(Trans)Cultural Cinema:

Aesthetics, Ideology, and Cultural Difference in Non-Fiction Film

Course number VES 189 (cross-listed with Anthro)

Time and Place Mon 6-8 Carpenter Ctr., B04 (Screening) Tues 10-11:30, B04 Tues 6-8, B04 (Screening)

Instructor Lucien Taylor Office Hours:. Tues 11:30 12:30 Sever, 405 [accessible only from north stairwell] and by appointment at your convenience Lucien_Taylor@Harvard.Edu Teaching Fellow Noelle Stout stout@fas.harvard.edu

HARVARD UNIVERSITY FALL 2003

COURSE OUTLINE This course traces the variety of ways in which predominantly non-fiction filmand video-makers from the 1920s to the present have depicted reality, human existence, and culture. As such, it concentrates to a significant degree on filmmakers who have focused on the reciprocal provocations between individual human subjects and the wider cultural circumstances, circuits, and contexts in which their lives are enmeshed. In featuring many imagemakers who are categorized, whether by themselves or others, as ethnographic, indigenous, or diasporic, in orientation or origin, the seminar seeks to bring certain critical insights from film studies, cultural studies, and anthropology into fertile juxtaposition. We shall address the problems and prospects of different modalities and traditions of filmmaking; the blurring of boundaries between filmic genres and the multiciplicity of relationships they establish between the pro-filmic and the filmic; the ethics as well as the epistemology of pictorial and audiovisual representation; and the relationships that are put into play between films subjects, their makers, and their spectators, in a wide variety of cultural settings, Western and non-Western, colonial and post-colonial. Ways in which films may contest culture, and/or may reveal different aspects of the world from those portrayed by expository, and especially anthropological, writing, as well as phenomenological differences between styles of ethnographic writing and of ethnographic film, will also be considered. Filmmakers whose works will be screened and analyzed include Robert Flaherty, Alberto Cavalcanti, Luis Buuel, Dziga Vertov, Maya Deren, Jean Rouch, Kidlat Tahimik, Robert Gardner, Shanti Thakur, Ross McElwee, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Marilu Mallet, and Zacharias Kunuk. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Attendance at all classes is required, as is close reading of all assigned course material by the class date in question. Because the course bridges multiple academic disciplines, the reading (as well as the viewing) load is high. The class itself is conducted as a seminar, rather than a lecture series. As such, class participation is extremely important, and will constitute 20% of your grade. In addition, there are two kinds of written assigments: (1) A film journal, to which you will contribute analytical reviews throughout the semester. This journal will constitute 40% of your grade. You should write one-two page double-spaced critical reviews for 13 of the films that we see, relating the films to the themes and the reading of the course as a whole, and especially to the reading of that week. Rather than attempting some monstrosity such as summarising a film in toto, you should hone in on a particular moment in, or aspect of, a film: a cut, a shot, a sequence, a character, a line of dialogue, a title, the cinematography, the editing, etc. The closer and more descriptive your review, the better. You are encouraged to quote from the

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reading, not by way of summary or to indicate your assent to an authors point of view, but rather whenever you take exception to and wish to argue against a proposition being established, or a line of argument being elaborated. By way of preparation for these analytical reviews, it is crucial that you take detailed notes as you watch the films, and that you write the reviews as soon as possible after seeing the films (and having completed the accompanying reading), as films rarely stay fresh in the mind. Whenever possible, films screened in class have also been purchased for the HFA Film Study Library on VHS, and so are available for detailed re-viewing, with Pause, Rewind, and fast Forward Buttons, in your own time. The film reviews are due weekly. Graduate students should hand the review about one, some, or even (God forbid) all of the previous weeks films to Lucien at the beginning of the Tuesday class each week. Undergraduates should hand in the review to Noelle at the beginning of section each week. Additionally, undergraduates must email reviews, as an attachment, to Noelle, by midnight of the night preceding section. Many thanks, in advance. (No extensions. A full letter grade will be deducted for each late day.) (2) As a final writing project (also 40% of your grade), you may either (a) write a 12-16 page essay on one of a number of possible subjects that will be handed out during the semester, or (b) compose a well-researched 14+ pp. proposal for a non-fiction film or video that you might wish to produce. You are encouraged to meet with the TF and instructor as early as possible during the semester during office hours to discuss any ideas you may have for this project. If you choose the latter, you should undertake research archival, and if possible also participant-observation on your subject during the course of semester, and come to class prepared to talk about your progress and evolving relationships and ideas. If you have your own equipment, you may also, with the instructors permission, undertake preliminary shooting or audio recording. Guidelines for the final project will be handed out during the semester; a oneparagraph outline of your proposal is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday October 7; the final project itself is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday Dec 16. (No extensions. A full letter grade will be deducted for each late day.) COURSE TEXTS There are 6 required course texts: Course Reader (CR below) For Documentary, D. Vaughan (California, 1999) (FD, below) Visualizing Theory, ed. L. Taylor (Routledge, 1994) (VT below) Transcultural Cinema, D. MacDougall (Princeton, 1999) (TC below) Cross-Cultural Filmmaking, I Barbash & L. Taylor (California, 1998) (CCF, below) Making Forest of Bliss, Robert Gardner and Akos str (MFB, below)

