The Politics of Visibility and Visuality in Camera-Based Research (original) (raw)
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Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 2022
How can documentary strategies advance sociological insights beyond academia? This photo-essay analyzes the process of producing a documentary film with immigrant children in Arica – the most septentrional city in northern Chile, only 20 kilometers south from the frontier with Peru. We reflect upon the documentary’s production and its relationship with social research in order to show how visual narratives can serve public debates. The photographs included in this work document different stages of the process of narrative-making. Ultimately, these visual sources highlight the agency of the film’s protagonists in framing their own stories in the collective assembling of the audiovisual pieces. Film directors and participants are thus crucial agents in the effort of producing this piece of visual sociology.
Counter Narratives: Visual Anthropology and 'Memory Activism' in Peru
Visual Anthropology From Latin America, Anthrovision, 2018
In recent years, Peruvian social anthropology has seen a rising production of audio-visual and artistic works within the discipline, ranging from written analyses that incorporate arts and crafts (Bernedo 2011; González 2011; Ulfe 2014; Del Pino and Yezer 2014) to photographic projects (Poole 2010; Figueroa 2012), nonfiction films (Dietrich 2015; Malek 2016), virtual museums and online blogs. In this article, we identify the paths visual anthropology (VA) is taking in the country in order to analyse how these forms are creatively reinventing social anthropology as an analytical and methodological field. Furthermore, we take this opportunity to discuss the valuable, but internationally unknown, works of audio-visual anthropologists in and of Peru. Recientemente, la antropología social peruana ha vivido un incremento en la producción de trabajos audiovisuales y artísticos al interior de la disciplina, que van desde los análisis escritos que incorporan artes y oficios (Bernedo 2011; González 2011; Ulfe 2014; Yezer and Del Pino 2014) hasta proyectos fotográficos (Poole 2010; Figueroa 2012), películas de no- ficción (Dietrich 2015, 2017; Malek 2016), museos virtuales (por ejemplo, http:// www.museoarteporlasmemorias.pe/) y blogs en línea como https://heedersoto.wordpress.com/. En este artículo, identificamos las rutas que la antropología visual está tomando en el país con el fin de analizar cómo estas formas están reinventando creativamente a la antropología social como un campo analítico y metodológico. Aún más, tomamos esta oportunidad para discutir los valiosos, pero desconocidos internacionalmente, trabajos de antropólogos audiovisuales en y sobre Peru.
Ethnographic Storytelling, Subjectivity, and the Visual in Latin America
New Course Syllabus, 2023
This class is about the stories we tell that concern the lives of others, and sometimes, ourselves. There are various methods that are employed for telling these stories, whether through creative nonfiction, documentary and narrative filmmaking, and creative or experimental ethnographies. Students will review and explore each methodology in order to grasp how Latin American stories are told, what each method offers the author and audience, and what may be the challenges involved in landing the intended message. Although this course, covering ethnographic storytelling, subjectivity, and the visual in Latin America, deals with the questions surrounding "how" a subject is portrayed; it is not a strict methods course. We instead explore various methods in order to uncover thematic pervasive problems in Latin American studies: violence, power, history, and identity (to name the most important ones). And it should be noted that the course interrogates these four themes through creative lenses. Students will gain an understanding of visual anthropology, documentary film, film and media theory, ethnography, sociopolitical history in Latin America, political economy, political ecology, systemic violence, sexuality, indigeneity and race, and questions of identity and belonging. Of particular interest will be – within the postcolonial and interdisciplinary world of Latin American studies – a critical look at the intersection of everyday life and the dynamics of power that help to inform the possibilities for being human.
