Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Methods & Practices / Ethnography & Fieldwork / All Films

A Year in the Field

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 11:16:57 GMT

A Year in the Field
Buy Now: $295.00

Created by filmmaker Dennis Lanson and anthropologist George Gmelch (author of "In the Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology"), A Year in the Field follows  Estonian anthropologist Joonas Plaan as he studies the impact of climate change in a Newfoundland fishing village. The film shows how cultural anthropologists carry out their research, revealing the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork – particularly participant observation, the quintessential method of cultural anthropology.

Plaan is a member of the Too Big To Ignore research network and avid advocate for small scale fisheries. At first, he struggles to gain acceptance among local people, some of whom suspect he is a Russian spy. However, once he begins working alongside the fishers as a crew member on crab and lobster boats, he not only develops rapport but gains their respect and trust. By following Plaan, the film illustrates all the main elements of field research: from moving into a foreign community, learning the language, defining one's role, living as closely as possible to the ways of the locals, and recording their culture for a year or more.

A Year in the Field highlights the value of local knowledge while also showing how the long-term and immersive nature of fieldwork becomes a  transformative experience for the individual who engages in it.   The film is a valuable resource for anthropology students  and scholars alike interested in an intimate insight into the trials, successes, and unearthings of long term fieldwork.

"Over the course of a year, the film shows environmental anthropologist Joonas Plaan's transition from stranger to community member, fisherman and friend. In so doing, it offers deep insights into the practice of ethnography... valuable to students and professionals alike."
– Reade Davis, Nipissing University

"A Year in the Field weaves its observation of a young anthropologist's rigorous fieldwork methods with his personal story in a Newfoundland fishing village and his discovery that the human cost of overfishing and global warming is the end of a cultural world. ...a valuable addition to introductory and methods courses in anthropology."
– Peter Biella, San Francisco State University

"The reflective nature of all cultural anthropological field work, which links what people say, what people do, and how they tell their stories, is visibly central (in A Year in the Field), while numerous snippets of key ethical principles are interwoven in everyday scenes. This film will make a great addition to both online and offline lessons in ethnographic practice."
– Lynda Mannik, York University

"An intelligent and sensitive film, with numerous insights that ring true for all ethnographic research."
– Adrian Tanner, Memorial University of Newfoundland

"All will recognize the pitfalls and gaffes, the pain and the joy of fieldwork through the eyes of an Estonian anthropology student as he does a year's doctoral research in a small fishing village in Newfoundland."
– Russ Bernard, Dir. Institute of Social Research, Arizona State University

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Point of View (NYU C&M Vol. 2)

Mon, 4 Feb 2019 14:51:00 GMT

Point of View (NYU C&M Vol. 2)
Buy Now: $340.00

Point of View: First Person to Observational explores different methodologies in ethnographic documentary filmmaking. In each short film, the filmmaker establishes a unique point of view, and thus entry point for the audience, as observer of their own or others' lives. All reveal the importance of observation - of the physical spaces and of their characters' interactions - for engaging audiences in otherwise inaccessible spaces and intimate conversations.

Stories range from a young filmmaker's new appreciation of his mother in his attempt to grow up, that offer a glimpse into a suburban white, economically privileged community; a woman's reflections on her recovery from a breakdown after experiencing an attempted coup in Turkey; a humorous, keen observation of a couple negotiating their newlywed portraits with a lively photographer in a Chinese wedding photography shop; observations of Eastern European women telling stories as they make dumplings in the basement of a Ukranian church; and a filmmaker's encounters with the workers who create manhole covers that, upon their completion, travel from India to the streets of New York.

Films:

Cast in India (Natasha Raheja, 26 min, 2014)

Iconic and ubiquitous, approximately 300,000 manhole covers dot the streets of New York City. This observational documentary takes the viewer behind-the-scenes, to Howrah, India, where skilled workers heat, weld, melt, and mold iron into manhole cover castings. Cast in India gives life to the men, the processes, and the transnational journey behind these everyday objects.

