107-091 Ethnographic and Documentary Cinema: Cannibal Tours

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

see Prerequisites

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The course investigates the place of documentary and ethnographic film in contemporary film theory. A Major area of discussion is the postmodern debates surrounding documentary film-making and realism and the critique of ethnographic cinema which has emerged as a focus of debates which link these cinemas with nationalism and imperialism. The films of French, British, American and Australian ethnographers are taken up with classic works such as F.W. Murnau's and Flaherty's 'Tabu: A Story of the South Seas' (1931) among those studied. Recent films which are critical of ethnography and ethnographic gaze such as Marlon Fuentes's film 'Bontoc Eulogy' (1996) are considered. The use of ethnography for entertainment as well as surveillance is examined through popular movies such as 'The Gods Must be Crazy'. The four classic modes of documentary cinema, namely the Griersonian, 'Cinema Verite', direct interview and self-reflexive modes are considered. The relationship between documentary and ethnographic cinema is explored and the colonial propaganda film studied.

Assessment

Written work comprising essays, take-home examinations, class papers totalling 4000 words for 3rd-year 5000 words for 4th-year.

Prescribed Texts

A course reader will be available

• F T Rony, The Third Eye, Race, Cinema & Ethnographic Spectacle. Duke University Press 1996.
• L Jacobs (ed), The Documentary Tradition. Hopkinson and Blake 1997.