30 Anniversary, A Review in Films

In his pio­neer­ing film the great Sene­galese author and direc­tor explores the com­plex dynam­ics of the imme­di­ate post-colo­nial period through the simple, dev­as­tat­ing story of a young woman. Dioua­na lives … read more

The Aus­tralian broth­ers Michael, Dan, and James Leahy were the first white people to go on an expe­di­tion from 1930 to 1934 to the unchart­ed moun­tain­ous area of New Guinea, … read more

“I thought that the audi­ence would not simply wait for the mys­ter­ies to be dis­pelled but would come up with their own solu­tions, supply their own answers, and so, in that way, they would be doing their own anthro­pol­o­gy … I would be con­tent if they merely reg­is­tered the facts: fires, scales, boys, kites, ther­mals. I’m con­fi­dent that they would then, at some level of their imag­i­na­tion, work out their mean­ing.”  (Robert Gard­ner)

 Unlike most direc­tors, the Amer­i­can Robert Gard­ner com­bined doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing with a poetic formal idiom. His mas­ter­piece FOREST OF BLISS about life and death in Benares, the Hindu holy city, rad­i­cal­ly links artis­tic sub­jec­tiv­i­ty with the sen­si­tive obser­va­tion of other cul­tures. With no dia­logue or nar­ra­tive, the film reflects on the “other” in the form of a mytho­log­i­cal world. This new approach earned him much crit­i­cism from anthro­pol­o­gists, espe­cial­ly in the US. The “Gard­ner case” became a hot topic in debates about forms of ethno­graph­ic film­mak­ing and the sci­en­tif­ic stan­dards involved.

 

 

The Baka pyg­mies live in the rain forest of south­ern Cameroon. Lengé is the sto­ry­teller of his tribe. For seven min­utes, the camera films the old man’s slight­ly sway­ing body … read more

Sergei Eisen­stein planned to make an opus magnum about Mexico and its cul­ture. He wanted to cap­ture the spirit of Mexico in a film with a pro­logue, four episodes, and … read more

Renowned ethno­graph­ic film­mak­ers David and Judith Mac­Dougall explore the many mean­ings of pho­tog­ra­phy in this pro­found and pen­e­trat­ing doc­u­men­tary. The film focus­es on the pho­tog­ra­phers of Mus­soorie, a hill sta­tion … read more

“He gets up around five, when the man who is writ­ing about him goes to bed.” This is how the author Hubert Fichte begins his story about the “casual dock … read more

This film shows pic­tures of daily life in the Por­tuguese fish­ing vil­lage Ses­im­bra, south of Lisbon, during Salazar’s dic­ta­tor­ship in 1964. Mau’s pho­tographs of fish dis­played in geo­met­ric pat­terns and … read more

It all began with the idea to ini­ti­ate a cul­tur­al exchange: Two film­mak­ers, an Indian and a French­man, were to create their own per­son­al take on the same sub­ject. Both … read more