Ethnofiction
Ethnofiction is a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduce art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into academic works.[1][2][3]
In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvised, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.
History
[edit | edit source]Ethnologist Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction,[4] with Robert Flaherty as an ancestor.[5] Rouch discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers: the behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by the camera's presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule,[6][7][8][9] his mentor, Rouch considers it impossible for a non-participating camera to record "pure" events in ethnographic research.[10][11][12][13][14]
An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of cine-trance.[15][16] Rouch thus introduced the actor as a tool in research.[17][18][19][20]
Ethnofiction has also been developed in Portuguese cinema. Ethnic films have been common in Portugal since the 1930s, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s[21] and in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region in Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde islands are common subjects of such films. These films depict local realities along with legends and surreal imagery, producing works of ethnofiction.[citation needed]
Chronology
[edit | edit source]1910s
[edit | edit source]- 1914 – In the Land of the Head Hunters by Edward S. Curtis, Canada
1920s
[edit | edit source]- 1926 – Moana by Robert Flaherty, US
1930s
[edit | edit source]- 1930 – Maria do Mar by José Leitão de Barros, Portugal
- 1931 – Tabu written by Robert Flaherty and directed by F. W. Murnau, US
- 1932 – L'Or des mers by Jean Epstein, France
- 1933 – Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan by Luis Buñuel, Spain
- 1934 – Man of Aran by Robert Flaherty, UK
1940s
[edit | edit source]- 1942 – Ala-Arriba! by José Leitão de Barros, Portugal
- 1948 – Louisiana Story by Robert Flaherty, US
1950s
[edit | edit source]- 1955 – Les maîtres fous (The Mad Masters) by Jean Rouch, France
- 1958 – Moi, un noir (Me a Black) by Jean Rouch, France
1960s
[edit | edit source]- 1961 – La pyramide humaine by Jean Rouch, France
- 1962 – Acto da Primavera (Act of Spring) by Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
- 1963 – Pour la suite du monde (Of Whales, the Moon and Men) by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, Canada
- 1967 – Jaguar, by Jean Rouch, France
1970s
[edit | edit source]- 1976 – People from Praia da Vieira (Gente da Praia da Vieira) by António Campos, Portugal
- 1976 – Trás-os-Montes by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, Portugal
1980s
[edit | edit source]- 1982 – Nelisita: narrativas nyaneka by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, Angola
- 1988 – Mortu Nega (Death Denied) by Flora Gomes, Guiné-Bissau
1990s
[edit | edit source]- 1997 – Ossos by Pedro Costa, Portugal
2000s
[edit | edit source]- 2000 – No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda's Room) by Pedro Costa, Portugal
- 2003 – Terra Longe (Remote Land) by Daniel E. Thorbecke[22]
- 2006 – Colossal Youth by Pedro Costa, Portugal
- 2007 – Transfiction by Johannes Sjöberg
2010s
[edit | edit source]- 2011 – Toomelah by Ivan Sen
- 2012 – The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Indonesia
- 2014 – Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money) by Pedro Costa, Portugal
- 2014 – La creazione di significato (The Creation of Meaning) by Simone Rapisarda Casanova, Italy
- 2015 – Dead Slow Ahead by Mauro Herce
- 2018 – Zanj Hegel la (Hegel's Angel) by Simone Rapisarda Casanova, Haiti
- 2018 – The Dead and the Others by João Salaviza, Portugal
- 2019 – Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa, Portugal
- 2019 – Work, or To Whom Does the World Belong, by Elisa Cepedal, Spain[23]
- 2024 – Anime galleggianti by Maria Giménez Cavallo, Sardinia
See also
[edit | edit source]Footnotes
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- ^ Glossary at MAITRES_FOUS.NET
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Marcel Griaule (1898–1956) Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine – Article by Sybil Amber
- ^ From Pictorializing to Visual Anthropology1 Archived 2015-06-26 at the Wayback Machine – Chapter from "Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology"
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- ^ Father of 'cinema verite' dies – BBC news
- ^ BIOGRAPHIES: Jean Rouch – Article by Ben Michaels at Indiana University
- ^ A Tribute to Jean Rouch by Paul Stoller at Rouge
- ^ Ethnographic Film (origines)
- ^ Knowing Images: Jean Rouch's Ethnography <- Chapter from Sarah Cooper's monograph "Selfless Cinema?: Ethics and French Documentary" (Oxford: Legenda, 2006) at MAITRES-FOUS.net
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Cine-trance: a Tribute to Jean Rouch(Visual Anthropology, American Anthropologist)
- ^ Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch, article by Reuben Ross, UK Visual Anthropology, November 9, 2010
- ^ Videos about ethnofiction on Vimeo
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Coming of Age as Other: Indigenous People in the Ethnofiction Film 'The Dead and The Others' – article at CINEA, 14 december 2018
- ^ Imagining Rurality: Portuguese Documentary and Ethnographic Film in the 1960s and 1990s – Abstract for a conference by Catarina Alves Costa at Comité du Film Ethnographique
- ^ Terra Longe, David & Golias
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- Ethnofition at The University of Manchester (watch video)
- Ethnofiction and Beyond: The Legacy of Projective Improvisation in Ethnographic Filmmaking by Johannes Sjöberg
- L'ETHNOFICTION A L'ŒUVRE: prisme et images de l'entité dogon – Article (French) by Gaetano Ciarcia at Université Montpellier III
- Rouch & Cie. – un quintette Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine – Article (French) by Andrea Paganini at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
- Ethnic Portraits and Ethnofiction at Mubi
- The war of dreams: exercises in ethno-fiction by Marc Augé (google books)
- Ethnofiction : drama as a creative research practice in ethnographic film at Mendley – Paper by Bloom, Elizabeth A., Ed.D., STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON, 2006
- Language description and "the new paradigm": What linguists may learn from ethnocinematographers – Article by Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, University of Cologne, at University of Hawai'i at Manoa
- Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch at UK Visual Anthropology
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