Voices and silences: some thoughts regarding reflexivity in ethnographic films

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the author’s voice as an expression of subjectivity and reflexivity in ethnographic films. It analyzes three different ways of working with the author’s voice to establish correlations between emotional, audio-visual and theoretical-methodological levels. The voice as a special kind of performance is suggested as an object for further research and practice, although the approach presented here focuses on the ways these voices could be situated in an effort to consider problems of contemporary anthropology, which have been apparent since the 1980’s. Our major concern is to ask how ethnographic films can contribute to anthropological thinking, paying special attention to ethnographic experience, dialogue and subjectivity. The films of anthropologists such as Margaret Mead and Jean Rouch, as well as a more recent Brazilian film-maker, Edgar Cunha, are used as an analytic basis from which the author’s voice can be reevaluated. It is expected that this discussion will contribute to the critical reconsideration of already released productions as well as further projects.

Translation: John Cowart Dawsey