How has visual ethnography shifted from becoming a discipline of “first world” filmmakers traveling to film “third world” people to a more complex and dialogical series of exchanges?  Moving away from this bi-polar perspective to see the world in more complex and subtle terms, how have the audience for ethnographic documentaries shifted in recent years?  How are ethnographic documentaries influenced by controversies about minority nationalities and ethnicity?  What is the relationship between visual ethnography and the commercial videos produced for tourism promotion? What is the role of autobiographical or first person documentaries in defining a cultural perspective? What role do videos play in maintaining transnational connections among dispersed families and communities in China and the US? How do websites and web-based blogs serve to maintain transnational ties?

Full schedule after the break.

Thursday, April 8

12:00 pm Welcome and Reception at the University Club

1:00 pm Opening Remarks: Janet Hoskins, Gary Seaman, Nancy Lutkehaus

1:30-2:30 pm Opening lecture: “Ethnography, Ethnographic Film, & Religious Revival in Contemporary China” Mayfair Yang, UCSB
Discussion

3:15-3:30 pm Coffee break

3:30- 5:00 pm
Student panel: Body, Self and Identity
Jia Tan, USC Cinema
JP Sniadecki Harvard Anthropology
Fei-Mei Heberer USC, Cinema

Leavey Screenings (at Leavey Auditorium):

5:30 pm “Broken Pots, Broken Dreams” by Maris Boyd Gillette (30 minutes)

6:20 pm “The Secret of the Stone” by Zhifang Song, Gary Seaman & Steven Schindler (39 minutes)
Q and A with the filmmakers

Friday, April 9

8:30 am Coffee and breakfast served at the Anthropology lounge
Morning Panels: Grace Ford Salvatori Auditorium 106

9:15 am First Panel: Ethnic Minorities and Cinematic Representation
Papers presented by Professor Dru Gladney of Pomona College and the Pacific Bassin Institute and Professor Yang Hui of Yunnan University
Discussants: Stan Rosen, USC and Kenneth Dean, McGill University

10:30 am Coffee break (Anthropology Lounge)

10:45 am Second Panel: Community-Based Documentary and Participatory Cinema
Papers presented by Wu Wenguang of Beijing and Kenneth Dean of McGill
Discussants: Eugene Cooper, USC Anthropology and Louisa Schein, Rutgers

12:00 noon Lunch Break
Lunch will be served in Gabilan Courtyard

Leavey Afternoon Screenings:

1:00 pm “Tiger Day” by Zhuang Kongshao (20 minutes)
Warning: There are some graphic scenes depicting the slaying of animals in this film that viewers may find offensive or disturbing. It is not a film suitable for children.

1:30 pm “Priests of the Buyei People” by Deng Qiyao (38 minutes)
Q and A with the filmmakers

2:30 pm “Through Chinese Women’s Eyes” by Mayfair Yang (52 minutes)
Q and A with the filmmaker

3:40- 4:00 pm Coffee Break, Gabilan Courtyard

4:00 pm
Wu Wenguang and Deng Qiyao
“My Village: The Villagers Documentary Project” (60 minutes)
Q and A with Wu Wenguang and Deng Qiyao

5:30 pm
Keynote Speaker: Louisa Schein of Rutgers University
“Genres Unbound: Transnational and Grass Roots Media Perforating the Chinese Ethnographic”

Saturday April 10

9:00 am Coffee and breakfast served at Gabilan Courtyard

Morning Panels: Leavey Auditorium

9:15 am Third Panel: Using Film in Teaching Anthropology
Papers by Zhuang Kongshao and Scott Wilson/Zhifang Song
Discussants: Gary Seaman of USC and Stephen Schindler of CSULB

10:30 am Coffee break at Gabilan Courtyard

10:45 am Fourth Panel: Visual Ethnography and Folklore in the Digital Age
Papers by Deng Qiyao of Beijing and Maris Boyd Gillette of Haverford College
Discussants: Michael Renov of USC Cinema and Meiling Cheng of USC
School of Theater

12:00 noon Lunch Break
Lunch will be served at Gabilan Courtyard

Leavey Afternoon Screenings:

