Visual Anthropology
Objectives
1) To approach and define the different uses of Image in Anthropology through the study of Documentary Film as a cinematographic "genre" and, at the same time, the understanding of ethnographic investigation practices.
2) To understand the relations between the Documentary Film History as a style of filmmaking based in the ideas of truth and authenticity and the ways academic Anthropology used this ideas in its uses of image: photography and ethnographic film.
3) To stimulate ways of seeing and critical relativisation of the ways image has being used in its different ways. The historical perspective will help to understand specific cultural and social scientific and /or artistic visual productions.
General characterization
Code
01101475
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Catarina Sousa Brandão Alves Costa
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
None
Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAFIA GERAL ANTROPOLOGIA VISUAL
BANKS, Marcus, Howard Morphy (eds), 1999 [1997] Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
BANKS, Marcus, Jay Ruby (eds), 2011, Made to Be Seen. Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.
BARNOW, Eric, 1993 [1974], Documentary. A History of Non-fiction Film. New York: Oxford University Press.
HOCKINGS, Paul (ed.), 1975, Principles of Visual Anthropology, The Hague: Mouton.
MACDOUGALL, David, 1998, Transcultural Cinema. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
MACDOUGALL, David, 2006, The Corporeal Image. Film, ethnography and the senses. Princenton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
RIBEIRO, José da Silva, 2004, Antropologia Visual. Da minúcia do olhar ao olhar distanciado. Lisboa: Edições Afrontamento.
ROSE, Gillian, 2012, Visual Methodologies. An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials, London, Thousand Oaks, California, New Delhi, Sage Publications.
HISTÓRIA DO DOCUMENTÁRIO
ELLIS, Jack C., and Betsy A. McLane, 2005, A New History of Documentary. Continuum.
GAUTHIER, Guy, 2000, Le documentaire, un autre cinéma, Nathan cinema, ed. Nathan.
MACDONALD, Kevin, and Mark Cousins, 1998, Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary. London, Faber and Faber.
BARNOUW, Erik, 1993, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Oxford University Press.
CRÍTICA E ANÁLISE DE FILMES
DEVEREUAUX, Leslie and Roger Hillman (eds), 1995, Fields of Vision: Essays in Film Studies, Visual Anthropology, and Photography, Berkeley: University of California Press.
GRANT, Barry Keith, 1998, Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Contemporary Film and Television). Wayne State University Press.
ANTROPOLOGIA VISUAL
BANKS, Marcus and Morphy, H., 1997, Rethinking Visual Anthropology, Yale University Press.
CRAWFORD Peter I. and Turton, D, 1992, Film as Ethnography, Manchester University Press.
PINK, Sarah, Kurti, L. et al, (eds), 2004, Working Images. Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography, Routledge, London and New York.
TEORIA DO DOCUMENTÁRIO
NICHOLS, Bill, 2001, Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press,.
NICHOLS, Bill, 1991, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Bloomington, Indiana University Press,.
RENOV, Michael (Ed) 1993, Theorizing Documentary. New York and London: Routledge.
Teaching method
Classes consist of a theoretical presentation of a specific issue, a viewing of films related to it and student participation in the discussion:
1) presentation of questions and clues to understanding the film, excerpts from films or visual and photographic essays presented and their projection,
2) presentation of the historical background to these materials. For each of the sessions, a text is provided in advance which contextualizes and develops ideas for the issues to be analysed.
Evaluation method
EVALUATION visual anthropology
WRITTEN WORK IN CLASS 40%
PRACTICAL WORK (includes work process, discussion and participation in class) 60%
Stages
- research and definition of the theme
- Character
- location and setting
Presentation of idea / submission of short text (March 6)
- shooting
Discussion of material in class
- narrative construction
- editing
Presentation of final exercise
Delivery of final reports
Subject matter
PROGRAMME
1- Introduction and presentation. A brief historical contextualization of visual anthropology, ethnographic film and its relationship with the history of documentary as a film genre. The positivist dream and the "cinema of attractions". The question of the advent of the documentary: the French tradition of the documentaire and in the USA, the tradition of the explorers.
Film: Edward Curtis, In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914) and Jean Rouch, Petit à Petit (1979).
Text: Barbosa, A. and Cunha, E. (2006), Anthropology and Image. Zahar Editora, São Paulo
2- The American romantic tradition. From travel to narrative. The Man vs. Nature archetype. Flaherty: romanticism, character and narrative. The documentary as a movement that corresponds to a truth: the 1930s, the idea of reconstructing the past and the case of Asen Balicki.
