ANTHROPOLOGY AND FILM:
VISUAL DOCUMENTATION OF CULTURE
Summer 2012
1:40 pm - 4:30 pm W T
Instructor: Dr. Suncem Koçer
Course Description
Since the earliest days of cinema, film has had unique potential for the discipline of anthropology. At the same time, representing others through moving image was fraught with aesthetic, theoretical, and ethical challenges. This course establishes the relationship between anthropology and film. First, we will discuss how culture has been captured visually by anthropologists and filmmakers from an historical perspective. Then, by focusing on ethnographic (documentary) film specifically, we will explore the issues of representational authority in visual documentation of culture. Later in the semester, we will discuss the ethical and political shortcomings of representing culture on film/video. We will then engage in the critiques of colonial and positivist modes of looking at Others by focusing on ‘indigeneous’ filmmaking. Note that this course contains several film screenings. These documentaries include Grass by Cooper and Schoedsack, Reassemblage by Trinh T. Min-ha, The Wedding Camels by Judith and David MacDougal, and Jaguar by Jean Rouch, as well as more current examples of cultural documentaries from Turkey, such as Evcilik and Ekümenopolis.
Course Requirements
Participation and attendance in class/screenings 15 points
Film Reviews (3) 30 points Group Presentation/Discussion 25 points
Final Examination (Take Home) 30 points
Participation and Attendance
Students are expected to attend class, actively participate in class discussion, attend screenings, and do the readings.
Film Reviews
Throughout the semester each student is required to write 3 two-page reviews that connect a specific film of their choice with the class readings. The first page is an abstract or précis (a concise summary of the essential points of the particular film at hand). The second page is a reflection on the readings in relation to the selected film. Each film review is due on the following week of the screening. Late assignments will not be accepted.
Presentation/Discussion
Each week one student (or a team of students depending on class population) will lead class discussion. The responsibilities of the discussant(s) will include making a concise summary of the assigned readings, presenting key ideas and points of discussion in the readings, posing questions to other class members, and creating an effective discussion platform for that week. More details will be given in class.
Final Take Home
For the final exam, each student will write three 3-page answers to assigned final questions. Your answers should be original but they should also combine the course readings and the screenings. You will have one week to complete the final exam.
WEEK 1
Introduction and Logistics / Nanook of the North,
Dir. Robert Flaherty (1922)
Grass, Dir. Cooper/Schoedsack (1925)
WEEK 2
Visual Documentation and Anthropology: A Brief History / Mead, Margaret. "Visual Anthropology in a Discipline of Words." In Principles of Visual Anthropology, edited by P. Hockings 1975 [1954].
MacDougall, David “Visual Anthropology and the Ways of Knowing” in Transcultural Cinema. Princeton University Press, 1998. / Dead Birds, Dir. Robert Gardner (1965)
Ax Fight, Dir. Timothy Asch (1975)
Wedding Camels,
Dir. David/Judith MacDougall (1980)
WEEK 3
Looking Relations and Representational Authority / Lutz, Catherine and Jane Collins. “The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic” in Visualizing Theory edited by Lucien Taylor, 1994.
David MacDougall, "Whose Story Is It?" in Visualizing Theory edited by Lucien Taylor. 1994.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Objects of Ethnography” in Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage, 1998 / Cannibal Tours, Dir.
Dennis O'Rourke (1988)
WEEK 4
An Alternative History for Film and Anthropology / Ruby, Jay "Exposing yourself: Reflexivity, anthropology, and film" in Picturing Culture, 2000.
Koçer, Suncem "Jean Rouch ve EtnoKurmaca: Gerçekle Kurmaca Arasında" Altyazı Aylık Sinema Dergisi, Mart 2008
Rouch, Jean. Cine-Ethnography. Uni. of Minnesota Press, 2003. / LesMaîtres Fous, Dir. Jean Rouch (1955)
Jaguar, Dir. Jean Rouch (1967)
Reassemblage, Dir. Trinh T. Min-ha (1982)
WEEK 5
Alter(native) Film Practices and Visual Documentation
Guest Speakers: Imre Azem
Bingol Elmas / Chen, Nancy N. and Trinh T. Minh-ha. "Speaking Nearby." In Visualizing Theory, edited by Lucien Taylor. New York, London: Routledge, 1994.
Ruby, Jay "Speaking for, Speaking about, Speaking with, or Speaking Alongside" in Picturing Culture, 2000. / Grandma’s Tatoos Dir. Suzanne Khardalian (2011)
Evcilik,
Dir. Bingol Elmas (2012)
Ekumenopolis:
Ucu Olmayan Sehir,
Dir. Imre Azem (2011)
WEEK 6
More on Indigenous Media
Guest Speakers: Kazim Oz
Mujde Arslan / Turner, Terence “Representation, Politics and Cultural Imagination in Indigeneous Video: General Points and Kayapo Examples” in Media Worlds 2002
Ginsburg, Faye “Mediating Culture; Indigeneous Media, Ethnographic Film, and Production of Identity” in Anthropology of Media: A Reader, 2002
Koçer, Suncem “Gerçek olamayacak kadar kurmaca, kurmaca olamayacak kadar gerçek bir yolculuk” Tiroj Dergisi, Mayıs 2012 / Ben Uctum Sen Kaldin, Dir. Mizgin Mujde Arslan (2012)
Son Mevsim Savaklar / The Last Season Shawaks, Dir. Kazim Oz (2009)
WEEK 7 / Wrap up / Evaluations