Cool and Crazy: Anthropological Film at the Point of Convergence between Humanities and Social Science

ABSTRACT

The use of film as a tool in anthropological fieldwork is a challenge to traditional ways of thinking about scientific research. Nevertheless, documentary filming of the informants in their own context has proved to be an interesting supplement in the exploration of what the anthropological research field actually covers. Furthermore, film work confronts the researchers with aesthetic aspects of mediation that have not been epistemically well attended to within social science. This article highlights pivotal problems in the professional no-man's-land where visual culture studies take place, as exemplified by the film Cool and Crazy.