Documentary
Film: Science and Art in Close Encounter
within an Intercultural Dialogue
Film Festival Beeld voor Beeld,
17th edition
711 June 2006; Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Event website: http://www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl.
Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg
University of Plymouth
martha.blassnigg@gmail.com
The following review of the Beeld voor
Beeld festival in Amsterdam discusses
the bridging of the traditional divide
between art and science in the field of
documentary film.
The Beeld voor Beeld ("Image
by Image") in Amsterdam is a small
annual film festival showing ethnographic
and anthropological films. It has been
running for 17 years and provides an exhibition
venue for recent international and national
productions within a critical forum of
discussion and exchange. The festival
is organized by SAVAN, which is the foundation
for Audiovisual Anthropology Netherlands,
and it is hosted by the Tropentheater
of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT),
(the former Amsterdam Colonial Institute),
which specializes in international cooperation
and intercultural communication. As much
as it provides a showcase for new films,
it also offers an insight into the state
of Visual Anthropology.
Visual Anthropology, generally speaking,
conveys the use, production, distribution,
exhibition and a theoretical meta-discussion
of audio-visual material in the context
of ethnographic fieldwork as well as social-anthropological
research in general. It emerged from cultural
and social anthropology and became established
as a discipline in the 1950s. The
earliest attempts to record the cultural
context and particularity of human behaviour
on film dates from the very origins of
film. While Felix Louis Regnault is recognized
as having produced some of the first researchable
footage (Ruby, 1996), even earlier film
materials, such as the audio-visual documentations
by Thomas Edison in 1894, already foreshadow
some of the current concerns and problems
in Visual Anthropology. Felix Louis Regnault,
however, was not a technologist like Edison
but a scientist with open-ended questions.
He was a physician who applied chronophotography
to study culture specific human locomotion
and produced some of the first ethnographic
footage from the Paris Exposition Ethnographique
de lAfrique Occidentale in 1895
in the typical evolutionist, Eurocentric
perspective of the time. However his work
announced the two kinds of cinema that
have developed: a technology of science,
and a technology of entertainment. This
dichotomy has persisted throughout the
20th century in discussions,
which at its heart challenge the idea
that technology produces "objective"
images. In film theory this discussion
is around terms such as "realism"
versus "fiction", "authenticity"
or "reliability" which also
extend to the practice and theory of documentary
film. In this debate, the genre of "ethnographic
film" traditionally holds the observation
of a relatively objective reality as its
main function, in contrast to de-constructed,
self-reflexive and the more artistic approaches
of contemporary filmmakers generally more
broadly classified as "anthropological
films". The relative subtlety of
this opposition is where the distinction
between science and art (and/or entertainment)
dissolves and the human agency as transmitter
of knowledge moves to the foreground.
In this sense, broadly speaking, every
film (fiction or scientific, could be
considered "anthropological",
as it is communicated and produced by
human agency, and diverse cultural aspects
and contexts are implicitly and explicitly
at work. [1] Beeld voor Beeld has
recognized this possibility and has broadened
its focus on films with anthropological
content alongside the more specific, traditional
ethnographic film genre.
Another central (and most explicitly communicated
and relevant) concern of the festival
is to create a dialogue between cultures.
In the opening speech, Eddy Appels emphasized
that through the inside-view of anthropologists,
art (film) is able to surpass stereotypes
and transcend boundaries and become a
political statement by challenging the
pre-conceived ideas on other cultures.
This aspect was also given voice in the
lecture "Africa Imagined" by
Paul Faber, curator of the Africa-wing
of the Tropenmuseum, who discussed the
use of film fragments from documentary
films for exhibition contexts. [2] One
strategy for filmmakers to create a dialogue
instead of monologues or hegemonic outsiders
views is through so called "community
based projects". In these the film
is produced, sometimes even initiated,
by the community or the subjects themselves
with the objective of transferring knowledge
or raising political awareness even as
far as to pass over to the subjects in
the film making process. It is an approach
that attempts to bridge the unequal distribution
of resources between the partiesparticularly
with regard to the access to technology.
These initiatives are supported by organizations
such as Witness (http://www.witness.org/)
and UNESCO in an attempt to reinforce
human rights and political empowerment.
