History of Ethnographic Film and Visual Anthropology

This course is compulsory for students admitted to the Master's programme in Visual Anthropology. The course may be taken as a singular course.

This course offers a history of ethnographic film and visual anthropology. The course explores the history, conceptual innovations, and technological developments of presenting anthropological knowledge in film, video, and sound.

You will be introduced to major ethnographic films and filmmakers and connect this to wider debates and theoretical trends in the history of anthropology.

You will critically analyse the various ways films contribute to our understanding (or misunderstanding) of the diversity and similarity of human cultures. In each session, we will watch and discuss films that exemplify approaches to documenting and presenting the diverse peoples and cultures of the world.

Through your own presentations and analyses of films, and by comments received from teachers and fellow students, a critical thinking of visual anthropology as a way of representing knowledge will be conveyed.

Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS) or equivalent qualification with a minimum of 80 ECTS in anthropology, sociology, ethnology, folklore, cultural studies, visual culture or other closely related fields of study. Applicants must have a minimum grade average comparable to a Norwegian C (2,5) in the ECTS scale.

Application code: 9371

Students who successfully complete this course should have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge - the candidate:

· knows how to present and analyse the different genres within ethnographic filmmaking and history.

· knows how to think critically about film as a form of representation and its veracity.

· knows various ethnographic cinematic traditions and genres.

Skills - the candidate:

· is able to present and analyse how these genres and film styles are connected to different social science approaches and anthropological theory.

· is able to critically evaluate how films have been used in anthropology to convey knowledge in a cross-cultural context.

· is able to critically evaluate the power relations inherent in filmmaking.

General competence - the candidate:

· is able to present and analyse ethnographic films by paying attention to the relationship between the course of events in the film, how one scene is related to the other, the description of the protagonists, and the different social contexts presented in the film.

· is conscious of the role of the audience in social science knowledge production.

· is able to critically evaluate the potentials of ethnographic filmmaking in cross-cultural communication and empowerment.

Language of instruction and examination

Re-sit examination