American Ethnographic Film and
Personal Documentary
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.
The publisher also gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Humanities Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, the LEF Foundation, and Hamilton College.
American Ethnographic Film and
Personal Documentary
The Cambridge Turn
Scott MacDonald
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BerkeleyLos AngelesLondon
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2013 by The Regents of the University of California
The author gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the form of an Academy Film Scholars grant.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacDonald, Scott, 1942–
American ethnographic film and personal documentary : the Cambridge turn / Scott MacDonald.
pagescm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27561-4 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-520-27562-1 (paper) — ISBN 978-0-520-95493-9 (ebook)
1. Documentary films—United States—History and criticism. 2. Ethnographic films—United States—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN1995.9.D6M3152013
070.1′8—dc23
2012045799
Manufactured in the United States of America
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CONTENTS
| Introduction | ||
| A Tentative Overview of Boston-Area Documentary Filmmaking • Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary • Pragmatism: Learning from Experience • The Mission of American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn • Subjects for Further Research • Acknowledgments | ||
| 1. | Lorna and John Marshall | |
| Beginnings: Lorna Marshall and First Film • John Marshall: The Hunters • Idylls of the !Kung • Pedagogy • Expulsion from Eden: Bitter Melons and N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman • The Pittsburgh Police Films and Brakhage’s Eyes • Putting Down the Camera and Picking Up the Shovel • The Road Taken: A Kalahari Family • A Process in Time | ||
| 2. | Robert Gardner | |
| East Coast/West Coast: Early Experiments • Gardner and the Marshalls • Dead Birds • The Experience of Filmmaking as Thought Process • Robert Fulton: Reality’s Invisible—“Serious Playing Around” • Screening Room: Midnight Movies • City Symphony: Forest of Bliss • The Return of the Repressed: Ika Hands • Still Journeying On: Unfinished Examinations of a Life • Studio7Arts: Sharon Lockhart’s Double Tide and Robert Fenz’s Correspondence | ||
| 3. | Timothy Asch | |
| Dodoth Morning and the Ethnographic Deadpan • Asch and the Yanomamo • The Ax Fight | ||
| 4. | Ed Pincus and the Emergence of Personal Documentary | |
| The Miriam Weinstein Quartet and Richard P. Rogers’s Elephants: Fragments of an Argument • Ed Pincus’s Diaries (1971–1976) • Alfred Guzzetti: Family Portrait Sittings • Guzzetti: It’s a Small World • Guzzetti: Time Exposure | ||
| 5. | Alfred Guzzetti and Personal Cinema | |
| Air • Experimental Video: “Language Lessons” • Scylla and Charybdis • Still Point | ||
| 6. | Ross McElwee | |
| Finding a Muse: Charleen • Finding a Voice: Ann Schaetzel’s Breaking and Entering and McElwee’s Backyard • Dopplegänger: Sherman’s March • Nesting Dolls: Time Indefinite • On the Road Again: Six O’Clock News • Occupational Hazards: Bright Leaves • Orpheus: In Paraguay and Photographic Memory | ||
| 7. | Robb Moss | |
| Riverdogs: A Possible Eden • The Tourist: “Freelance Editing” • Voyage of Life: The Same River Twice | ||
| 8. | Panorama: Other Approaches to Personal Documentary | |
| Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan: Families in Transition • Michel Negroponte: Getting Involved • Leacock and Lalonde • The Subject Rebels: Nina Davenport’s Films and Ed Pincus and Lucia Small’s The Axe in the Attic • The Political Is the Personal: John Gianvito’s Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind and Jeff Daniel Silva’s Balkan Rhapsodies • Alexander Olch’s The Windmill Movie: “This Little Séance of Flickering Light” • Amie Siegel’s DDR/DDR | ||
| 9. | Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Sensory Ethnography | |
| Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, and Sweetgrass • “Sheeple”: Castaing-Taylor’s Audio-Video Installations • The Sensory Ethnography Lab: J.P. Sniadecki, Stephanie Spray, Véréna Paravel, and Leviathan | ||
| Epilogue | ||
| Appendix:
|