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　　Ethnographic Film
　　As a means of an anthropological representation of cultures and societies, documentation through film has been a longstanding tool in the ethnographers’ kit. From the very earliest attempts to film distant cultures and make their lives known to an audience, sometimes clumsily and with much artifice involved, and at other times producing a vivid, if partial example of other lives, moving images have helped to shape a fragmented understanding of the world. This fragmentary nature is itself, however, the forum for much discussion on the role of film in anthropology and has generated a heated and ongoing debate on the merits of visual as well as textual analysis in ethnographic research. Early films shot for general consumption sought to depict simple scenes, their original value being based upon audience interest in the novelty of moving pictures, “fascinating because of their illusory power… and exoticism” (Gunning 1990: 57). As narrative form to some extent replaced these earliest examples, so the beginnings of anthropological films emerged. In the early films, both those with a visually dominant structure as well as those with a narrative thread, technology itself was being celebrated and demonstrated. Film in this earliest form was clearly not so concerned with the ethics of representation and the struggles between objectivity and subjectivity but aimed primarily to provide a visually stimulating and exciting experience based on technological advancements. Such a beginning for film based on the novelty of watching may seem a long way from current filming methods and practices, however, “in this primitive world, we find structures tantalisingly prophetic of some we know today” (Vaughan 1990: 63). Early films may have depicted people in everyday tasks, working, shopping or playing, not so much as documentary enquiries but nevertheless offering up individuals and social groups as in some way being worthy of watching and recording, for the pleasure or instruction of an audience. Whilst such images can not be called distinctly ethnographic in their purposes, the observation of people, their daily existence and the networks within which social groups move remain at the heart of anthropological study and human interest.
　　“Images are everywhere… They are inextricably woven with our personal identities, narratives, lifestyles, cultures and societies, as well as with definitions of history, space and truth”. (Pink 2001: 17).
　　So, from the earliest film, curiosity about how people live, and the seemingly privileged intimacy the camera appears to offer have, to some extent, guided social enquiry and documentation.
　　With time, works of fiction and more consciously planned linear filming superseded earlier forms of spectacle where the “energy moves outward towards an acknowledged spectator rather than inward towards the character-based situations essential to… narrative” (Gunning 1990: 59). InNanook of the North (1922), Flaherty is recognised as producing the first feature length documentary which portrayed the lives of ‘Nanook’ and his family. Made at a time when cameras were unwieldy and barely portable, many of the shots for this documentary had to be staged, a practice considered unethical by some quarters, but understandable when considering the cumbersome state of equipment at the time. In this example of salvage ethnography, hunting and survival skills that were being surpas本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。