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- Convenors:
-
Alesandra Tatić
(Universidad de Barcelona (ERC FOODCIRCUITS))
Greta Rauleac (Central European University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Friday 4 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract
This panel invites visual anthropologists and filmmakers to reflect on the evolving role of ethnographic film in embracing political engagement. How do feminist perspectives challenge the longstanding taboo of neutrality, reframe discussions of objectivity, ethics, and collaboration?
Long Abstract
This panel critically engages with the evolving role of ethnographic filmmaking as a platform for political engagement, specifically through a feminist lens. Visual anthropologists and filmmakers working with marginalized communities and activist groups often navigate the ethical tensions between creating socially conscious, politically motivated work and the pressures to maintain an appearance of "neutrality" or "objectivity." We invite contributors to examine how feminist perspectives challenge these norms. At the heart of this discussion is the democratizing potential of documentary film and multimodal anthropology, allowing us to reach beyond academic discourse, and engage a broader public in ways traditional platforms cannot. Yet, are we maximizing this capacity or simply speaking to like-minded people? How can we leverage the power of ethnographic film to foster broader, more inclusive conversations?
In addition, the feminist ethos emphasizes care ethics and collaboration, highlighting that academic and filmmaking practices are inherently collective efforts. This collaborative approach reflects a shift toward a professional ethic against the culture of overproduction and (self)exploitation. By embracing these values, we align with generational aspirations to establish new norms in visual anthropology and filmmaking. We welcome ethnographically grounded papers that explore strategies for embedding collaborative filmmaking, co-authorship with marginalized communities, and direct engagement with activist groups. Contributors will reflect on balancing objectivity with political commitment and the influence of their practices on the political agency of the communities involved. This panel discusses how film can serve as a tool for political action, advancing an engaged, ethically accountable form of visual anthropology.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Friday 4 July, 2025, -Paper short abstract
The paper examines a meaning-centered approach to ethnographic filmmaking through a documentary about a transgender man and his family. Participatory storytelling navigates subjectivity and power, bridging the personal and political to foster audience engagement through universal themes.
Paper long abstract
When I began developing my documentary feature film A Happy Man, which explores the intimate story of a Czech transgender man, Marvin, his Slovak husband, and their children living in Sweden, the global discourse on transgender rights was intensifying. At the time, the topic remained marginal in Slovakia, where the film was produced, the first documentary to address it. The situation was about to change rapidly throughout filmmaking. Due to this, I recognized the possible socio-political implications of the film and felt a dual responsibility to the protagonists and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
As a cis-gender woman and mother in a long-term heterosexual relationship, I primarily occupied an "outsider" position in the filmmaking process despite its fluid boundaries (Bourke, 2014; McDougall & Henderson-Brooks, 2021). To address this, I engaged Marvin in a participatory filmmaking process to authentically convey the specific values and meanings embedded in his story.
By focusing on partnership, family, and intimate relationships as central to self-identity, we intentionally 'depoliticized' the topic (Dohotariu et al., 2024), prioritizing universal themes over explicit political messaging. This reflexive decision aimed to foster socio-political impact by engaging with the film's audience and encouraging them to empathize with Marvin's lived experiences.
This paper proposes a meaning-centered approach to ethnographic filmmaking grounded in participatory collaboration and reflexivity. By navigating the dynamics of subjectivity and power (Guzman & Hong, 2022), this approach bridges the personal and political, fostering deeper audience connections and contributing to broader socio-political conversations.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores the role of photography and drawing in ethnographic research on the female body in contemporary Rajasthan. Artistic imagery serves as a tool for investigation and negotiation, fostering collaboration that challenges patriarchal constraints and rethinks participatory methods.
Paper long abstract
Étienne Rey once described modesty as "merely a question of lighting," suggesting that
it appears or disappears depending on observations and interpretations, much like a photograph.
This paper, based on multi-sited fieldwork in contemporary Rajasthan, examines the role of
photography and drawing in ethnographic research. In anthropology, artistic images typically
function as illustrations, supporting pre-established arguments within a textual framework.
However, this paper argues that images can convey insights into the world that texts cannot.
In a field shaped by patriarchal laws that enforce extreme modesty among the women I
work with, photography and drawing are not only tools for investigation but also modes of
understanding the female body in India today. These practices serve as points of negotiation for
interaction, from photographic portraits to participatory exercises where participants draw their
vision of the Indian woman or comment on images. Collaborative artistic imagery, created with
participants and artists, plays a central role in this research.
The paper emphasizes the importance of integrating artistic practices into ethnographic
methods, framing the image as both a tool for investigation and a means of restitution. The
image becomes more than evidence; it serves as an aesthetic object that outlines contours,
shadows, and lines, and merges with the field. By highlighting these artistic approaches, this
paper advocates for a participatory, collaborative methodology that redefines ethnographic
practice, placing the image at the heart of the ethnographic report.
Paper short abstract
This article encapsulates a history of social justice filmmaking in South Asia with regard to what is being heralded as the Indian documentary wave since 2021-till date. It will examine feminist filmmaking processes such as the one undertaken by the author for a film titled 'Survey City.'
