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Lecture 3:Lecture 3:Romantic EthnographyRomantic Ethnography

Professor Michael Green

Nanook of the North (1922)Directed by Robert Flaherty

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Previous LecturePrevious Lecture

• The Meaning of Whiteness

• The Voice of Whiteness in Griffith’s Biograph Films

• The Artful racism of Broken Blossoms

• Writing about Film Lesson #1

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This LectureThis Lecture

• “The Imperial Imaginary”

• Nanook of the North and Romantic Ethnography

• Writing about Film Lesson #2

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““The Imperial Imaginary” The Imperial Imaginary”

Lecture 3: Part I

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)Directed by Steven Spielberg

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Imperialist Ordering of the GlobeImperialist Ordering of the Globe“The colonial domination of indigenous

peoples, the scientific and esthetic disciplining of nature through classificatory

schemas, the capitalist appropriation of resources, and the imperialist ordering of the globe under a panoptical regime, all formed part of a massive world historical movement that reached its apogee at the

beginning of the twentieth century.”– Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary”

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Historical ContextHistorical Context• Cinema was born during the height of the

imperial project, when Europe held sway over vast territories and subjugated peoples.

– Kipling's "White Man's Burden" and the US acquisition of Cuba and the Philippines.

– The first Lumière and Edison screenings in the 1890s closely followed the “Scramble for Africa.”

– The British occupation of Egypt in 1882. – The Berlin Conference of 1884 carved up Africa

into European "spheres of influence.” – The 1890 massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee.

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The Leading ImperialistsThe Leading Imperialists• The countries yielding the most silent film

– Britain, France, the US, Germany – were among the leading imperialists.

• It was in the interest of these countries to laud the colonial enterprise.

• The audiences for popular film – not just the elite – took to colonial entertainments thanks to popular fictions and exhibitions.

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Neutralizing Class StruggleNeutralizing Class Struggle“For the working classes of

Europe and Euro-America, photogenic wars in remote parts of the empire became

diverting entertainments, serving to ‘neutralize the

class struggle and transform class solidarity into national

and racial solidarity.’” – Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The

Imperial Imaginary”

Henry Morton Stanley

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Adopting Colonial StoriesAdopting Colonial Stories• The early cinema adopted popular works

and attitudes of colonialist writers: – Rudyard Kipling: Gunga Din, The Man who

Would be King, The Jungle Book– Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines– Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan– David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, and

other “adventurers.”– The "conquest fiction" of the American

southwest.

Colonial Adventure MoviesColonial Adventure Movies

Gunga Din (1939)Directed by George Stevens

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)Directed by W.S. Van Dyke

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The Adventure of Film The Adventure of Film “Adventure films, and the ‘adventure’ of going

to the cinema, provided a vicarious experience of passionate fraternity, a playing

field for the self-realization of European masculinity. Just as colonized space was

available to empire, and colonial landscapes were available to imperial cinema, so was this psychic space available for the play of

the virile spectatorial imagination as a kind of mental Lebensraum.”

– Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary”

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Shaping National IdentityShaping National Identity• Stories often carry our beliefs about the

evolution and origin of nations.• Cinema, as the world's foremost storyteller,

has adeptly projected narratives of nations and empires to large audiences.

• It built on the novel as a way to fashion “imagined communities,” and shape thinking about historical time and national history.

• This usually benefits some national and racial imaginaries and harms others.

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Distribution HegemonyDistribution Hegemony“The dominant European/American form of

cinema not only inherited and disseminated a hegemonic colonial discourse, it also created

a powerful hegemony of its own through monopolistic control of film distribution and exhibition in much of Asia, Africa, and the

Americas. Euro-colonial cinema thus mapped history not only for domestic audiences but

also for the world.”– Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary”

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What is Hegemony?What is Hegemony?• Hegemony refers to the way that the

political and social domination of the power class in capitalist society is expressed not only in ideologies but in all realms of culture and social organization.

