Symposium 2010

Future Past: Cultural Heritage and Collaborative Ethnographic Film Work

Cultural heritage, collaborative ethnographic work, and ethnographic film work are discussed theoretically and methodologically again and again. However, this happens mainly separately from each other. In the context of intangible cultural heritage its documentation with film is of particular value. Nowadays, archival film material is sought after by the members of the respective cultures. New material is created by many people, amongst others by anthropologists and people of the respective cultures themselves. Having these diverse sources of material at hand the question of validity immediately arises. Which contribution can anthropology make? How important is the collaboration with local representatives, how does it work, and with which results? Which contribution can “indigenous filmmaking” offer in this context? And, who decides whether or not an event, an expression, or a performance is an element of the cultural heritage?
Different examples of collaborative ethnographic film work from various parts of the world will be examined in the context of the contemporary culture heritage discourse. The aim is to achieve a deeper insight into the processes of creating cultural heritage, in using film, and in thus documenting intangible cultural heritage.
The symposium is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Volkswagen Stiftung) and the Wenner Gren Foundation. It is organised by the University of Göttingen and the Förderinitiative Visuelle Ethnographie e.V. (FIVE). Intervention Press will publish the papers of the conference.
The symposium is organised by Prof. Dr.Regina Bendix (University of Gööttingen), Prof. Dr. Peter Crawford (Intervention Press), and Dr. Rolf Husmann and Dr. Beate Engelbrecht (both University of Göttingen>, Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival GIEFF and FIVE).

Preliminary programme:

Saturday May 15 to Tuesday May 18, 2010