1:00 pm “Bored in Heaven” by Kenneth Dean (70 minutes)
Q and A with Kenneth Dean, McGill University

2:15 pm “Bing Ai” by Feng Yan (120 minutes)

4:45 pm “A Dai Village’s New Year” by Yang Hui (44 minutes)

5:30 pm SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL:
”Han Xin’s Revenge: A Daoist Mystery”. (90 minutes)
A film by Patrice Fava with the participation of Zhuang Kongshao
Discussants: Kenneth Dean, McGill University, Mayfair Yang, UCSB

Sunday, April 11

Morning Business Meeting: The Bohannon Anthropology Seminar Room, AHF B108, Hancock Building, Basement)
9:00 am Coffee and breakfast

9:15 am Discussion of plans for publishing an edited volume on “Digital Media,
Cultural Lenses: Visual Ethnography Dialogues with China”

Sponsor(s): USC U.S.-China Institute, Center for Visual Anthropology

Relevant Classroom Use

Tami Blumenfield (photo courtesy of University of Washington / Tami Blumenfield)

Tami Blumenfield is a Lecturer at the University of Washington. Her research mainly focuses on the education and media representation of minorities in southwest China, especially the Moso and Na. Her teaching areas cover movement and media representation in contemporary China, indigenous media, kinship studies, visual anthropology, and anthropology of education. Tami Blumenfield is also one of the organizers of the Moso Media Projects, which comprises the Moso Film Festival, participatory media production, and ethnographies of Moso Media.

In this conversation with dGenerate’s Kevin Lee, Tami shares her engagement and interaction with the Moso community, and articulates the effect of filmmaking process on local people and culture with vivid examples from her own experience. She draws particular attention to the ethics of representation, the significance of collaborative projects, and the role of filmmakers and researchers from an anthropological point of view.

Play the Podcast (Time: 22:04)

Download audio file (dGenerate_Tami_Blumenfield.mp3)

Download it here (right-click to download). (File size: 20.7 MB)

Click through for a list of Tami’s publications and a timecoded index of topics covered in the interview.

PUBLICATIONS:

• 2008: “Anthropologists in Motion.” In Anthropology News, January 2008.
• 2007: “Best Practices for IGERT Sustainability.” Co-authored with Renate Sadrozinski and Maresi Nerad. Report for the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education at the University of Washington.
• 2004: Contemporary Moso Adaptations to Mainstream Culture: Examining the Influence of Education and Tourism. In Zhang Xisheng, ed. Ethnic Minorities and the Market Economy. Kunming: Yunnan University Press.
• 2004: “Walking Marriages”. In Anthropology News 45 (5).
• 2003: “A Country of Daughters: China’s Na Women.” In Nervy Girl (May). Portland, Oregon: Independent Publishing Northwest.
• 2003: “Na Education in the Face of Modernity.” In Landscapes of Diversity: Indigenous Knowledge, Sustainable Livelihoods and Resource Governance in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia. Xu Jianchu and Stephen Mikesell, eds. Pp. 487-494. Kunming: Yunnan Science and Technology Press.
• 2003: “Languages and Lives: Bilingual Education and the Quest for Naxi and Moso Identity.” Ao-Tung (XXI): Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College East Asian Studies Program.

Interview index by times and subjects:

• 00:00 – 00:53: Tami’s recent projects in regards to Chinese film
• 00:54 – 03:55: How did Tami get involved with the Moso community and how did her research focus shift from the community to the filmmaking process of local people?
• 03:56 – 05:59: The role of academics in anthropological research
• 06:00 – 09:09: The intention and result of Tami’s projects
• 09:10 – 12:03: Example of the gap between local people’s understanding of how their words will be used and the consequences of working with filmmakers
• 12: 04 – 13:25: The significance of making people more conscious about the filmmaking process when they work with filmmakers
• 13:26 – 16:42: Recent documentaries from China that have impressed Tami the most
• 16:43 – 18:36: How films are used in Tami’s class
• 18:37 – 19:59: Issue of representation in visual anthropology, who has the right to portray other people, and how the real life of people who are portrayed has been affected by those images
• 20:00 – 21:23: The myth of indigenous people develops into a localized economy around film production

Relevant Classroom Use