Kaufman 101, TuTh 3-5pm
John Bishop jbishop@ucla.edu, Kaufman 169 www.wac.ucla.edu/bishop
Damola Osinulu TA
This course explores the history, conceptual innovations, and technological developments of presenting ethnographic reality in film and video.
In each class period, we will watch and discuss films that exemplify approaches to documenting and presenting the diverse peoples and cultures of the world. By the end of the course you should be conversant with:
Requirements
Attend class and watch the films.
Do the reading.
Post a journal entry on the class computer bulletin board (instructions at end of this document) about films we watch. Entries should include your responses and reactions to the films, and how they relate to issues in the course and other films viewed in and out of class. Journal entries must be posted within one week of the film screening. This is an essential resource for writing the mid-term and final papers. The questions will relate to the films, readings and discussions.
Take-home mid-term (due 11/2)
Take-home final (one) (due 12/11).
The journal, mid-term, and final will each count 1/3.
Plus-minus grades may be given. Students will not be permitted to rewrite or resubmit exams for improvement of a grade. Extra credit is not possible. Exams will be accepted late only in case of certified medical emergency. Journal entries posted late will be penalized. Attendance and class participation will be taken into consideration in assessing final grade in borderline cases.
The Bulletin Board address is- http://www.arts.ucla.edu/forums/index.php
Go there and register. It will take a few tries to get comfortable with it.
Schedule
Readings are on the web with links from this syllabus.
The schedule is flexible and subject to change.
The Opening Gambit
9/18
OSS OSS WEE OSS and OSS TALES
Week One: Media Ecology 10/3-5
Electricity has made angels of us all. –Edmund Carpenter
OH WHAT A BLOW THAT PHANTOM GAVE ME! (54)
Excerpts from Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me by Edmund Carpenter (PDF)
Check website VIRTUAL SNOW at http://faculty.virginia.edu/phantom/ Among other things, it has the complete text of the book.
Visual Anthro Review article about Carpenter
PASSING GIRL RIVERSIDE
Transcript http://www.wac.ucla.edu/bishop/articles/riverside.pdf
Week Two: The Grand Narrative and the Noble Savage 10/10&12
Before you bear witness
Be sure you have something that calls for witnessing,
I might add--
Don't gloss what isn't assignable or brought to bear,
Don't shine what's expendable.
--- Charles Wright
THE HUNTERS (72)
Excerpt: A Kalahari Family Part 1
Excerpt: John Marshall Interview Footage
JU’HOA FUNERAL FOOTAGE
Life By Myth: The Development of Ethnographic Filming in the Work of John Marshall Visual Origins Conference, IWF, Göttingen 2001
Week Three: Voice in Film 10/17-19
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. --Muriel Rukeyser
1/25
THE SCREENING ROOM- ROUCH (64)
Primary
Home Economics
Week Four: Bob Gardner 10/24-26
Relativism is the bad faith of the conqueror, who has become secure enough to travel anywhere. – Stanley Diamond
DEAD BIRDS (83)
Excerpt: Mondo Cane
Primitive Paradise Trailer
On Making Dead Birds by Robert Gardner
FOREST OF BLISS (90)
Excerpt: BARAKA
Forest of Bliss interview with Robert Gardner and Akos Oster
Week Five and Six: Film as Data and Argument 10/31-11/9
In order to lie successfully you quite simply must know what the truth is. As philosophers have persistently told us this is no easy task, and, because of this, there is some reason to believe that the truly outstanding liar lies out of a strong sense of modesty. -- Vern Rutsala
(11/2 paper due)
Latcho Drom
The Longest Trail
Rhesus Play
Micro-cultural Incidents in Ten Zoos
Dance and human History
Choremetrics and Ethnographic Filmmaking Filmmakers Newsletter article by Alan Lomax. (PDF)
Toward An Ethnographic Film Archive Filmmakers Newsletter article by Alan Lomax. (PDF)
Alan Lomax and Choreometrics In Envisioning Dance on Film and Video, Judy Mitoma ed.,Routledge Press, 2002
Visual Anthro Review Article
Week Seven & Eight: Complex Stories 10/17-19
A KALAHARI FAMILY part 5 Death by Myth (85)
IN/OUT OF AFRICA
BLACK HARVEST
Week Nine: The Democratic Voice of miniDV
To live outside the law you must be honest. – Bob Dylan
& 3/10
MANY WILL COME
DAUGHTER FOR THE COTTON MAT MAKERS
Week Ten: Bringing It All Back Home
This is to attend to slippage in the schedule and we may show other films such as—
HIMALAYAN HERDERS (77)
Update & Making of
Himalayan Herders annotated transcript of the film (PDF)
Making Himalayan Herders Written for the Beeld voor Beeld film festival, this is about how the film came to be made and assume its shape. (PDF)
HOSAY TRINIDAD (45)
Hosay Trinidad, transcript (PDF)
THE FORUM
The address is-- http://www.arts.ucla.edu/forums/index.php
The basic rules of the server are:
1. Unregistered users can see the forum in the list.
2. Anyone who is registered can read posts
3. They must request access to the forum to post
For end users to request access:
After a user REGISTERS --AND-- ACTIVATES using the link sent to their email address, they:
1. return to the forum and login
2. click on "usergroups" in the upper right hand corner of the block of links at the top of the page
3. Under "Join a Group", select a forum to request access in the "non-member groups" drop down list.
4. Then click "View Information"
5. Click the "join group" button.
Please use your real name, and if you do not, make certain that Damola and I know the identity behind the nickname.
There are some big films and topics that Damola or I will start. With those, please use POST REPLY to add your contribution to the thread.
If you want to start a thread on some of the other films or ideas from the class, then use NEW TOPIC.
The idea of the Forum is to share impressions, anything goes as long as it is expressed politely and does not denigrate another student.