Ethnofiction is a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduce art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into academic works.
In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvised, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.
History
Ethnologist
Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction,
[ Glossary at MAITRES_FOUS.NET] with
Robert Flaherty as an ancestor.
Rouch discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers: the behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by the camera's presence. Contrary to the principles of
Marcel Griaule,
[ Marcel Griaule (1898–1956) – Article by Sybil Amber][ From Pictorializing to Visual Anthropology1 – Chapter from "Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology"] his mentor, Rouch considers it impossible for a non-participating camera to record "pure" events in ethnographic research.
[ Father of 'cinema verite' dies – BBC news][ BIOGRAPHIES: Jean Rouch – Article by Ben Michaels at Indiana University][ A Tribute to Jean Rouch by Paul Stoller at Rouge][Ethnographic Film (origines)][ Knowing Images: Jean Rouch's Ethnography <- Chapter from Sarah Cooper's monograph "Selfless Cinema?: Ethics and French Documentary" (Oxford: Legenda, 2006) at MAITRES-FOUS.net]
An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of cine-trance.[ Cine-trance: a Tribute to Jean Rouch(Visual Anthropology, American Anthropologist)] Rouch thus introduced the actor as a tool in research.[ Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch, article by Reuben Ross, UK Visual Anthropology, November 9, 2010][ Videos about ethnofiction on Vimeo][ Coming of Age as Other: Indigenous People in the Ethnofiction Film 'The Dead and The Others' – article at CINEA, 14 december 2018]
Ethnofiction has also been developed in Portuguese cinema. Ethnic films have been common in Portugal since the 1930s, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s[ – Abstract for a conference by Catarina Alves Costa at ] and in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region in Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde islands are common subjects of such films. These films depict local realities along with legends and surreal imagery, producing works of ethnofiction.
Chronology
1910s
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1914 – In the Land of the Head Hunters by Edward S. Curtis, Canada
1920s
1930s
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1930 – Maria do Mar by José Leitão de Barros, Portugal
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1931 – Tabu written by Robert Flaherty and directed by F. W. Murnau, US
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1932 – by Jean Epstein, France
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1933 – by Luis Buñuel, Spain
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1934 – Man of Aran by Robert Flaherty, UK
1940s
1950s
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1955 – Les maîtres fous (The Mad Masters) by Jean Rouch, France
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1958 – Moi, un noir (Me a Black) by Jean Rouch, France
1960s
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1961 – La pyramide humaine by Jean Rouch, France
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1962 – Acto da Primavera (Act of Spring) by Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
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1963 – Pour la suite du monde (Of Whales, the Moon and Men) by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, Canada
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1967 – Jaguar, by Jean Rouch, France
1970s
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1976 – (Gente da Praia da Vieira) by António Campos, Portugal
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1976 – Trás-os-Montes by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, Portugal
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
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2011 – Toomelah by Ivan Sen
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2012 – The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Indonesia
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2014 – Horse Money (Horse Money) by Pedro Costa, Portugal
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2014 – La creazione di significato (The Creation of Meaning) by Simone Rapisarda Casanova, Italy
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2015 – by
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2018 – Zanj Hegel la (Hegel's Angel) by Simone Rapisarda Casanova, Haiti
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2018 – The Dead and the Others by João Salaviza, Portugal
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2019 – Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa, Portugal
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2019 – Work, or To Whom Does the World Belong, by , Spain
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2024 – Anime galleggianti by Maria Giménez Cavallo, Sardinia
See also
Footnotes
External links