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COURSE OUTLINE Week I: Introduction: Cultural Authenticity and Representational Veracity No Lies (1973) Mitchell Block, 16mm, 16 mins. Im British But (1990) Gurinder Chadha, 28 mins Tues Sept 16 Screening

Tues Sept. 16

Cannibal Tours (1987) Dennis ORourke, 16mm, 70 mins. The Indigene & the Alien: Exoticism & Humanism

Week II: Mon Sept 22 Screening

Nanook of the North (1922) Robert Flaherty, 64 mins.

Tues Sept. 23 Reading:

Cannibal Tours, Dean MacCannell (VT) No Lies: Direct Cinema as Rape, Vivian Sobchack (CR) Iconophobia, Lucien Taylor (CR) Documentary Styles (Ch. 1, CCF) Nanook of the North, William Rothman (CR) Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography, Fatimah Tobing Rony (CR)

Tues Sept. 23 Screening Week III: Mon Sept. 29 Screening

Nanook Revisited (1990, 54 mins.) Holism & Nostalgia: The Exotic At Home

Man of Aran (1934) Robert Flaherty, 77 mins.

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Tues Sept. 30 Reading:

Culture, Difference, Identity, Adam Kuper (CR) Writing against Culture, Lila Abu-Lughod (CR) Filming Real People, Robert Flaherty (CR) Man of Aran, Richard Barsam (CR) Visual Anthropology & the Ways of Knowing, David MacDougall (TC) Rooting for Magoo, Dai Vaughan (FD) How the Myth Was Made, Gordon Hitchens (CR) Introduction (CCF) From Fieldwork to Filming (Ch. 2, CCF)

Tues Sept. 30 Screening

How the Myth Was Made (1978) George Stoney, 59 mins. Montage & Modernity; Surrealism & Urbanity

Week IV: Mon Oct 6 Screening

The Man with the Movie Camera (1928) Dziga Vertov, 68-90 mins. Rien que les heures [Only the Hours] (1926) Alberto Cavalcanti, 40 mins.

Tues Oct 7 Reading:

Dziga Vertov: The Man with the Movie Camera, CR) The Man with the Movie Camera, Dai Vaughan (CR) Manufacturing Vision, David Tomas (VT) Physiognomic Aspects of Visual Worlds, Michael Taussig (VT) Alberto Cavalcanti, Emir Rodriguez Monegal (CR) Two Aspects of the City: Cavalcanti & Ruttman, Jay Chapman (CR) Rien que les heures. Ian Aitken (CR) An Ethnographic Surrealist Film, Jeff Ruoff (CR) Synthetic Vision, Vivian Sobchack (CR) Land without Bread, William Rothman (CR) Basil Wrights Song of Ceylon, Marie Seton (CR) Song of Ceylon: An Interview with Basil Wright, Cecil Straa (CR) The Art of National Projection, William Guynn (CR) First Principles of Documentary, John Grierson (CR) Night Mail, Dai Vaughan (CR) It was an atrocious film, Jeanette Sloniowski (CR)

Due: Tues Oct 7 Screening

One-Para Outline of Final Film/Video Proposals

Las Hurdes/ Tiera Sin Pan Luis Buuel, 1932, 22 mins Song of Ceylon (1934) Basil Wright, 40 mins. Night Mail (1936) Basil Wright and Harry Watt, 24 mins. Le sang des btes (1949) Georges Franju, 22 mins.

