Visual Anthropology in Sardinia (New Studies in European Cinema)

Description

Visual Anthropology in Sardinia explores the technique, style and methodology of documentary films about Sardinia, investigating how such films construct different experiences and identities, and reflecting on the advantages of the medium of documentary film over written ethnographic texts. Following a discussion of theoretical developments in the area of visual anthropology in the twentieth century, the author turns to case studies of documentary filmmaking related to Sardinia from the fascist era onwards, offering a survey of the particular and somewhat peculiar filmic ethnographic discourse established in relation to Sardinia, which has been constructed to a large extent as an ‘Other’ to peninsular Italy. The subject is a complex one, ranging across the fields of film studies, anthropology, literary and cultural studies and, to some extent, philosophy. The book enriches scholarship not only on the cultural construction of Sardinia in the popular, political and intellectual imaginary and in its relation to Italy, but also on visual epistemologies and the ethics and practice of ethnographic filmmaking. Cover Contents Figures Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Documentary Film and Observational Cinema in Sardinia Problems of Perspective Visual Anthropology Rethinking Anthropology A Difficult Marriage Ethnographic Film: Between Art and Science Observational Style Historical Overview Chapter 2: Representation of Culture through Ethnographic Film The Illustrative versus the Revelatory A Difference of ‘Another Order’ Nature and Nurture: Pictures and Language Chapter 3: Illustrative Documentaries: A Dominant Way of Seeing Sardinia in Fascist Documentary Films (1922–1945) Fascism and Documentary Film The Illustrative Mode of Fascism The Città di Fondazione (New Towns) Carbonia Mussolinia di Sardegna The ‘Old’ and the ‘New’ Fertilia di Sardegna A ‘Colonial’ Gaze Voice-over and the Picturesque Il regno del silenzio Viaggio in Sardegna Chapter 4: Banditi a Orgosolo: An Anthropological Film Banditi a Orgosolo The Themes of Banditi Italian in Place of Sardinian Speech De Seta’s Working Practice as Ethnographic Filmmaker The Copernican Camera Chapter 5: Tempus de Baristas: Transcultural Cinema Tempus de Baristas Between Observational and Participatory Cinema Epistemology and Open-endedness Filmmaker, Subjects and Ethics Unprivileged Camera and Long Take The Position of the Spectator A Different Kind of Knowledge Corporeal Images Ethnography as Self-Inscription The ‘Eye’ and the ‘I’ Speech and Existence Silence and Beyond Conclusion Filmography Bibliography Index