• This kind of power takes the form of influence rather than domination, as well as an appearance of naturalness and inevitability that removes it from examination, criticism and challenge.

The Camera and EmpireThe Camera and Empire“If the culture of empire authorized the

pleasure of seizing ephemeral glimpses of its ‘margins’ through travel

and tourism, the nineteenth-century invention of the photographic and later the cinematographic camera made it possible to record such glimpses.”

– Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary”

“

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The Camera ExplorerThe Camera Explorer

• These early cinematographic “explorers” rarely considered the power relations between observer and observed.

• Their interpretations were subjective and informed by imperialism.

• These cinematographers then popularized imperial imagery for those back home, turning the recording of images into a participatory activity.

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Expanding “Science”Expanding “Science”• Expanding the frontiers of science and

empire became a linked ambition.• Cinema, a result of Western science, was

put to the tasks of exhibiting Western triumphs and prolonged the museum project, which gathered archeological, ethnographic, botanical, and zoological objects in the imperial metropolis.

• Science in cinema appealed to a popular audience, and not just the elite.

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The Looting CameraThe Looting Camera“The camera penetrated a

foreign and familiar zone like a predator, seizing its ‘loot’

of images as raw material to be reworked in the

‘motherland’ and sold to sensation-hungry spectators and consumers, a process later fictionalized in King

Kong (1933).” – Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The

Imperial Imaginary”

King Kong (1933)Directed by Merian C. Cooper and

Ernest Schoedsack

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The ImpactThe Impact“Racism and ‘entertainment,’ . . .became

closely intertwined.”

“Such expositions gave utopian form to White supremacist ideology, legitimizing racial hierarchies abroad and muting class and

gender divisions among Whites at home by stressing national agency in a global project

of domination.”– Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary”

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Variations on Colonial NarrativesVariations on Colonial Narratives• Early Cinema

• Edison, Méliès, American one-reelers

• U.S. and British Adventure films• Rhodes of Africa (1936), Beau Geste (1939),

The Four Feathers (1939)

• The Western• How the West was Won (1936), Oklahoma Kid

(1939), The Last Frontier (1956), El Dorado (1967), The Last of the Mohicans (various)

• Science fiction• Return of the Jedi (1983), Stargate (1994)

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The Late Imperial FilmThe Late Imperial Film• The colonial/imperial paradigm did not die with

the formal end of colonialism, nor is the western paradigm limited to the wild west.

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)• The Man Who Knew to Much (1954)• Gilligan’s Island (1960s, TV)• Dr. No (1962)• The Man Who Would be King (1975)• A Passage to India (1984)• The Indiana Jones movies (1981 – 2008)• Coverage of The Gulf War

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ExamplesExamples

Pause the lecture and watch the Clips from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

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Summary of PointsSummary of Points• The height of Imperialism coincided with the

birth of cinema; the two collaborated in expanding the Imperial project.

• The cinema combined narrative and spectacle to tell the story of colonialism from the colonizer's perspective.

• The power of cinema was – and is – very influential in shaping national identity and in ordering power relations between colonizer and colonized and within imperial nations.

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Nanook of the NorthNanook of the North and Romantic and Romantic Ethnography Ethnography

Lecture 3: Part II

Nanook of the North (1922)Directed by Robert Flaherty

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DefinitionsDefinitions• Romantic

– imbued with or dominated by idealism, a desire for adventure, chivalry, etc.

– fanciful; impractical; unrealistic– of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a style of

literature and art that subordinates form to content, emphasizes imagination, emotion, and introspection

• Ethnography–  The branch of anthropology that deals with the

scientific description of specific human cultures

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The MovieThe Movie• Directed by Robert J. Flaherty.• Nanook of the North focuses on the daily

activities of a family of Itivimuit, a group of Quebec Inuit.

• Considered by many to be a great work of independent cinema.

