The Village,a Transitional Film

The Village, probably the first observational film to have been completed, is a “transitional” film made in 1968 at UCLA. This was during a period of creative ferment there when the departments of Theater Arts and of Anthropology came together to explore the possibility of working out a new film language that would enable the production of films that might be more useful to anthropology. This article examines what this film offers that was new at the time, and considers to what extent it was also rooted in old forms.     

Film, Ethnography, and the Senses: The Corporeal Image

Film, Ethnography, and the Senses: The Corporeal Image . David MacDougall. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 274 pp.     

Making Forest of Bliss: Intention, Circumstance, and Chance in Nonflction Film

Making Forest of Bliss: Intention, Circumstance, and Chance in Nonflction Film. Robert Gardner and Ákos Östör. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 135 pp., DVD.     

Hydrophobin Film Structure for HFBI and HFBII and Mechanism for Accelerated Film Formation

Hydrophobins represent an important group of proteins from both a biological and nanotechnological standpoint. They are the means through which filamentous fungi affect their environment to promote growth, and their properties at interfaces have resulted in numerous applications. In our study we have combined protein docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and electron cryo-microscopy to gain atomistic level insight into the surface structure of films composed of two class II hydrophobins: HFBI and HFBII produced by Trichoderma reesei. Together our results suggest a unit cell composed of six proteins; however, our computational results suggest P6 symmetry, while our experimental results show P3 symmetry with a unit cell size of 56 Å. Our computational results indicate the possibility of an alternate ordering with a three protein unit cell with P3 symmetry and a smaller unit cell size, and we have used a Monte Carlo simulation of a spin model representing the hydrophobin film to show how this alternate metastable structure may play a role in increasing the rate of surface coverage by hydrophobin films, possibly indicating a mechanism of more general significance to both biology and nanotechnology.     

In focus: Film,focus groups and working children in Bangladesh

The use of visuals in anthropological research is an established though much debated practice, both as a research tool and as a means of reporting. Pile sorts, mapping, thematic drawing, photographs, visual scales and pictorial triad testing are all visual methods that have been used in participatory and conventional ethnographic research to encourage discussion among study participants and to clarify detail. Our experience in the use of visual tools in a study conducted in 1997–98, among former child garment workers in Bangladesh, reinforces the value of the use of visuals in research. A documentary film was used in focus groups with children, most aged 10–13. The results suggest that film is a powerfully evocative tool and, combined with focus groups, is an excellent qualitative research technique. The research experience in Bangladesh also suggests that children are able to participate meaningfully in the research not in spite of but because of the use of documentary film.     

Making Forest of Bliss: The Film, the Book, the DVD, and the Breakthrough

Robert Gardner's and Àkos Östör's Making of Forest of Bliss (2002) is a combination book and DVD that contains eight teaching tools for better understanding Gardner's celebrated film Forest of Bliss. After the film was shot in 1985, filmmaker Gardner and anthropologist Östör recorded a conversation about each image and sound of the film while they screened it again in 1987, and remembered their filmmaking process on location in Benares, India. The feature length (89 minute) documentary about death ritual, reincarnation, the sacred Ganges River, and the very atmosphere of Benares is included as DVD, as are teaching tools such as frame grabs (still images from the film), a mathematically precise shot list, bibliography, important criticism and essays about the film, and the featured in-depth conversation between filmmaker Gardner and anthropological advisor Östör. This essay articulates the unique breakthroughs in pedagogy, cross-cultural studies, and multidisciplinary analysis such hybrid technology provides.     

Film reviews

Approach, Theory, and Technique in the Making of Bar Yohai¹

Bar Yohai

Anthropological Film as Celebration

Television Believers

A film by Aaron Ranen, Third Wave Media. 1986, 1/2", 3/4”, NTSC, color, 28 minutes. Distributed by Filmakers Library, Inc., 124 E. 40th Street, Suite 901, New York, NY 10016, USA, tele. 212–808–4980. Price: purchase $300, rental $55.     

Film Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Ritual: Three Portraits of Jewish Life . 1989. A film by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Murray Avenue . 1987. A film by Sheila Chamovitz.     

Film Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Best Time of My Life. 1987. Produced by Margaret Pettigrew for the National Film Board of Canada . 58 minutes, color.
Is It Hot in Here? A Film about Menopause. 1987. Produced by John Taylor for the National Film Board of Canada . 38 minutes, color.
New Images of Aging. 1987. Produced by Neil Steinberg . 29 minutes, color.
Sexuality and Aging. 1987. Produced and directed by Gary Hochman . 59 minutes, color.
To Care: A Portrait of Three Older Care-givers. 1987. Produced by Nicolas J. Kaufman and Joyce Newman . Directed by Nicolas J. Kaufman . 28 minutes, color.
Young at Heart. 1987. Produced by Sue Marx and Pamela Conn . 28 minutes, color.