My Mom's Name is Jean (Myles Jewell, 27 min, 2008)

New York City based filmmaker Myles Jewell still relies on his Boston-based mom to complete tasks he is perfectly capable of, such as making dentist appointments and buying new underwear. In an effort to shed his adolescence, Myles moves home for thirty days and calls his mom by her first name. Combining first person narration and observational camera, the film offers a unique approach to the coming-of-age story.

The Bride Who Wouldn't Smile (Camilla Nielsson, 8 min, 1998)

At Nancy's Wedding Center in Chinatown, New York, Nancy Ma and the wedding photographer, Mr. Ma, work to recreate big-screen beauty and glamour for their customers. Through close attention to the interactions between a young Vietnamese couple and the studio owners, and to the material objects around the studio, this short observational film captures the tensions inevitably encountered in the pursuit of the ideal photo.

The Ladies (Tyler Zoanni, 14 min, 2015)

For 50 years, a group of Ukrainian women has gathered in New York's East Village to make dumplings for their church. This observational short offers an evocative portrait of 'the ladies' and the work, faith, gossip, and humor that brings them together.

Back to Me (Zeynep Sertbulut, 22 min, 2017)

In the summer of 2016, an ISIS airport bombing and a military coup in Turkish filmmaker Zeynep Sertbulut's home country set her world off axis. Back to Me documents the many stages of recovery from an unsettling crisis while exploring identity, resilience, and change in the midst of global conflict. The intimate, first-person film tackles difficult subjects: How do you convey a traumatic event, and how do you evoke a subject's ever-changing internal states?

DVD Produced by: Cheryl Furjanic and Pegi Vail

This is part of the NYU Culture & Media series

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Stories from the Archive (NYU C&M Vol. 1)

Fri, 1 Feb 2019 15:33:00 GMT

Stories from the Archive (NYU C&M Vol. 1)
Buy Now: $340.00

Stories from the Archive: History, Representation, and Identity includes a variety of stories shot in, about, and using archives and archival materials. The films explore the meanings and relationships imbedded in material objects and images and raise questions about how images are created, and circulated. Topics range from the contemporary, yet controversial art practice of a pastor who digitally depicts centuries-old Russian Orthodox iconography; the hybrid, poetic uncovering of scientists' journals documenting their collecting practices at Natural History Museums over a century ago; written correspondence between a European Jewish couple following WWII, uncovered by the couples' own grandchild; the use of forensic and photographic evidence to trace Spain's disappeared during the Franco regime; to archival footage and images used to evoke a once-vibrant dance studio in New York City's Hell's Kitchen.

The films in this compilation offer different strategies for bringing life to archival materials. The filmmakers variously draw on letters, archival and found footage, and photography. They present letters and journals through voice-over and narration, engage stylized approaches to filming archival collections and objects, and recontextualize historical objects through contemporary interviews, and use "process film" sequences to explore the labor behind the creation of various types of artifacts.

Films:

Archives of Extinction (Alyse Takeyesu, 12 min, 2016)

Archives of Extinction explores the concept of "saving" nature through a look at a museum's preserved bird collection. The history of the scientific collection, accompanied by voice overs drawn from texts of late 19th century collectors, provide a backgrop to the modern processes of de-extinction, an emerging science dedicated to bringing extinct species back into the world. Archives of Extinction evokes questions about nature conservation then and now; about the role of science in disassembling past and reassembling future ecologies; and about the human will to resurrect lost species and re-animate the past.

Pixelating Holiness (Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, 15 min, 2017)

West Virginian Russian Orthodox priest, Father Jonah Campbell, manufactures religious icons using contemporary digital technologies. Observational scenes documenting Cambell's production process, are juxtaposed with interviews exploring current controversies surrounding these digitally-produced icons, particualrly the suggestion that these icons are less holy than hand-painted works. Through this case study, the film looks at the relationship between religious art and divinity as it is transformed through digital technologies, while also suggesting the importance of entrepreneurial enterprises to a changing Christianity.