• It is been called the first documentary, the first art film and the first ethnographic film.

• Had immediate worldwide success.• “Canonized” by the National Film Registry of

the Library of Congress

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Authenticity DebateAuthenticity Debate• The academic discourse

on the movie centers on questions of authenticity.

• Some argue that it cannot be objective or “true science.”

• Some feel that the film captures the human “essence” and that its characters are symbols for all of civilization.

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Rony’s ArgumentsRony’s Arguments• The way in which the film represents

indigenous peoples parallels the romantic primitivism of modern anthropology which

– Focuses on the indigenous body, which is seen as “unsophisticated.”

– Situates the filmed subject in a displaced temporal realm, i.e. outside of history, so that it seems to represent an early evolutionary epoch.

– Propagates the myth of vanishing races.

• All of this is in the service of asserting “authenticity.”

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Nanook’s ConstructionNanook’s Construction• Rony shows that rather the movie has

clearly been “staged.”

• Evidence proved that Flaherty used Inuit labor – they were his assistants during the production and post-production and “acted” scenes for the film – and introduced them to new technology.

• He used artifice to create a Western idea of “truth” partially based on a construction of himself as an explorer/artist.

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ExamplesExamples• Nanook often hunted with a gun, but

Flaherty encouraged him to hunt as his ancestors had before European influence.

• Nanook’s “wife” in the film was not his wife.• His real name was Allakariallak.• The “danger” in which Nanook and his

family were in at the film’s climax was greatly exaggerated.

• Consider where the cameras are in this sequence.

Pause the lecture and watch clip #1 from Nanook of the North.

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Examining the RhetoricExamining the Rhetoric• A close examination of the rhetoric in the

movie’s interstitial cards supports the idea that Flahtery based “Nanook” on many, personal, preconceived and historical ideas.

• Some examples of this rhetoric include: “happy-go lucky Eskimo,” “Expedition,” “half-breed,” “maps,” “civilization,” “mysterious,” “post of the white man,” “chaotic wastes”

• “A story of life and love in the actual Artic”

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More Rhetorical ExamplesMore Rhetorical Examples• “Nanook, the kindly, brave, simple Eskimo”

• Gone into most of the odd corners of the world”

• “Wind-swept illimitable spaces which top the world”

• “The sterility of the soil and the rigor of the climate no other race would survive.”

• “The melancholy sprit of the North.”Pause the lecture and watch clip #2 from Nanook of the North.

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The “Primitive Man”The “Primitive Man”“The desire of Euro-American audiences and

critics to perceive Nanook as authentic primitive man, as an unmediated referent, is

evident in the fact that until the 1970s, no one bothered to ask members of the Inuit community in which the film was made for their opinions on the film. Only then was it

learned that the name of the actor who played Nanook was Allakariallak.”

– Fatimah Tobing Rony, “Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North: The Politics of Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography”

Pause the lecture and watch clip #3 from Nanook of the North.

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The Eskimo as ModelThe Eskimo as Model• The way in which Flaherty treats his

subjects is consistent with the way in which native peoples were often treated in the West as specimens and objects of curiosity.

• The Inuit were popular subjects for museum models in dioramas.

• The Eskimo was seen as an uncorrupt example of all the values of the West – independence, perseverance, patriarchy – though never seen as an equal to Whites.

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The Inuit ReceptionThe Inuit Reception• Many contemporary

Inuit find Nanook of the North unrealistic and even laughable.

• They argue it was constructed by Flaherty to for white audiences.

• Contemporary Inuit have embraced their own media to counter “white” media.

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Romy’s Final PointRomy’s Final Point“This is why Nanook of the North is seen as a

point of origin for art film, documentary film, and ethnographic film: it represents the Garden of Eden, the perfect relationship

between filmmaker and subject, “the innocent eye,” a search for realism that was not just inscription, but which made the dead look

alive and the living look dead.”– Fatimah Tobing Rony, “Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North: The Politics of Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography”

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Nanook’s LegacyNanook’s Legacy• Like Birth of a Nation, Nanook of the North

is a technical milestone that employed filmmaking techniques to express historical opinions about racial hierarchies.