Week V: Mon Oct 13 Tues Oct 14

Trance & Transcendence Columbus Day (Holiday) Las Hurdes/ Tiera Sin Pan Luis Buuel, 1932, 22 mins [alternative version] Voodoo Vrit, Ruby Rich (CR) Authors Preface, & Introductory Note, Maya Deren (CR) Maya Derens Ethnographic Representation of Ritual and Myth in Haiti, Moira Sullivan (CR) An Introduction to the Notebook of Maya Deren, 1947, Catrina Neiman (CR)

Reading:

Tues Oct 14 Screening

Divine Horsemen Maya Deren, 1947-1951 (1977), 60 mins. Ethno-Fiction, Cinma-Vrit, & I-witnessing

Week VI: Mon Oct 20 Screening

Les Matres fous Jean Rouch, 1953-4, 33 mins. Chronique dun t [Chronicle of a Summer] (1961) Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, 90 mins.

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Tues Oct 21 Reading:

The Dialogic Imagination of Jean Rouch, Diane Scheinman (CR) Les Matres Fous, Paul Stoller (CR) A Conversation with Jean Rouch, Lucien Taylor (CR) Artaud, Rouch, and the Cinema of Cruelty, Paul Stoller (VT) Chronicle of a Film, Edgar Morin (CR) The Cinema of the Future?, Jean Rouch (CR) The Point of View of the Characters (CR) Chronicle of a Summer, William Rothman (CR) Documentary Film & the discourse of Hysterical/ Historical Narrative, Lucy Fischer (CR)

Tues Oct 21 Screening

Shermans March (1985) Ross McElwee

* Thurs Oct 23 * Screening:

Bright Leaves (2003) Ross McElwee, 107 mins. (Carpenter Center Main Lecture Hall) 7 p.m. Filmmaker in person. Be sure to arrive early! (Beyond) Observational Cinema

Week VII: Mon Oct 27 Screening

Titicut Follies (1967) Frederik Wiseman & John Marshall, 89 mins. The Act of Seeing with Ones Own Eyes (1971) Stan Brakhage

Tues Oct 28 Reading:

Ethnography in the First Person, Barry Grant (CR) The Aesthetics of Ambiguity, Dai Vaughan (FD) Beyond Observational Cinema, David MacDougall (TC) Seeing with Experimental Eyes, Bart Testa (CR) Introduction, L. Taylor (TC) Reframing Ethnographic Film, Barbash & Taylor (CR) Unprivileged Camera Style, David MacDougall (TC) What do we mean by What?, Dai Vaughan (FD) Notes on the Ascent of a Fictitious Mountain, Dai Vaughan (FD)

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Complex Constructions with Subjective Voices, Peter Loizos (pp. 91-100) (CR) Tues Oct 28 Screening

To Live with Herds (1968/1972) David MacDougall, 70 mins. Gender & Auteur

Week VIII: Mon Nov 3 Screening

Rivers of Sand (1975) Robert Gardner, 84 mins.

Tues Nov 4 Reading:

Out of Words: The Aesthesodic Cine-Eye of Robert Gardner, I. Barbash (CR) Rivers of Sand, Robert Gardner (CR) The feather and the grindstone, Octavio Paz (CR) Filming among the Hamar, Ivo Strecker (CR) Rivers of Sand, Lionel Bender (CR) A Critique of Lionel Benders Review of Rivers of Sand (CR) Reply to Lydall and Strecker on Rivers of Sand, Lionel Bender (CR) Rivers of Sand, script (CR) Filming The Women who Smile, Jean Lydall (CR)

Tues Nov 4 Screening

The Women Who Smile (1990) Joanna Head and Jean Lydall, 50 mins. Dukas Dilemma (2002) Jean Lydall, 87 mins.

Week IX: Mon Nov 10 Screening

Televisual (Re)membering

Memories and Dreams (1992) Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, 92 mins. Conversations with Anthropological Filmmakers: Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, Anna Grimshaw (CR) Films of Memory, David MacDougall (TC) Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?, Lila AbuLughod (CR)

Reading:

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Tues Nov 11 Week X: Mon Nov 17 Screening

Veterans Day (Holiday) Memory and Modernism

Perfumed Nightmare Kidlat Tahimik, 1978, 91 mins.