What Remains (Lee Douglas and Jorge Moreno Andrés, 29 min, 2015)

After the exhumation of a mass grave in Spain's southern province of Ciudad Real, two local anthropologists meet Angelita González Yepes, a woman whose family was torn apart by post-war political violence. In the intimate space of her living room, Angelita's home, family snapshots, and defiant voice make sense and gives meaning to a haunting legacy that refuses to pass, despite more than seven decades of silence. Though an intense and emotional process of fieldwork, Angelita and her interlocutors piece together fragmented memories, forensic evidence, and archival documentation to understand the city's painful history.

More than a Face in the Crowd (Sami Chan, 25 min, 2012)

A filmmaker explores the life of her great-aunt, Jane Chung, an actress who made a career for herself at a time when Asian Americans faced widespread racism in Hollywood. Working mostly in small parts and as an extra, Jane's fifty-year career reflects many of the struggles and triumphs of the Asian Americans working in the entertainment industry. Jane had parts in over fifty films and TV shows including Chinatown, When Harry Met Sally, M*A*S*H, and I Love Lucy, but much of her work is uncredited. The filmmaker brings together multiple generations of her family, and mines the film archive for evidence of her great-aunt, to provide a portrait of the real person beyond the often stereotypical roles and bit parts that constituted her screen presence.

A Correspondence (Leili Sreberny-Mohammadi, 16 min, 2014)

The film brings to life the year-long correspondence between the filmmaker's grandparents during the years following WWII. After fleeing Nazi Germany and Poland Srebernya, Margo and David met in London in 1947, only to be separated when David was sent to Palestine as a doctor in the British Army. Constructed through photographs, letters, telegrams and archival footage from the era, their story is one of love across distance and the search for a partner during troubled times.

Ode to Fazil's (Marcel Rosa-Salas, 19 min, 2017)

Fazil's Dance Center, located in New York City, was considered sacred ground for flamenco, tap, hip hop and Middle Eastern dancers often unwelcome at other studios. In 2008, after nearly forty years in operation, Fazil's was torn down and replaced by a luxury high-rise hotel. Marcel Rosa-Salas' personal film brings together stories of a magical place that no longer physically exists, yet lives on in the memories of dancers who continue to cherish it. Through archival footage and present-day interviews, Ode to Fazil's tells the story of this lost New York landmark, and the displacement of artists in a rapidly transforming city.

DVD Produced by: Cheryl Furjanic and Pegi Vail

This is part of the NYU Culture & Media series.

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NYU Culture & Media Series

Fri, 1 Feb 2019 15:02:00 GMT

NYU Culture & Media Series
Buy Now: $545.00

The NYU Culture & Media series is a new collection showcasing ethnographic documentaries from the Program in Culture & Media (C&M) at New York University. C&M is a specialized course of study leading to a New York State certificate in Culture and Media for NYU graduate students who are also pursuing their Ph.D. degrees in the Departments of Anthropology, Cinema Studies, and Comparative Literature.

The program integrates production with theory and research stressing a decolonial approach in exploring the relationships between culture and media in a number of domains: ethnographic film’s significance for the fields of anthropology and cinema/media studies; the representation of cultures through media; the development of media in Indigenous, Diaspora, and non-Western communities; the emerging social and cultural formations shaped by new media practices; the political economy shaping the production, distribution and consumption of media worldwide; and the impact of new media technologies on these processes.

The documentary shorts in these collections were produced, directed, and shot by students in the yearlong Documentary Production Lab. Rather than focus on a single filmmaking style, students are exposed to a wide variety of ethnographic and documentary filmmaking methodologies in order to determine the best fit for their story. Each of the compilations, includes films representing an array of filmmaking approaches and diverse subject areas, selected for their usefulness in anthropology and film classes, as well as documentary production courses.

