Directions and Diversions
in Visual Anthropology            
  1. Introduction
  2. Objects of Affect
  3. The Burden of Representation
  4. Uncertain Evidence
  5. Digital Media Infrastructure

  6. Collaboration
  7. Sovereign Vision(s)
  8. Opacity and Refusal
  9. Alter-Futurisms
  10. Visual Anthropology beyond the Visual

Home
About
Contact

CC BY-NC-SA 2024 Isaac Marrero Guillamón

7. Sovereign Vision(s)


This session discusses ideas of self-representation and visual sovereignty in relation to a range of indigenous, black and workers’ film collectives. Thinking across contexts and times, we will consider the lessons that can be learned from attempts at seizing the means or production and circulation, as well as the limits of generalisation.

Required reading:

Part 1/1 (24’): the politics and aesthetics of visual sovereignty; seizing the means of production and representation; three case studies.



  • Key films:
  • Black Audio Film Collective. 1986. Handsworth Songs. UK, 58 min.  
  • Colectivo Cine Liberación. 1968. The hour of the furnaces. Argentina, 264 min.
  • Karrabing Film Collective. 2016. Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams. Australia, 29 min.  

  • Indigenous media collectives/repositories:
  • Vision Maker Media (US) https://visionmakermedia.org/
  • Isuma (CAN) http://www.isuma.tv/
  • Video Nas Aldeias (BR) http://videonasaldeias.org.br/
  • National Film Board’s Indigenous Cinema Collection (CAN) https://www.nfb.ca/indigenous-cinema/

  • Further reading:
  • Aufderheide, Patricia. 1995. “The Video in the Villages Project: Videomaking with and by Brazilian Indians.” Visual Anthropology Review 11 (2): 83–93. doi:10.1525/var.1995.11.2.83.
  • Benjamin, Walter. 1970. “The Author as Producer.” New Left Review, no. 62: 83–96. 
  • Dowell, Kristin L. 2013. Sovereign Screens: Aboriginal Media on the Canadian West Coast. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Eshun, Kodwo, and Ros Gray. 2011. ‘The Militant Image: A Ciné‐Geography’. Third Text 25 (1): 1– 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2011.545606.
  • Ginsburg, Faye. 2011. “Native Intelligence: A Short History of Debates on Indigenous Media and Ethnographic Film.” In Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology, edited by Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby, 234–55. Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press.
  • Ginsburg, Faye. 2003. “Atanarjuat Off-Screen: From ‘Media Reservations’ to the World Stage.” American Anthropologist 105 (4): 827–31. doi:10.1525/aa.2003.105.4.827.
  • Hearne, Joanna. 2012. ‘Unsettling Sights: The Fourth World on Film’. Screen 53 (1): 95–99. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr067.
  • Lea, Tess, and Elizabeth A. Povinelli. 2018. ‘Karrabing: An Essay in Keywords’. Visual Anthropology Review 34 (1): 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12151.
  • Peterson, Leighton C. 2013. “Reclaiming Diné Film: Visual Sovereignty and the Return of Navajo Film Themselves.” Visual Anthropology Review 29 (1): 29–41. doi:10.1111/var.12002.
  • Raheja, Michelle. 2007. “Reading Nanook’s Smile: Visual Sovereignty, Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography, and Atanarjuat (the Fast Runner).” American Quarterly 59 (4): 1159–1185.
  • Rancière, Jacques. 2010. “The Paradoxes of Political Art.” In Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics, 134–51. London and New York: Continuum.
  • Rifkin, Mark. 2017. Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self- Determination. Durham ; London: Duke University Press Books.
  • Ruby, Jay. 2000. “In the Belly of the Beast: Eric Michaels and Indigenous Media.” In Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology, 221–38. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
  • Schiwy, Freya. 2003. “Decolonizing the Frame: Indigenous Video in the Andes.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 44 (1): 116–32.
  • Simpson, Audra. 2007. ‘On Ethnographic Refusal: Indigeneity, ‘Voice’ and Colonial Citizenship’. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, no. 9: 67–80.
  • Stark, Trevor. 2012. ‘“Cinema in the Hands of the People”: Chris Marker, the Medvedkin Group, and the Potential of Militant Film’. October, no. 139: 117–150.
  • Turner, Terence. 1992. “Defiant Images: The Kayapo Appropriation of Video.” Anthropology Today 8 (6): 5–16.
  • Wilson, Pamela, and Michelle Stewart, eds. 2008. Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, and Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Wortham, Erica Cusi. 2004. “Between the State and Indigenous Autonomy: Unpacking Video Indígena in Mexico.” American Anthropologist 106 (2): 363–68.

  • Suggested films:
  • Barclay, Barry. 1987. Ngati. New Zealand, 92 min.
  • Black Audio Film Collective.  1989. Twightlight City. UK, 52 min. 
  • Kunuk, Zacharias. 2001. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Canada: 176 min.
  • Thornton, Warrick. 2009. Samson and Delilah. Australia, 97 min.
  • Thornton, Warrick. 2017. Sweet Country. Australia, 113 min.