Arts & Culture
Visual Anthropology and Ethnographic Filmmaking Practices
Quick fact
Anthropologists have used film as a research tool since the 1890s, and early films often reflected colonial perspectives, framing non-Western peoples as 'exotic' or 'primitive' rather than as complex societies.
Why this is interesting
You've probably watched a nature documentary and felt you've 'seen' a culture. But how much of what you saw was reality, and how much was the filmmaker's construction?