Tues Nov 18 Reading: Jameson

Art Naif and the Admixture of Worlds, Fredric (CR) The Modernist Sensibility in Recent Ethnographic Writing and the Cinematic Metaphor of Montage, George Marcus (VT) Future Travel, Christopher Pinney (VT) Marker Changes Trains, Terrence Rafferty (CR) A Deconstructive Documentary, Allan Casebier (CR)

Tues Nov 18 Screening

Sans Soleil (1982) Chris Marker, 100 mins. Beyond Words Beyond Anthropology?

Week XI: Mon Nov 24 Screening

Forest of Bliss (1985) Robert Gardner, 91 mins.

Tues Nov 25 Reading:

Distance as Distance: Film as Film, Harry Tomicek (CR) Some Thoughts About Making Forest of Bliss, Robert Gardner (CR) Forest of Bliss, Stanley Cavell (CR) The Limitations of Imagist Documentary, Alexander Moore (CR) Letter to the Editor, Robert Gardner (CR) Comment on Robert Gardners Forest of Bliss, Jonathon Parry (CR) Robert Gardners Forest of Bliss A Review, Radikha Chopra (CR) Is that what Forest of Bliss is all about?, Akos Oster (CR) The Emperor and His Clothes, Jay Ruby (CR) Assassins and Cainnibals, Edmund Carpenter (CR) Letter from Gerardo Reichel Dolmatoff (CR) Anthropologists Against Death, Frits Stall (CR)

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Powers of Horror, Kamala Visweswaran (CR) Forest of Bliss: Film & Anthropology, Akos str (CR) Making Forest of Bliss, Robert Gardner and Akos str (MFB) Tues Nov 25 Screening

Forest of Bliss (1985) Robert Gardner, 91 mins. Seven Hours to Burn (1999) Shanti Thakur, 9 mins.

Week XII:

The Post-modern & the Post-colonial: The Indigenous as Avant-Garde

Mon Dec 1 Screening

Reassemblage (1982) Trinh T. Minh-ha, 40 mins. Nice Colored Girls Tracey Moffatt, 1987, 16 mins. Night Cries Tracey Moffatt, 1990, 19 mins.

Tues Dec 2 Reading:

Aufderheide

Reassemblage, Trinh T. Minh-ha (CR) Trinh Observed: Anthropology & Others, Henrietta Moore (VT) Speaking Nearby, Nancy N. Chen & Trinh T. Minh-ha (VT) Only Angels Have Wings, Isaac Julien with Mark Nash (CR) Night Cries: Another Colonial Horror Story, Catherine Russell (CR) Nice Colored Girls, Peter Loizos (CR) Victor Masayesva Jr., Jacquelyn Kilpatrick (CR) Indigenous Media, Faye Ginsburg (CR) Televisualist Anthropology, James Weiner, & Comment (CR) Marketing Alterity, Rachel Moore (VT) Videomaking with Brazilian Indians, Patricia (CR)

Tues Dec 2 Screening

Imagining Indians (1992) Victor Masayesva, 60 mins. Video Cannibalism (199X?) Vincent Carelli, 17 mins. Jungle Secrets (1998) Taitetua village, 37 mins. We Gather as a Family (1993) Vincent Carelli, 32 mins.

Week XIII: Mon Dec 8 Screening

Exile and Nation: A Fatal Couplet?

Journal Inachev [Unfinished Diary] (1983) Marilu Mallet, 55 mins.

Tues Dec 9 Reading:

The Ethnographers Tale, Bill Nichols (VT) The Politics of the Personal, Zuzana Pick (CR) New Subjectivities, Michael Renov (CR) Black Independents and Third Cinema, Reece Auguiste (CR) Frantz Fanon As Film, Isaac Julien and Mark Nash (CR) Twilight City (Reece Auguiste, 1989) Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (Isaac Julien, 1996, 50 mins.) Global Digital Indigenous Mythmaking

Tues Dec 9 Screening

Week XIV: Mon Dec 15 Screening Tues Dec 16: Reading:

Selected Igloolik Isuma productions

From Today, Cinema is Dead, Dai Vaughan (FD) Screen Memories: Resignifying the Traditional in Indigenous Media, Faye Ginsburg (CR) Our Company, from Igloolik Video web site (CR) The Public Art of Inuit Storytelling, (CR) Final Project (at beginning of class)

Due:

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Tues Dec 16 Screening

Atanarjuat/ The Fast Runner (2002) Zacharias Kunuk Winter Recess

Wed Dec 17:

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