Paper long abstract
This article encapsulates a history of social justice filmmaking in India or South Asia more broadly with regard to what is being heralded as the Indian documentary wave since 2021-till date. It asks what role funding institutions and grant-making bodies play who tend to cater to their audiences more than the instincts of justice that tend to motivate filmmakers who pursue stories about underrepresented communities or social justice. It compares these films to the ones produced by feminist processes, feminist filmmaking collectives and initiatives. It will do so through ethnographic enquiry, to locate the source of subjectivity as a process of articulating or empathising with socially marginalised and underrepresented perspectives. The article will complicate the discussion on the process of making social justice films, and delve into the complexity of form and content vs. addressing social issues, as well as the sociological aspects of a non-fiction film and its production. In this version, the article will specifically examine feminist interventions in documentary film in India, as a means to truth and not objectivity.
A previous version of this paper is published here: https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/dasta/article/view/27347/26826
Paper short abstract
Drawing on my fieldwork as a woman with a camera, this research interrogates Kerala’s wedding filmography through a feminist visual ethnographic lens, examining how male videographers shape wedding aesthetics and intimacy, reinforcing a gendered gaze in the visual representation of brides.
Paper long abstract
This study explores the intersections of gender, visual ethnography, and the politics of representation in Kerala’s wedding filmography. As a woman ethnographer with a camera in a male-dominated field, my research critically examines how wedding videographers—predominantly men—act as both visual storytellers and choreographers, shaping the aesthetics and social narratives of marriage. Drawing from my ethnographic fieldwork, I reflect on my presence in the field, interrogating how my role as a female researcher with a camera influenced my interactions and the credibility accorded to me.
Kerala’s wedding films, historically shaped by a male gaze, construct a visual grammar that influences how love and intimacy are performed and remembered. Through an analysis of wedding videos, the paper investigates how videographers actively direct and frame brides, reinforcing gendered aesthetics and idealized notions of conjugality. Despite weddings being marketed as the "bride’s day," visual authorship remains overwhelmingly male, shaping not just documentation but the enactment of wedding rituals.
I have employed the camera throughout my fieldwork not merely to confirm events but to question them. In this framework, “photography becomes the process rather than the product of fieldwork” (Larsen, 1998). By bridging visual anthropology with feminist critique, this research challenges the assumed neutrality of the camera, positioning wedding videography as a sociocultural practice that both reflects and reinforces dominant gendered hierarchies. It also aims to make meaningful contributions to the fields of Feminist ethnography and South Asian studies, exploring how wedding films serve as a medium for storytelling and cultural representation.
Paper short abstract
How can the stories of mothers and children living in prison be represented using immersive storytelling? This paper analyses methods applied and explore limits and potential of VR technologies within the frame of multimodal anthropology and its commitment to collaborative research practices.
Paper long abstract
Within the framework of visual anthropology, many years ago I started research on mothers and children living together in condition of imprisonment. After having produced a feature length documentary based on participant observation approach, I started practice-based research to explore how immersive storytelling might be used in visual anthropological research to better communicate topics that are painful and difficult to represent and to explore the capacity of 360° video to share the experience of oppressive of spaces.
We employed participatory creative practices adapted to virtual reality, with illustration, photography and digital storytelling labs. All participants contributed to the script for the VR film and creation of a concept that could underline different and untold perception of the life in prison, from both women and children. This multimodal anthropological research explores how the VR filmmaking process requires a deeper collaboration with participants, and a strong commitment to support different media and forms of art, in order to express complex meanings and feelings about the past and the future in closed settings, expecially for children. In my experience, VR projects foster the participation of people involved, and might help in the circulation of knowledge beyond the academy, especially for a younger public.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores narrative repair as a feminist and collaborative approach to ethnographic filmmaking. Drawing from participatory storytelling with Syrian Druze women in the Golan Heights, it examines how filmmaking negotiates memory, bridging political divisions through shared lived experiences.
Paper long abstract
This paper engages with feminist and decolonial critiques of ethnographic filmmaking to explore narrative repair - a collaborative method that foregrounds co-authorship in storytelling with politically marginalized communities. Based on participatory filmmaking with Syrian Druze women from the occupied Golan Heights, this project interrogates how filmmaking can serve as a site of shared meaning-making rather than external representation (Abu-Lughod 1991; Minh-ha 1989; Lebow 2012).
This research challenges the notion of neutrality in ethnographic filmmaking by embedding feminist methodologies that prioritize reciprocity, dialogic storytelling, and ethical collaboration (Pink 2021; MacDougall 1998). Working across geopolitical and national divides, it examines how oral history, memory, and co-authored narratives function as counter-memory, challenging dominant historical narratives (Portelli 1991; Frisch 1990). Rather than merely documenting experiences, the filmmaking process itself becomes a form of narrative repair - where shared lived experiences of motherhood, displacement, and loss create relational solidarities that transcend national affiliations.
This paper contributes to ongoing debates on collaborative visual ethnography, asking how participatory documentary practices can navigate ethical tensions between political engagement and co-authorship. In dialogue with feminist and multimodal anthropology, it argues for an ethnographic filmmaking approach that fosters reciprocal, rather than extractive, knowledge production - positioning storytelling as both an act of resistance and a means of repair.