Paper short abstract:

In 2010/11, 70 ethnographic film documents from the Gilbert islands, shot in 1964, were digitised and returned to Kiribati, the country of their origin. The paper describes the repatriation of the silent old films and the teaching of a workshop on ethnographic filmmaking as well as methodological issues relating to the films' use in contemporary filmmaking, results of reception research and an attempt at post-synchronisation of two dance films.

Paper long abstract:

In 1964, the German ethnographer Gerd Koch spent almost one year in the Gilbert Islands, now the Micronesian state of Kiribati. Apart from other methods of data-collection, Koch also made some 70 short ethnographic 16mm-films, published by IWF Göttingen, Germany. They were never returned to Kiribati, until in 2010 and 2011 Wolfgang Kempf and Rolf Husmann repatriated digital copies of the silent films. Part of their "Kiribati Project" was also research among contemporary I-Kiribati about the films' content and the teaching of a workshop in ethnographic filmmaking, in which the old material was successfully combined with newly shot film footage. Finally there was also an attempt at post-synchronising two of the old dance films using archived sound material from Koch. This paper outlines the visual methodologies adopted in the "Kiribati Project", looks at the relevance of the old films for contemporary Kiribati culture, and discusses the potential of repatriating old films as Intangible Cultural Heritage to the countries of their origin.