Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on a research at the Bulgarian National Film Archive, and presents a survey of Bulgarian ethnographic filmmaking development.

Paper long abstract:

Due to the noticeable absence of interest in Bulgaria for many years, the canon of official ideology, and the lack of possibilities, the topic was neglected by the scholars. As we entered a new age in early 90s, it became more important to recognize the means by which socialism manifested itself visually in particular cultural forms. It helps to better understand the contemporary attempts to strengthen the ethnographic filmmaking in Bulgaria, free of censorship and/or directed folkloristic demonstrations.

Currently a few types of ethnographic filmmaking are observed: the filmmaking as a research tool, a part of the students education in observation and documenting of events, as interviews, and videos; next, are the works of a famous visual anthropologist from Bulgarian origin, who has made several films in the country, introducing anthropological methods of ethnographic filmmaking. Another shared stylistic dimension of Bulgarian ethnographic cinema is in the respect to films made by journalists for TV with strong ethnographic influences.

Thanks to the new forms of audio-visual expression, people manage to maintain freedom by avoiding the demands of feature financing. As a result, documentary/ethnographic filmmaking is burgeoning popular, particularly among the younger generation who make use of digital video. The ethnographic output of Bulgaria, however, is seen considerably less internationally. Occasional glimpses of remarkable films can be caught at specialized documentary and visual anthropology festivals.