One of UNESCOs projects from the
Information- and Communication Technologies
for Intercultural Dialogue program [3],
"The Gold of Pidlisan" by the
Dutch filmmaker Wiek Lenssen was screened
at the festival. It was a project that
was realized among and through collaborations
with indigenous communities in the Philippines
and critically investigates the consequences
of the large-scale mining industry in
the Cordileras Mountains. Following the
screening, Ton Guiking, former director
of the festival, anthropologist and filmmaker,
convened a roundtable consisting of the
filmmakers Wiek Lenssen, Jan Willem Meurkens
and Miranda van der Spek, who have all
trained indigenous people in the film
making process. They discussed the involvement
and training of indigenous filmmakers
and the political implications of this
transfer of knowledge and skills by showing
fragments of their recent projects [4].
One of the problems, for example, that
was identified in the discussion of Wiek
Lenssens project was that for filmmakers,
there are often not enough resources available
to spend sufficient time with the communities.
In addition, the community members could
not afford a long-term investment of their
time alongside their normal work and other
commitmentsthis reiterates
a problem that seems to occur more and
more for cultural anthropologists who
traditionally have spent extensive amounts
of time with the communities they study
and are now often unable to. The conflict
revealed here lies between scientific
and artistic knowledge and the social
and political contingencies of daily life.
The broad spectrum of approaches in the
film programme revealed other points for
discussion, for example on ethics, politics
and aesthetics.
Beginning with
a day of student films, and during the
following four-days, a wide range of approaches
within Visual Anthropology became evident
through the screenings. For example, a
documentary "fiction", "Kiran
over Mongolia" by Joseph Spaid (Mongolia,
2005), about a young Kazak man who sets
out to learn the traditional way of hunting
with eagles by a eagle master was based
on observational research. Spaid wrote
the script after travelling in Mongolia
and, subsequently, cast amateur actors
who fitted the story in order to reinforce
several authentic aspects. This is an
approach that clearly fudges the boundaries
between fiction and documentary. In contrast
to this exception, the film "Practice
and Mastery" by Rossella Schillaci
(Italy, 2005) for example, was filmed
in a more classic ethnographic style and
showed a sophisticated balance between
an observational style and interviews
with the brothers Antonio and Vincenzo
Forestiero. The two brothers appeared
not only masters in the making and playing
of the zampogna (bagpipe) in the region
of Basilicata in Southern Italy but also
in featuring as charming characters for
the lead in this informative as well as
entertaining film. Ethical issues were
discussed in formal and informal gatherings;
for example, there was a crucial discussion
among visual anthropologists around the
ethical responsibilities of the filmmaker
who fails to intervene when a violent
scene develops in front of the camera.
The festival also offered two outstanding
examples of a reflexive approach to anthropological
filmmaking. The first, Aaron Glass
"In Search of the Hamatsa:
a Tale of Headhunting" (Canada, 2004).
Glass film featured in the student
program and is part of his PhD research
on the Hamatsa ceremonie of the
Kwakwakawakw (mistakenly called
Kwakiutl). His thesis examines the ethnographic
representation and performance history
of the Hamatsa, but on the way it
also explores the history of anthropology
and critically reflects on the complex
relationships between anthropology, museums,
and the local communities. In contrast,
Michael Yorke is a distinguished documentary
filmmaker from the UK who presented the
72 min. version of his film "Holy
Men and Fools" that presents the
story of a pilgrimage across the high
Himalayas with Uma, a retired Swedish
model accepted by the Indian Sadhu community,
and Vasisht, a charismatic young Indian
holy man. The film is narrated through
a self-reflexive account of the journey
by Yorke himself who explained that after
a first version of the film in a pure
observational style that was also longer,
he has reconciled the narrative lines
of the two very strong characters through
the binding thread of his personal involvement
with them during the filming process.
Although both films were very different,
they showed how intellectual ideas can
be developed through technological mediation
and the explicit presence of the filmmaker.
What these few examples reveal (and there
are many more that could be mentionedfor
the complete program, see: http://www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl)
is that the festival is more than an exhibition
of films; it is a forum for discussion
and exchange thanks to in-depth Q&A
sessions convened by specialists in the
field (anthropologists, filmmakers, music
theorists, etc.).
