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64 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Notes

1. All letters reproduced are from the Professional Correspondence of the Franz Boas

Collection, held by the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and

reprinted with their kind permission.

References

de Brigard, Emilie

1975 The History of Ethnographic Film. In Principles of Visual Anthropology. Paul Hock-

ings, ed. Pp. 13-43. The Hague: Mouton.

Heider, Karl G.

1976 Ethnographic Film.Austin: University of Texas Press.

Jacknis, Ira1984 Franz Boas and Photography. Studies in Visual Communication, 10(l):2-60.

1985 Franz Boas and Exhibits: On the Limitations of the Museum Method of Anthropol-

ogy. In Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material Culture. History of

Anthropology, 3. George W. Stocking, Jr. ed. Pp. 75-111. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press.

Leeds-Hurwitz, Wendy

1985 The Committee on Research in Native American Languages. Proceedings of the

American Philosophical Society, 129(2):129-160.

Ruby, Jay

1979 The Aggie Will Come First": The Demystification of Robert Flaherty. In Robert

Flaherty, Photographer/Filmmaker: The Inuit, 1910-1922.Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, ed.

Pp. 67-73. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery.

1980 Franz Boas and Early Camera Study of Behavior. 77K Kinesis Report, 3(1):6-11, 16.

Made in Finland?!

Heimo LappalainenGeneral Secretary, Nordic Anthropological Film Association, Helsinki,

Finland

From the time of Felix Regnault in France and Baldwin Spencer in Australia, the production

of most ethnographic films has been sponsored by government agencies or museums and

financed through research funds. At the beginning of the century, some commercial moneywas poured into short "newsreels" about exotic peoples, usually with a strongly colonialist

attitude toward the subjects. There was great interest in this type of film since they repre-

sented documents of the real world. Their popularity might have resulted in a major

development of the documentary during the twenties. Unfortunately, commercial interests

still preferred to exploit fiction—in spite of the box-office success of Flaherty's Nanook of the

North—and audiences thus became accustomed to seeing only fiction films. Documentary

and ethnographic films were relegated to a position of relative unimportance. Ethnographic

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Made in Finland?! 65

films became low-budget operations, increasingly depe nden t on government grants— gener-ally made for highly specialized audiences.

This negative atmosphere toward ethnographic films prevailed in all Western countrieswith one remarkable exception—Finland—where Ethnographic Films, Ltd., (Kansa-tieteellinen Filmi, OY) was founded in 1936. Although it was conceived as a commercialcompany, its aim was nonethe less to only recover the costs for producing eth nog raphic films.

It is too often th e case that the contributions to eth nograp hic film by sm all countries areunknown in the self-centered, narcissistic metropolises. For example, ethnographic filmswere made not only by Ethnographic Films, Ltd., in Finland but also in several otherEurop ean countries such as Sweden where Gustav Boge produced films abo ut Saame culturedur ing the twen ties. These activities clearly contradict the statement b y Karl Heider that n oethnog raphic films were produce d ou tside of the United States, France, Australia, an d GreatBritain (1978:16).

Apparently, Finnish ethnographic films were also unknown to David MacDougall when

he wrote, "Until very recently most ethnographic films were the by-products of otherendeavors: the chronicles of travelers, the political or idealistic visions of documentaryfilmmakers, and the occasional forays of anthropolog ists who se major com mitment w as toother methods" (1975:110). In order to set the record straight, this brief article will describesome Finnish documentary and ethnographic film activities, apparently overlooked byhistorians of the medium.

One example of early Finnish docum entary is Sakari Palsi's 1917 film, Pictures from theArctic. It must be placed in the direct tradition of Regnault and within the aims of making"observational film records of technology and ritual in traditional societies" (MacDougall1975:111). Palsi was both an ethn ograp her a nd a photog rapher. H e is particularly interes tingin that he mad e absolutely no effort to hide the presence of the camera. In one scene on aRussian boat, the people evidently en countered a cin6-camera for the first time. They had tobe asked to move in front of it, rather than just pose.