The NYU Culture & Media series

Volume 1 - Stories from the Archive: History, Representation, and Identity

Volume 2 - Point of View: First Person to Observational

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Ciao Babylon

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 06:43:00 GMT

Ciao Babylon
Buy Now: $320.00

Ciao Babylon takes us to New York where Dan Kaufman is committed to preserving endangered languages. The film also follows Giancarlo Malchiodi from Brooklyn to the Swiss Alps on his way to rediscover his mother tongue Romanish, a language that may die out within a few decades. Experts believe that by the end of the century half of the 6,500 languages spoken today will have vanished; and with every language dies a unique way of perceiving the world. Ciao Babylon calls attention to this dramatic development.

In New York City roughly 800 languages are spoken, more than in any other city. In order to uncover these linguistic treasures and record the diverse range of idioms, linguist Dan Kaufman established the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA). Amalia Malchiodi is an ELA regular who records stories in an old Romontsch Sursilvan dialect. Her son Giancarlo spoke perfect Romansh as a boy, but later, as he says, decided out of youthful exuberance to only speak English. He now regrets that he is no longer proficient in the language of his forefathers. This is why he has started to relearn the language and eventually embarks on a trip with Amalia to Sagogn, his mother’s hometown. There they meet a Portuguese family whose children are growing up with the Romansh language, which they are learning with relative ease given its similarity to their mother tongue. As a result, the many Portuguese immigrants in Grisons are becoming the new hope for the preservation of Romansh in Switzerland.

Precisely these kinds of surprising, unpredictable twists in the evolution of languages are fascinating to Dan Kaufman. He says that no one can predict which languages will still be spoken in 200 years and which ones will only survive in the archives of the ELA.

"One of the film’s strengths is its glimpse on historical language survival. Where the film shines, is in exploring the individual reactions to language death and those fighting to preserve language at individual and/or community levels."
-Amanda Jo Melchor, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Texas A&M University, Kingsville

SELECTED SCREENINGS

Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 2018

Shanghai International Film and TV Festival, China, 2018

Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland, 2018

Le Grand Bivouac festival du film documentaire & du livre, France, 2019

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A Country Auction

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

A Country Auction
Buy Now: $320.00

A Country Auction Film Project, based on the ethnographic research of Robert Aibel, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby, consists of a trio of films covering a period of almost 30 years.

In 1983 three ethnographers and a documentary filmmaker collaboratively produced two films – A Country Auction and Can I Get A Quarter? – that documented ethnographic research conducted on estate sales held in a rural Central Pennsylvania community. Over the next 25 years, these films were screened in numerous film festivals, broadcast on public television, and reviewed in academic journals.

The consensus among the filmmakers was that few people appeared to comprehend their intentions in producing the films. In 2008 they decided to return to the community where A Country Auction was filmed and hold an anniversary screening. In addition, the four filmmakers came together for a critical discussion about the successes and failures of the original Auction film. This discussion became the basis of a third film, Reflexive Musings: A Country Auction Study Film.

Films on this DVD

A Country Auction: The Paul V. Leitzel Estate Sale (58 min, 1983)

Produced and Directed by Bob Aibel, Ben Levin, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby An ethnographic film about an estate auction in a rural community in Pennsylvania. It examines the personal, social and economic processes involved when a family dissolves their homestead. The film portrays the auction process as integral to the social life of the community and as a method for a family and community to deal with the death of one of their members.

Can I Get a Quarter? (6 min, 1983)

Produced and Directed by Bob Aibel, Ben Levin, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby A short observation of the auction of objects that remained unsold after the all day sale of the real estate and possessions of Paul Leitzel as shown in the film, A Country Auction.

Reflexive Musings: A Country Auction Study Film (47 min, 2012)

Produced and Directed by Milton Machuca and Jay Ruby A uniquely reflexive examination of the successes and failures of A Country Auction as an anthropological film. The four producers take part in a prolonged critical discussion of the original film.