In: Ethnomusicology and Audiovisual Communication. Enrique Cámara de Landa y Leonardo D´amico, editores. Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid., 2016
This article describes an experience in creating two different kinds of ethnographic products in the realm of visual ethnomusicology in Peru. The first one was a set of short programs for educational purposes edited by a team of anthropologists and ethnomusicologists using ethnographic archival recordings from the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Catholic University of Peru. The second one was a made-for-television set of documentaries produced jointly with the national television channel and its team of professional filmmakers. Here we explain the similarities and differences of both types of production processes, attempting to answer a main question: What are the differences between making ethnographic videos and made-for-TV documentaries? This article addresses the issue of audiences, filming techniques, the practice of anthropological methods in recording visual data, the use of the camera, and the final editing process. Despite the contrasts between both types of visual products, we conclude that both of them share the attempt to communicate an " ethnographic truth, " which we here define as a sequence of events that is designed to be conveyed as found in its original context. In video production, this means using neither recreations of ritual performances , nor any technique of fictional filmmaking. In this article I will attempt to describe my experience while producing two kinds of ethnographic products in the realm of visual ethnomusicology in Peru. The first of these productions dealt with ethnographic archival recordings obtained by researchers in the field with a handheld camera, which were later edited into short documentaries for easier consultation and screening (Ethnographic Videos, Lima, 1993). The second one was a made-for-television set of programs produced by a team of professionals following a script and edited as documentaries (TV Documentaries, Lima, 2013). Each of them was created in a different historical context: the first videos were filmed in the 1990s, and the second set in the period 2010-2012, using different video formats and, as we shall see, contrasting methodologies. Both of these endeavors took place in the framework of my institutional duties at the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Catholic University of Peru. In this article we will explain the similarities and differences between the two types of production processes involved, even though both projects focus on the history of Peruvian traditional and popular music. In: Ethnomusicology and Audiovisual Communication, Enrique Cámara de Landa/Leonardo D´Amico/Matías Isolabella/Terada Yoshitaka, editors. Valladolid: University of Valladolid.
Can film show the invisible: the work of montage in ethnographic filmmaking
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Journal of Extreme Anthropology, 2019
Following previous experiences of violence and forced displacement, 'the returnees' from the Guatemalan campesino community 'Copal AA la Esperanza' are now defending their territory against the construction of a hydroelectric dam. The returnees unexpectedly mobilized me as a Belgian historian to 'make' their 'shared history' and produce a documentary about their past and present struggle. The aim of this article is to reflect on how and why I developed a participatory, filmmaking-based methodology to tackle this challenge. I focus on filmmaking, participation and knowledge production to demonstrate the epistemological and ethical benefits of a dialogue between disciplines and methodologies as much as between academic and community practices and concepts. As such, I exemplify my visual participatory approach through its engagement with post-colonial histories and the co-creation of shared knowledge at the intersection of community and research interests. Moreover, I demonstrate how filmmaking can be developed as a grounded, visual, and narrative approach connecting media activism with 'performative ethnography'. Combining insights from participatory action research (PAR) with Johannes Fabian's notion of 'performance', I argue for 'nonextractivist methodologies'; 'knowing with' instead of 'knowing-about'. From being a side project and a matter of research ethics, participatory filmmaking turned for me into an investigative tool to explore the collective production and mobilization of historical narratives. I argue that participatory research should not be limited to communities participating in research projects; researchers can equally participate in community projects without this obstructing scientific research. In sum, participatory visual methods challenge us to reconsider the role of academics in (post-conflict) settings.
Visual Anthropology Review, 2009
uninhabitable.'' This is a point to which she does not return sufficiently in her analyses of each genre, so that when she returns to it in the conclusion, the reader is left as unclear as she seems to be. What are these other stereotypes? Do they not still exist on more retrograde programs? How does each kind of program render them uninhabitable? She does not address these questions clearly enough for each kind of program, perhaps because her analyses reveal an ambivalence toward these stereotypes in the various series. More time may be necessary in order to determine the impact these programs will have on media portrayals of women, some of which have only very recently ended.
Anthrovision, 2015
The three studies of this issue present the ethnographer with the camera in new situations. Previously expressed by filmmakers and political critics of the documentary film, the desire for genuine parity is now demanded by the people who are filmed. The ethnographer with the camera finds him/herself in a paradoxical situation on the field. Image practices are prevalent, yet his/her position of observer is not necessarily evident. Moreover, as his/her interlocutors master the logics of circulation of images, new negotiations on the activity of the filmmaker arise. More than practical choices, such transactions engage with core issues in filmed and visual anthropology.