• As the first feature length documentary, Nanook has been very influential.

• It set the precedent for staging in documentaries.

• The film also documented and inscribed colonial and imperial attitudes and approaches to ethnography.

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Writing About Film Lesson #2Writing About Film Lesson #2

Lecture 3: Part III

Beau Geste (1939) Directed by William A. Wellman

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Three Types of Film WritingThree Types of Film Writing

• Remember, there are three major types of film writing:

– Descriptive – a neutral account of the basic characteristics of the film.

– Evaluative – which presents a judgment or opinion about a film’s value.

– Interpretive – which presents an argument about a film’s meaning and significance.

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Summary of Descriptive WritingSummary of Descriptive Writing• As it suggests, descriptive writing describes

a film, without evaluation or judgment.

• Most descriptions of narrative films relay plot events, while a description of a documentary might describe not only the topic of the film, but also the approach.

• While descriptions do not offer judgments, they may go beyond plot summary to describe genre.

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Evaluative WritingEvaluative Writing• An evaluative claim presents a judgment,

expressing the author’s belief that the film is bad, good, mediocre, flawed, etc.

• Reviewer’s grades – A, B or C, two thumbs up, number of stars, etc. – often summarize the critic’s judgment, while a longer review lays out the specific reasons.

• “The Birth of a Nation is a great film” is an example of an evaluative claim.

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Stronger Evaluative ClaimsStronger Evaluative Claims• A stronger evaluative claim includes the

reasons why the evaluation is positive or negative.

• “The Birth of a Nation is a great film because it includes exciting and well-staged scenes of combat.”

• This statement is more convincing than the first assertion because it provides a basis for the judgment.

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Evaluative CriteriaEvaluative Criteria• Evaluative claims are always based on

the evaluator’s criteria, even if they remain unstated.

• Here, the unstated but implicit criterion is that exciting, well-crafted action scenes make a film great. Given the tremendous diversity of viewer preferences, its important to be clear about the evaluative criteria so the reader can compare the criteria to his or her own.

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Evaluative vs. InterpretiveEvaluative vs. Interpretive• Evaluative criteria is most often seen in the

movie review, which takes a number of forms in print, on TV and on the Internet.

• Though some critics bring a sophisticated level of film discourse to the culture, their discussion of a film generally comes down to whether they think it is “good or bad,” i.e worth your time and money.

• These evaluations are often ahistorical and not very analytical.

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Bordwell’s TakeBordwell’s Take“Film studies, it seems to me, is an effort to understand films and the processes through

which they’re made and consumed. Film scholars mount explanations for why films are

the way they are, why they were made the way they were, why they are consumed the

way they are. Most ordinary talk about movies, and most film journalism, doesn’t ask ‘Why?’ questions, or pursue them very far.”

• David Bordwell, “Studying Cinema”

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InterpretationInterpretation“When film scholars talk about movies, they

usually also offer interpretations: claims about the non-obvious meanings that we can find in films. Interpretations can be thought of as particular sorts of functional explanations. An interpretation presupposes that aspects of

the film (style, structure, dialogue, plot) contribute to its overall significance.”

• David Bordwell, “Studying Cinema”

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Importance Importance • It is important to be able to clearly,

concisely and efficiently articulate your evaluation of something as you often will be asked to do so in both your student and your professional work.

• In any society, it is important to be able to trade informed opinions and have an intelligent dialogue about art and culture.

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Final PointFinal Point• However, it is crucial to understand and recognize

the difference between evaluative and interpretive film writing - the difference between pure opinion and a claim supported by analysis and evidence.

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End of Lecture 3 End of Lecture 3

Next Lecture: Hollywood Hegemony