Another example of a truly conscious effort to mak e film records of vanishing traditionsare the works of Ethnographic Films, Ltd. Let me quote from the first clause in the com pany

bylaws: 'Th e name of the company is Ethnographic Films, Lt d.. . .Th e goal of the companyis to film and p hotog raph from a scientific point of view . . . and to create an eth nogra phicfilm archive . . . and in all possible ways promote ethnographic film activity" (quoted inVallisaari 1984:47). Kus taa Vilkuna and Eino Ma kinen

1were the two most active persons in

this endeavor. The ethnographer, Vilkuna, and filmmaker-cameraman, Makinen, oftenworked as a team. They published a book about Finnish peasant culture, with text byVilkuna and still photo s by Mak inen, w herein they claimed the m otivation for their work wasto preserve the beauty of Finnish peasant culture for future generations and to reveal thevalues hidden within (Vilkuna and Makinen 1943:7).

ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS, LTD., AND EINO MAKINEN

Today, when people discuss Ethnographic Films, Ltd., scientists usually stress the impor-

tance of the ethnographers for the projects and filmmakers ordinarily talk only about EinoMakinen. W hile it was a collaboration of fruitful team work— both sides learning from andassisting each other—if one is searching only for the most important person, I would sidewith the filmmakers and select Makinen. Without his enthusiasm and willingness to evenrisk private money in the enterprise, witho ut his efforts to gain tax reduction s on domesticshort films, the project would no t have been v ery successful. In Makinen's ow n word s at ascreening of his films a few ye ars ago at the Finnish Film Archive: Tota lly sane peop le can 't


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do things like this. O ne has t o be a little crazy, it is the playing child that creates some thingnew. We have to play."

In 1978 Peter von Bagh, editor of the Finnish film magazine, Filmikullu,published anunedited interview with Eino Makinen celebrating the 70th anniversary of the filmmakerand th e 10th of the magazine. The interview sho ws Makinen to be the warm and joyful story-teller he is. I believe that Makinen is the right p erson to tell the story of Ethn ograph ic Films,Ltd. I will quote extensively from this interview and add a few of my own remarks.

'You know about the relationship between Heikki Aho and Bjorn Soldan, don't you? Well, they were atthe same time brothers and cousins.They had the same father, Juhani Aho, but Aho was married toVenny Soldan and her sister, the old maid Tilly Soldan, once happened to be on a visit in Stockholmtogether with Juhani Aho and by accident they ended up in the same bed, which gave the result thatBjorn was born." (von Bagh 1978:4).

During the thirties, a film company owned by Heikko Aho and Bjorn Soldan also

functioned as a film school and a meeting place for cultural people. Aho and Makinen'scampaign for tax reductions on nationally-produced short films bore fruit in 1933, and man ynew small film companies were founded. In 1936, a group of ethnographers who wereinterested in making films joined together with Eino Makinen in the formation of Ethno-graphic Films, Ltd., (Kansatieteellinen Filmi, OY).

". . .and then I borrowed a camera, an old Eymon, from Aho and we bought film stock and went off tomake films. When the firs t year was over, the company owed me twice its starting capital. I got suppliesfor the company on my private credit. But then the following year—'37, we received state rights to runlotteries and succeeded in selling so well that the company got a good start. . . . It is with this moneythat everything has been done." (von Bagh 1978:5).

More than forty films were prod uced by E thnogra phic Films, Ltd., betwe en 1936 and 1941,with Makinen behind the camera most of the time. They were mainly about work processesand comm unity traditions in Finnish peas ant society. A few films were also mad e about theSaame population in the north.

Makinen connects the interest in ethnographic film during the thirties to:". . . the general nostalgia that prevailed at that time.Ethnographic Films, Ltd., was the side-line of manymatters. Vilkuna used to say that it was lucky that Finland was incorporated with Russia in 1809, theSwedish influence ended and we got in touch with our kindred nations. Finns played a considerable rolein Russian ethnographic research." (Isomursu 1980).

Makinen, w ho began as a still photog rapher, also took stills on the filming ex peditions. Inhis archives he has about 8,000 photog raphs on the same topics that are dealt with in thefilms he shot for Ethnograp hic Films, Ltd. (Figures. 1-4). Some of them have been publishedin books by Vilkuna about Finnish culture.

