Ambiguities & epistemology (ways to know and produce knowledge): documentary as organized ethnographic texts SM4134 Visual Ethnography & Creative Intervention February 18, 2009 Dr. Linda C.H. LAI

From last week (3 rd meeting)… *the epistemic…photography in ethnographic research is tied to questions of knowledge production… *”Objectivity” and “truths” could be misleading and take us away from the more important issues, especially the fact that the epistemic and the aesthetic work together hand in hand. *theorization of photography: should move beyond medium-oriented approach as well as the “photography-artist-subject” triangle to include usage and the users

Photos as field notes, as documents… …Photos as organized texts, as ethnographic texts…

What matters with the term “documentary”? – a “usage” approach Convention, narrativity Truth claims > method The term ‘documentary’ properly describes NOT ONLY a style or a method or a genre of filmmaking BUT an assumed MODE OF RESPONSE to film material: a mode of response founded upon the acknowledgment that every photograph is a portrait signed by its sitter. Anticipated documentary response (assumed usage): A documentary film is one which seeks, by whatever means, to elicit the idea that ‘the image is perceived as signifying what it appears to record.’ Viewers’ perception

Interdisciplinary approach to the Visual in Ethnography Anthropological and photographic theories of representation may be combined to produce a deeper understanding of the expressive possibilities of photography for anthropological representation. Ethnography is only one aspect of a research project. Different disciplinary uses of it are likely to situate ethnography differently.

Ethnographic filmmaking Precursors? Use of film to capture patterns of human behavior for scientific analysis: e.g. Felix-Louis Regnault (1895) – high-speed chronophotography footage of a Wolof woamn making pots at the Exposition Ethnographique de l’Afrique Occidentale; later works compare movement across continents Actualities in early cinema (pre ) Travel films (Travelogues) Edward Curtis’s In the Land of the Headhunters (1914) …films whose subjects were non-Western, non-urban, and in pre-modern societies **fictional romantic melodrama made among the Kwaikutl Reference: “The Emergence of Ethnographic Film Practice: Past Travels and Future Itineraries” by Prerana Reddy

Ethnographic filmmaking Documentation + Documentary Robert Flaherty…(1940s…) Re-staging everyday life episodes + use of film narration Re-staging the only way to share knowledge Organization – the need of a “story” Camera position, mise-en-scene, duration of shots Further reference: “How I Filmed Nanook of the North” by Robert Flaherty (1922) at

Ethnographic filmmaking Paul Henley, 46 Documentation + Documentary Dziga Vertov…(1920s…) kinopravda = “camera truth” Camera NOT from one fixed angle, but everywhere “Eye-on-the-wall”? What “truth”? Truth the camera is capable of: the camera should be constantly moving, entering where it please, “catching life unawares.” Camera is a means of insight beyond the surface features of everyday observable reality. 1950s… Popularization of TV broadcasting

Ethnographic filmmaking Paul Henley, 46 Documentation + Documentary John Grierson (Britain, 1930s…) Grierson founded the GPO’s Film Unit in 1933… Night Mail (released 1936, dir. Harry Watt, Basil Wright) = “camera truth” “sound archive” On the British postal system Ethnography of technology…ethnography of urban sound Screen on-line:

Ethnographic filmmaking Paul Henley, 46 Documentation + Documentary Maya Deren (Britain, 1930s…) Grierson founded the GPO’s Film Unit in 1933… Night Mail (released 1936, dir. Harry Watt, Basil Wright) = “camera truth” “sound archive” On the British postal system Ethnography of technology…ethnography of urban sound Screen on-line:

Ethnographic filmmaking Documentation + Documentary Jean Rouch…(1940s…) use of documentary editorial devices + making “documentary fictions” Play with boundaries of fact Vs fiction, observer Vs the observed…, and tradition Vs modernity 1950s… Popularization of TV broadcasting

Technological development re-defining documentary methods Documentary Technology –Late 1950s, Heavy 35mm camera and huge sound recorder restricted the location, denied documentary “New technology create new documentary form” –Television journalism in US, filmmakers and producers looked for new ways to present information within the documentary format. –Robert Drew, inspired by Life magazine to capture events as they unfolded -> Get funding to develop equipment –Near end of 1950s, new sensitive film stocks permitted shooting in low lights, thus replacing the need to illuminate the subject with multiple spotlights. The 16mm film was loaded in magazines which could be replaced in seconds, thereby reducing the downtime spent reloading the camera. –“Direct cinema” (developed by Drew and his associates) was deeply implicated with the established discourse of journalistic objectivity Documentary screens chapter 5, pp

