domingo, 15 de novembro de 2009

"Travelling"

"New Anthropology: 'Travelling' (Nedarma)







Date:
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Time:
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location:
JZ Young LT, Anatomy Building, UCL, Gower Street, London
New Anthropology

Can documentary be ethnography? The aims of documentary film and ethnographic film have crossed and interwoven since the days of Flaherty and Vertov. There is now a new genre dealing with old themes; films about remote tribes and so called primitive people.

It is useful to contrast an ethnographic method that is research and theory based with a documentary narrative that is based on characters, drama, and interesting stories. Are films being made today able to reconcile the two approaches?

'Travelling'
‘Every man has his star in the sky – he was born under it’, or so the Nenet people of the Siberian tundra believe.

This film by Markku Lehmuskallio’s is a metaphoric summary of a lifetime of film-making above the Arctic Circle. Lehmuskallio, 70, a former forest technician, has worked for the last 40 years with film-maker Anastasia Lapsui, a radio journalist born in Siberia who specialises in the indigenous languages of the Lapp Sami/Siberian cultures bordering the Finnish and Russian Arctic.

Travelling is a poetic journey of exploration in the tundra and covers the entire life cycle of man, from birth to grave. The Nenet’s everyday life is dictated by the rhythm of the seasons, which regulates their basic survival needs of hunting and fishing.

Leading a simple and sustainable life, and very often facing harsh climatic conditions, especially in winter, the Nenet’s most precious asset is their reindeer herd. The animals are used for transport and for food, their skin for tents and clothing. But the oil tower on the horizon signifies change.

Viewed by many as the masterpiece of Lehmuskallio’s career, this is an astonishingly beautiful piece of film-making.

Free event"




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