[Discussion] CFP: Ethnographic Spectacle and Truth (9/15/04; NEMLA, 3/31/05-4/2/05)

[sule tarakcioglu]

CFP: Forms of Ethnographic Spectacle and The Status Of Truth In Docudrama
and Documentary

Northeast Modern Language Association
Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 31 - April 2, 2005

	This panel is an extension of work that its co-chairs, Kristen
Barnes and Denise O=92Malley, have been pursuing independently in the are=
as
of ethnographic documentary and docudrama. In forming this panel, the
co-chairs seek to explore intersections between the well-established genr=
e
of ethnographic film, a genre which has been forged and developed by such
key ethnographic filmmakers as Robert Flaherty and Jean Rouch, and a genr=
e
we have styled for the moment as =93ethnographic docudrama=94. O=92Malley=
 will
consider Ridley Scott=92s Black Hawk Down (2001), offering it as a potent=
ial
example of the ethnographic docudrama genre, and Barnes will discuss
Rouch=92s Chronicle of a Summer (1960), considering its strategies of cin=
ema
verit=E9 and reversal ethnography. We elected to juxtapose Rouch=92s film=
 with
Scott=92s because we noted certain convergences with how traditional
ethnographic subjects (read as other than Western, White) are adapted for
an ethnographic form and representation and we wish to further explore
those momen ts which allow for reversals, displacements, or challenges to
the authority of the privileged filmmaker to occur.

	Our panel is concerned with comparing the techniques, strategies and
goals of both genres. Practitioners in both genres have suggested that
ethnographic documentary and ethnographic docudrama can communicate truth=
s
about race. Drawing upon critical theorist Fatimah Tobing Rony=92s
definition of =93ethnographic=94 as =93objectifications of racialized oth=
er
indigenous people=94, we wish to investigate the notion of ethnographic
spectacle and how this plays out in both ethnographic docudrama and
ethnographic film. Our panel will explore the questions:	What are the
common goals of ethnographic film and ethnographic docudrama? What claims
do both genres make as having the ability to record and preserve empirica=
l
truth (Ethnographic docudrama reproduces an event through reenactment tha=
t
is supposed to be faithful to what really happened. Ethnographic film
claims that it is recording a social cultural truth as it occurs)?  How
does docudrama unsettle documentary claims to truth?  How is the notion o=
f
bearing witness embedde
d in both genres?  What ideologies inform these genres?  How is rhetoric
and its devices (e.g. metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, figuration) used an=
d
represented in both forms? Are both types of films produced for the same
kind of audience (e.g., Western, White, Urban)?  What do both genres shar=
e
aesthetically? Is the critical language of ethnographic film applicable t=
o
ethnographic docudrama? For example, can we speak in terms of
insider/outsider, self/other or informant positions for ethnographic
docudrama?  How is the question and the act of ethnographic inquiry
represented in both genres? What is the relationship between the filmmake=
r
and his subject(s)?
We encourage a range of papers which explore any of the foregoing propose=
d
questions. We also invite papers which follow the trajectory of exploring
independent examples of ethnographic docudrama or ethnographic film which
can provide a basis for comparing these genres in the discussion followin=
g
the presentation of papers.

250 word abstracts to D. O'Malley by 9/15/04

email: domalley@massart.edu

mail:
D. O'Malley
Massachusetts College of Art
Critical Studies Dept. T-533
621 Huntington Ave.
Boston MA 02115


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