Technological development re-defining documentary methods Technology affects the documentary filmmakers Filmmaker now can be also the cinematographers “cutting” is done in the camera Some of the human complexity of those being zoomed in on can now be suggested Fourteen Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité, 1960, pp

Frederick Wiseman: Titicut Follies An example of Direct Cinema Director: –Frederick Wiseman Release Date: –1967 (USA) Banned by US

Titicut Follies: Background Information Titicut Follies is a black and white 1967 documentary film by Frederick Wiseman about the treatment of patient at Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The title is taken from a talent show put on by the hospital's inmates. The film’s release was banned( outside the field of education) in the United States from by the Massachusetts Surpreme Judicial Court because it violated the patients’ rights. In 1992, it was allowed to be shown on PBS. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ordered that "A brief explanation shall be included in the film that changes and improvements have taken place at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater since 1966.”

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) Production: GPO Film Unit for Ceylon Tea Marketing Board …begun as an Empire Marketing Board film

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) Background of production: Producer: John Grierson Screenplay: John Grierson, Basil Wright …, based partly on a book about Ceylon written by traveler Robert Knox in 1680 Music: Walter Leigh Cast: Lionel Wendt (Narrator) …

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) Basil Wright was sent to Ceylon to film four one-reel travelogues as publicity for the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board. When he was actually there, he was driven by his own “inner impulse” which made him shoot other sites and themes. The idea of Song of Ceylon was not in his mind when he was there until after he returned to London to edit the footage. There was no shooting script, but a screenplay afterwards, also with reference to an existing book. The editing and sound in the film were done in England. Eight tracks of recorded sound and music and images were combined. The film’s narration was taken from Robert Knox’s book (1680), which Wright discovered by chance in a store window.

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) I. the Buddha Pilgrims up a mountainside to pray… II.the Virgin Island (10:54) Daily life of the people… III.the Voices of Commerce (~23:00) Two systems of labors juxtaposed: sound track of British stock market prices and the arrival and departure times for ships // natives of Ceylon gathering coconuts ad tea leaves by hand IV.the Apparel of the Gods (29:43) Religious and cultural life of Ceylon as lived before the arrival of the British colonizers The four titles were inserted afterwards.

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) The film is often called the world’s finest example of “lyrical documentary.” Grierson described the theme of the work, “Buddhism and the art of life it has to offer, set upon by a Western metropolitan civilization which, in spite of all our skills, has no art of life to offer.”

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) Keywords… Interpretation / narrative composition / sight and sound craftsmanship / experimentation of sound / anthropology and power structure

CASE STUDY: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1934) Bibliography: Cecil Starr Screen online:

TWO modes of PRESENCE Ethnographic filmmaker as… A quiet observer (observational approach) Objective reality is observable, as long as we minimize interruption. The camera is a telescope or microscope – neutral, impersonal, distant. An interpreter (interpretive approach) **implicit theory of knowledge: “true social reality is not to be found in the superficial observable details of everyday life but rather in the underlying relationships, sentiments and attitudes which sustain them.” (Paul Henley, p. 43, in Jon Prosser, 1998)

Epistemology: different positions Realist / Representationalist view Certain degree of certainty of knowledge produced about a real world is possible with awareness of the methodology itself (reflexivity). Post-structuralist/Postmodern view “Sentences are the only things that can be true or false.” (Chris Barker interpreting Nietzsche) Knowledge is a matter of the construction of interpretations about the world. * When we say something is true, we mean certain construction is taken to be true. *An idea of truth is also taken so within a historical context, and as the consequence of certain power function and power structure.

Post-structuralist/Postmodern view Production of knowledge occurs within the language-games of such activities.

Post-structuralist/Postmodern view Reflexivity is a key feature…

Ethnography: what kind of knowledge production? Between… numbers   meanings Counting   interpreting Lived experience ↓ Intensive field work ↓ Thick descriptions (detailed holistic description)

Ethnography: what kind of knowledge production? Thick description (Clifford Geertz) Details……………..  …………….social processes (multiplicity of complex conceptual structures) (whole way of life) (life-worlds and identities)

Ethno-methodologies A mixed range of qualitative methods… Interviews, participant observation, focus groups, textual analysis…