Film: Nanouk of the North, Robert Flaherty (1922, 79')
Text: Rothman, William (1997), "Nanook of the North" in Documentary Film Classics, Cambridge University Press, 1-21.
3- The Soviet propaganda tradition. The rhetoric of editing in documentary. Dziga Vertov (1896-1954): the revolutionary Kino-Pravda project. The artistic context of the 1920s: Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Constructivism, Cubism. Importance of Form, notion of Collage, horror of realism, manipulation of the Real. Douro Faina Fluvial, Manoel de Oliveira, example of the "urban symphonies" subgenre.
Film: The Man with a Movie Camera (1929, 68') (Dziga Vertov)
Text: Hicks (2007) Dziga Vertov, defining documentary Film, Kino, The Russian Cinema Series.
4- Visual Anthropology, different perspectives present in Principles of Visual Anthropology, 1972. Mead and Bateson, films made in 1936 from a comparative perspective between Bali and New Guinea. The visual and the performative in possession rituals: the case of Maya Deren and the film Divine Horseman (1947).
Films: Bathing babies in three Cultures, M. Mead and G. Bateson, 12 min; Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea, M. Mead and G. Bateson, 17 min; Trance and Dance in Bali, M. Mead and G. Bateson, 22 min.; The Hunters, John Marshall, 1957, 70 min.
Text: Mac Dougall, David (1997) "The Visual in Anthropology" in Banks, M and Morphy, H. (eds) Rethinking Visual Anthropology. Yale University. Pag. 1--35;
5- Observational cinema and Jean Rouch. Working with the Dogon, ceremonies and possession, Jean Rouch and a shared cine-anthropology, the context in which his work was produced and its influences on anthropology. Screening of excerpts from his ethnographic work. The ethnologist as director. The ethics and politics of using film in anthropology. The colonial question in ethnographic film at the time, with the exception of Rouch.
Films : Bataille sur la grand Fleuve, 1950, Jean Rouch, 33 min; Les Maitres Fous 1955, 36', Jean Rouch; Cocorico, Monsieur Poulet, 1974, 93' Jean Rouch; Rouch's Gang (Documentary about Rouch's making off in the Madame L'Eau film).
Text: Henley, Paul "Inspired Performance" in The Adventure of the Real. Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema, Chicago University Press, pages 254-291.
6- British Free-Cinema and social realist features. A critical look at British society. The political and social context of the time. Social realism, a poetic and human commentary on the universe of the English working class. Screening of an excerpt from "Belarmino" by Fernando Lopes (1964): influences of free cinema on Portuguese cinema.
Films: We Are the Lambeth Boys, 1959, 53', Karel Reisz,; Everyday Except Christmas, 1957, 37', Lindsay Anderson.
Text: Ellis, Jack and Betsy A. Mc Lane, 2007 "British Free Cinema and the Social-realist features" in, A New History of Documentary Fim, Continuum, pag 196-207.
7- Cinéma Vérité: cinema as a catalyst for reality. Provocation and ethnofiction: boundary issues in the work of the interview and the sociological inquiry in the film Chronique d'un Été. Direct sound and the adventure of vérité. Michel Brault, camera and previous experience: Les Raquetteurs, the film. Jean Rouch and Morin, a self-reflexive reflection: influences from kino-pravda. Ethnofiction, the case of the film Transfiction.
Film: Chronicle of a Summer (1961, 85'), Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin.
Text: Henley, Paul "Chronicle of a Violent Game" in The Adventure of the Real. Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema, Chicago University Press, pages 145-175;
8- Direct Cinema in the USA. Frederick Wiseman and the study of Western institutions. Style and camerawork, characters and narrative construction. Themes of the new observational documentary and the politics of the 1960s. Conclusions on the relationship between the history of documentary as a film genre and anthropology as an academic field.
Films: High School, 1968, 75' and Titicut Follies 1962 Frederick Wiseman; Cinéma vérite: Defining the moment (1999), Peter Wintonick ; Salesman, 1968, 85', Maysles Brothers.
Text: Ellis, Jack and Betsy A. Mc Lane, 2007 "Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité" in, A New HHistory of Documentary Fim, Continuum, pages 208-227.
9- Indigenous and Participatory Cinema: the case of Video in the Villages. Sensorial Turn and Corporeal Cinema: David MacDougall. The future of Visual Anthropology in the context of Anthropology and Documentary Film.
Text: Gallois and Carelli (1995) "Vídeo e diálogo cultural- experiência do projeto vídeo nas aldeias, Horizontes Antropológicos, Porto Alegre, ano 1, n 2, p 61-71.; Landesman,
10- Approach to practice and ways of doing things.
11 and 12 Discussion and presentation of students' practical work.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)