Voice in Observational Filmmaking Metje 3 November 9-11h

Giving voice to those who have no political or cultural representation has often been the intention of researchers and documentary filmmakers. That this act itself places the anthropologist in a position of control, has been perceived by many anthropologist filmmakers as an ethical dilemma.

In this Seminar we will discuss the ‘politics of representation’ in relation to authorship and the possibilities and restrictions of filmmaking as a practice of learning from and negotiating ‘voice’ as well as giving ‘Voice’’. How does our collaboration as part of the practice of doing visual ethnography become visible in a film, how do we negotiate different voices in a film in accordance with the understanding of our subjects? How does advocacy work, if it works, and is collaboration and/or advocacy to be preferred over authorship? When should we hand the camera to subjects? How do we deal with voices of those in power and how do we protect voices that have become vulnerable by making them visible?