Paper short abstract:

What happens when anthropologists experiment with filmic tropes and fiction, as well as new technologies, within filmmaking practice? This paper poses anthropological knowledge can still be conveyed through embracing filmic and fictional devices, however with qualitatively different results.

Paper long abstract:

Whilst the stylistic mode of observational / participant observational filmmaking is still entrenched in ethnographic filmmaking practice, the world of generalist documentary filmmaking is experiencing a surge of stylistic experimentation, pushing the boundaries of what makes a documentary. This paper looks at the anthropological possibilities of experimenting with filmic tropes and fictional modes, including new technologies, within contemporary ethnographic film. The paper poses that anthropological knowledge can still be conveyed with a self-conscious embrace of filmic and fictional devices, however that this type of anthropological knowledge may be qualitatively different, serving different research questions and different ethnographic contexts. This paper runs alongside short film 'Waters of the Songline: Minyipuru Seven Sisters' in Martu Country as an example of practice.