostalgia. In recognition of the film's centennial, and the release of a restored version, Return to the Land of the Head Hunters brings together leading anthropologists, Native American authorities, artists, musicians, literary scholars, and film historians to reassess the film and its legacy. ...
Wondrous difference: cinema, anthropology & turn-of-the-century visual culture by Call Number: Baker-Berry GN 347 .G73 2002ISBN: 9780231116978The ethical and ideological implications of cross-cultural image-making continue to stir debate among anthropologists, film scholars, and museum professionals. This innovative book focuses on the contested origins of ethnographic film from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, vividly depicting the dynamic visual culture of the period as it collided with the emerging discipline of anthropology and the new technology of motion pictures. ...
Selected book titles
Decolonizing the lens of power: indigenous films in North America by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .I48 K67 2008ISBN: 9789042025431The book explores how members of colonized groups use the medium of film as a means for cultural and political expression and thus enter the dominant colonial film discourse and create an answering discourse.
The fast runner: filming the legend of Atanarjuat by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997.2 .A73 E93 2010ISBN: 9780803222083One of the most important Native films of all time, Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner tells a powerful and moving story about honor, betrayal, vengeance, and redemption.
Memories of the origins of ethnographic film by Call Number: Baker-Berry GN 347 .M46 2007ISBN: 9783631507353Ethnographic film, which combines documentary filming and anthropological research, originated in the late 19th century. Early on, anthropologists used film to record cultures.
Navajo talking picture: cinema on native ground by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780803238411Navajo Talking Picture, released in 1985, is one of the earliest and most controversial works of Native cinema. It is a documentary by Los Angeles filmmaker Arlene Bowman, who travels to the Navajo reservation to record the traditional ways of her grandmother in order to understand her own cultural heritage.
Finding articles & journals
Articles and other writings about movies can be found in many publications. Our collection doesn't include publications which look exclusively at ethnographic films, however there is a journal for visual anthropology. You can search Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
- Visual anthropology reviewCall Number: Electronic journalVisual Anthropology Review presents research on visual studies, broadly conceived. Within its scope, the journal encompasses both the study of visual aspects of human behavior and the use of visual media in anthropological research, representation and teaching.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about ethnographic film.
Selected movie titles
For more ethnographic films, search the library's online catalog.
Abundance on a dry land by Call Number: Streaming videoIn California and other regions affected by drought, agriculture is suffering from a lack of water and farms are being abandoned at an alarming rate. But some people have developed solutions to capture the rains that DO fall. In this state and in many other dry regions around the world, land restoration helps water penetrate healthy soils and in turn increase crop yields. This film explores the work of Erik Ohlsen, Geoff Lawton and other growers, permaculture designers and educators, showing how intentional design can benefit both humans and nature.
Bitter roots: the ends of a Kalahari myth by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13456Shot in 2007, two years after Marshall's death (and including footage from his films), Bitter Roots documents the return of Strong and Ritchie to Nyae-Nyae where they observe the erosion of a community-led development process following the imposition of a new agenda led by the World Wildlife Fund, which prioritizes wildlife conservation and tourism over subsistence farming. Communities voice their dissatisfaction with the new Conservancy, which has done little to help people farm and improve their lives.
Fishing at the Stone Weir by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13080The film documents a group of Netsilik Eskimo setting up camp by a major stream and preparing for fishing. Shows construction of fish traps, spears and other implements for catching, cleaning, and preparing fish. The nomadic way of life of "The people of the seal" lasted into the 1960s.
My crasy life by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #1959Documentary and scripted drama meet in this intense, introspective, and expectation-shredding treatment of the lives of Samoan street gang members in Long Beach.
Standing on sacred ground. Fire and ice by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #17318ISBN: 9781937772963From Ethiopia to Peru, indigenous customs protect biodiversity on sacred lands under pressure from religious conflicts and climate change. In the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia, scientists confirm the benefits of traditional stewardship even as elders witness the decline of spiritual practices that have long protected trees, meadows and mountains. Tensions with evangelical Christians over a sacred meadow erupt into a riot. In the Peruvian Andes, the Q'eros, on a pilgrimage to a revered glacier, are driven from their ritual site by intolerant Catholics. Q'eros potato farmers face a more ominous foe: global warming is melting glaciers, their water source. ...
Yurumein = Homeland by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #18671Yurumein follows members of the Garifuna Diaspora as they attempt to rekindle a disappeared culture and revitalize its language, dance and music. The film reveals signs of resilience as local Caribs come together to celebrate and honor their Garifuna past, and in doing so, begin the journey of healing, rebuilding, and preserving the homeland.