Film Festivals

Gottingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2014

EASA Biennial Conference, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, 2014
Viscult, Joensuu, Finland, 2010

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Conversations with Jean Rouch

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Conversations with Jean Rouch
Buy Now: $295.00

This intimate, revealing film of conversations between Jean Rouch and a number of filmmakers and friends including John Marshall is unlike any past films on Rouch's life and work. It was shot over a two-year period, 1978-80 by his friend, Ann McIntosh, who taught video under Ricky Leacock at MIT. There are some fascinating insights as he discusses his methodology with students at Harvard and Hampshire College in western Massachusetts. He also reflects on war and the role he played as an engineer in France during WWII and lighter moments vacationing with his wife.

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Friends, Fools, Family

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Friends, Fools, Family
Buy Now: $320.00

Jean Rouch is known to many worldwide as a French anthropologist and innovative filmmaker. Much of his work is linked to the birth of cinéma vérité. However, Rouch's fifty-year involvement with a particular group of people in Niger shines a more personal light on his work - one of friendship and collaboration. Together with this group, Rouch made numerous ethnographic films and developed their own cinematographic style. These films have been termed 'ethno-fictions.'

In 2003, two Danish anthropologists and filmmakers went to Niger to make a film with Rouch's friends. Their film was going to be an exploration of the methods of the group. It became a story about how this unique collaboration came to change the lives of both the filmmaker and his friends.

This DVD also contains a 15 minute clip of Rouch's friend and collaborator Damouré talking about the film Jaguar.

Visit the Jean Rouch tribute website.

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From Vérité to Virtual

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

From Vérité to Virtual
Buy Now: $320.00

This documentary presents panel and roundtable conversations with leading documentary filmmakers, artists and ethnographers about the future of visual anthropology. Recorded at Temple University, the targeted conversations raise questions, among others, of collaboration, aesthetics, uses of new media, and how to build a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges methods of the social sciences, humanities and fine arts. Uniquely, participants came together from across the disciplines to join in discussion about what the agenda for interdisciplinary visual anthropology might look like in this era of globalization. The responses range from the theoretically provocative to the practical. Participants include symposium panelists Phillip Alperson, Kelly Askew, Rebecca Baron, Michel Brault, Kathy Brew, Roderick Coover, Jayasinhji Jhala, Paul Stoller, and Lucien Taylor, as well as roundtable discussants Warren Bass, Noel Carroll, Kimmika Williams and others.

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A Frontier Conversation

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

A Frontier Conversation
Buy Now: $320.00

A fascinating journey through the Top End of Australia to explore what history means to the traditional landowners.

A Frontier Conversation documents a unique collaboration between indigenous and white historians from Australia and North America. In September 2004, a diverse group travelled through the Top End of Australia meeting representatives of the traditional landowners, and engaging in a dialogue about indigenous history. The themes that emerged raised more questions than answers - from cultural appropriation and copyright, to land rights, the role of language and art, and what history means to indigenous communities in the current climate of cultural reclamation and survival. Narrated by Professor Ann McGrath, Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australian National University, A Frontier Conversation is a fascinating and thought-provoking account of a journey that breaks away from "the History Wars" and signals the first step in a new approach to the study of frontier history.

"A Frontier Conversation asks intriguing questions, and has some unexpected answers. At one level, it's a very simple and watchable film about a group of historians from Australia and the United States visiting Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, and talking with them about the importance of history. As the film progresses, we realise that its concerns are not simple at all. They are nothing less than the complex problem of the very different uses that history is put to in different cultural settings, and its varied meanings and consequences as a result. The film asks some difficult questions: such as how valuable can histories written by outsiders to any community be? What are the responsibilities of the historian, Indigenous or not, to the people whose stories he or she attempts to tell?"
— Ann Curthoys, Manning Clark Professor of History, Australian National University

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