In a similar tradition with other ethnographic/
anthropological film festivals in Europe,
such as the Göttingen International
Ethnographic Film Festival or the Nordic
Anthropological Film Association Filmfestival,
Beeld voor Beeld presents documentary
films with anthropological content as
a dialogue between diverse cultural contexts,
combining the exhibition of films with
discussions that make the processes of
film making, distribution, reception and
the inherent ethical and political implications
apparent to their audiences. Highly specialized
festivals, such as Beeld voor Beeld
provide a fruitful exchange between film
form and content, between the makers,
the protagonists, and their audiences.
However, it is to be hoped that Beeld
voor Beeld will remain truthful to
its roots in the rigorous methods of Cultural
(Visual) Anthropology as its core and
foundation and does not become (another)
victim of film festivals successes. As
it inevitably expands, the committee should
be alert to the tendency of some other
more general documentary film festivals
to foreground a predominantly social-political
agenda and confuse commercialization with
popularization. Most importantly, the
festival also serves as an intellectual
(theoretical/academic) resource and forum
where the field of Visual Anthropology
is being continuously shaped by contemporary
reflections and interventions. Festivals
such as Beeld voor Beeld are crucial
for promoting close encounters between
the arts and the sciences in the genre
of documentary film, but also consistent
with an anthropologists worldview,
to bring an interpretation of these themes
together in a reflexive process that includes
public perception. In this way, Cultural
Anthropology is a crucial tool in the
understanding of the relationship between
art, science and technology.
Notes:
[1] "These naïve assumptions
about the differences between the art
of film and the science of anthropology
are slowly being replaced by a conception
of film as a culturally bound communication
usable in a variety of discourses."
(Ruby, 1996)
[2] Paul Faber presented three edited
fragments from documentary films that
will be displayed in the new Africa exhibition
in the Tropenmuseum (opening this summer).
Two of the filmmakers of the original
material happened to be present in the
audience and joined a lively discussion
about the adaptation of film for new contexts
relative to the film directors original
intentions. Finally Faber gave a private
tour through the exhibition space still
under construction and explained the locations
and mediation of the film material in
their specific exhibition lay out. (For
more information on the Tropenmuseum,
see http://www.kit.nl/)
[3] "Preserving indigenous peoples
cultural resources by fostering access
to ICT, thus contributing to narrowing
the digital divide is the aim of new project
entitled "ICTs for Intercultural Dialogue:
Developing communication capacities of
indigenous peoples (ICT4ID)", which UNESCO
has recently launched as the direct result
of the International Forum on Local Cultural
Expression and Communication held in Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic on 3-6 November
2003." (See http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14203&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)
[4] Filmmaker Jan Willem Meurkens showed
fragments from his film "From the
Inside Out" (Colombia, 2005), of
which a quarter is filmed by indigenous
cameramen. Meurkens showed the extraordinary
example of the film skills from the 17
year old Plinio Tanimuka who was trained
by his father Gilbert who himself has
been trained by Meurkens. (see http://www.ftio.nl/)
Visual anthropologist
Miranda van der Spek presented fragments
from the project "Focus on Water",
produced by OLAA, the Organization for
Latin American Activities, and Miranda
Productions. Is consists of a collaboration
between school classes in Bolivia and
the Netherlands on specific local water
related topics, which the 11-12 year old
pupils express through audio-visual media.
(See http://www.enfocando-el-agua.org
/ http://www.waterinbeeld.org - only in
Spanish and Dutch).
References:
Rony, Fatimah Tobing. 1996. The Third
Eye. Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle.
Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Ruby, Jay. 1996. Visual Anthropology.
In Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology.
Eds. Levinson, D. and Melvin, E. New York:
Henry Holt and Company, vol. 4:1345-1351
(See also http://astro.temple.edu/~ruby/ruby/cultanthro.html)
Cited websites:
http://www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl
For more links to related festivals/institutions
see: http://www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl/eng/links/index.html
http://www.kit.nl/
http://www.witness.org/
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14203&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
http://www.enfocando-el-agua.org
http://www.waterinbeeld.org/
http://www.ftio.nl/