Anthropology and Film

[dirtinmynails]

I was reading the last post and I was wondering if anyone here has made the move from anthropology to film. Did you get another degree? Did you just somehow get involved with the film community

Comments

[metahara]

start with ethnographic film
aka
ethnofilmography

USC has it as a major - but even if your schol doesn't ethnographic film is a great way tp do field work

[entropy_rising]

Unfortunately, USC, which in the last decade had the best visual anthropology department in the country, has all but shut down the visual anthropology option within the major after the death of Timothy Asch. Classmates of mine who were pursuing the visual anthropology certificate (I did cultural) often spoke as if they were the last, fading remnants of a once monumental program. One particular complain I heard from these classmates is that the visual anth program sort of got slurped into the cinema school after Asch no longer was there to defend the conceptual and theoretical "seperateness" of the visual anth faculty and students. On top of that, USC recently hired Craig Stanford, the brilliant biological anthropologist, as department head, and although I believe he's leaving soon what is clear from all the trends is that USC's department is going to try to move more towards the bio-anth trend that many of the schools in Southern California have followed

[sunnytea]

i've just completed a phd in anthropology and my thesis looked at representations of Indigenous identity in Australian cinema. while it wasn't hands on film experience - i did do film analysis gounded in semiotic theory and Indigenous cultural representations. so there are many different ways to marry film and anthro!
my partner is a film maker and i want to work on a project with him next so i can move from theory to practice. good luck with your work!

[thewrittenweird]

Sorry to hijack this comment for a second, but...I actually am really interested in this more "hands-off" methodology you're talking about, but I've been told it's looked down upon because it isn't "truly ethnography." I'm also majoring in Cultural Studies along with Anthropology, and from my Literature background I have a great deal of interest and background in close and contextual readings of literary, visual, musical, and cinematic discourses, so it's something I don't want to have to break free from once I get into grad school. But like I said, I've been discouraged by professors because they seem to think this will isolate me from jobs, and even by the field itself, if I don't focus on more "traditional" anthropological topics. If you have thoughts/advice, I would love to hear it. If it's really extensive or there are potentially sensitive topics, my email is thewrittenweird[at]gmail.com.

[sunnytea]

your profs. probably belong to the old school of anthro where ethnography is king. personally i believe that anything has the potential to be cultural anthropology. this is because everything 'created by man' can be studied by man

[1punky4u]

Back in the day I studied both... Anthro because, well it was so worthy a field, and film/Photography because I was working in tv during that time and always thought it was such a perfect match. Study man to know, study film to show....