Concerning his ethnographic films, Makinen sometimes modestly refers to them asmoving photographs:

". . . how should one define film? . . . I think they are moving photographs but they have one advantage.At least they are technically quite good, even very good . . . and not too bad concerning compositionand lighting, but they have no documentary value as such. A photo or a film doesn't have documentary

value, it is all a question of how they are used. Nobody says anything about what remains outside of theframe, what is cut off." (von Bagh 1978:7).

There were differing opinion s between the scientists and th e cameraman concerning whatand how things should be filmed. Makinen's professionalism was essential for the films.With his sensitivity for nuances in forms and gestures, ordinary registrations were trans-formed into stories with poetic qualities.


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Figurel. Eino Makinen, 1978. Photograph by Lauri Tykkylainen.

Courtesy, Finnish Film Archive.

Figure 2. Winterfishing in Rymattyld, 1938. Photograph by EinoMakinen. Courtesy, Finnish Film Archive.

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Figure 3 . Reindeer and Sleigh, Suonikyla, 1938. Ph otograph by

Eino Makinen. Courtesy, Finnish Film Archive.

". . . I've always been of the opinion that in film there has to be some development. As in m any of myfilms, there is some matter, material that does change. Making a rowboat out of one log or making birch-bark shoes, there is some development. There is a difference betw een the beginning and end . But theseethnographers, they sometimes wanted—and I also had to do it, though I've always tried to avoid it—tofilm these traditional customs, whe re there is nothing happ ening . People walk, sit, get dresse d, play,and they get married . . . there is nothing happening. It is dependent on the text, the images bythemselves don't tell the story to the end. But in the documentary film where there is change in thematerial, that is something different." (von Bagh 1978:7).

Althoug h no films have been pr oduc ed since 1941, Ethno graphic F ilms, Ltd., still exists asa company; its sole shareholder being 78-year-old Eino Makinen. As was true for manycultural endeavors, World War II put an end to the organization's very promising activities ofthe thirties. After the war, much of the energy, money, and motivation for this type ofoperation no longer existed. Eino Makinen, who during the war headed the film department

of the army propag anda office, con tinued filming into th e 1950s. Sadly, both for him and forthe field of ethnographic film, blindness ended his filmmaking career.

Working within m eager budg ets, ethn ograp hic film activity in Finland was begu n ane w in1955 at the Finnish National Museum by Niilo Valtonen and Osmo Vuoristo. Furthercontradicting the popular misconception about non-commercial filmmaking in small coun-tries, Finland has made significant contributions to ethnographic film not only within itsnational boundaries, bu t also abroad . In the 1930s, the Hu ngar ian ethn ographer, Dr. Laszl6Keszi-Kovdcs, made extended visits to Finland an d learned ethno graph ic filmmaking fromVilkuna and Makinen. He initiated ethnographic filmmaking in Hungary in the 1950s.


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Figure 4. Harvest in Veteli, 2939. Photograph by Eino Makinen.Courtesy, Finnish Film Archive.

Notes

1. Editor's Note—Eino M äkinen d ied in April of 1987 after a lengthy illness. He w as 79 yearsold.

References

Alho, Olli

1984 Perinne joka katkesi. (The Tradition That Was Broken). Kotiseutu,2:51-52.von Bagh, Peter

1978 Kans akun nan m uistikuvat. (Memories in Pictures of a Nation). Filmihullu, 7-8:4-13.

Heider, Karl1978 Ethnographic Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.

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Isomursu, Liisa1980 The C ultura l Travels of a Veteran Ciné Photograp her. Translation of interview in

Uusi Suomi, 23 March.MacDougall, David

1975 Beyond Observational Cinema. In Principles of Visual Anthropology, Paul Hockings,

ed. Pp. 109-124. The Hague: Mouton.Uusitalo, Kari

1972 Eläviksi syntyneet kuvat. Suomalaisen elokuvan mykät vuodet 1896-1930. (Pictures That

Came Alive. The Silent Years in Finnish Film 1896-1930). Helsinki: Otava.Vallisaari, Hilkka

1984 Kansatieteellisen elokuvan alkuvaiheet Suomessa. (Early Ethnographic Films in Fin-land). Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston Kansatieteen laitoksen tutkimuk sia 11 (Re-search Reports from the Ethnological Department of Helsinki University, 11).

Vilkuna, Kustaa and Eino Mäkinen

. 1943 Isien työ. (The Work of Our Fathers). Helsinki: Otava.


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