Question

Discuss the potential and challenges of cultural representation through ethnographic, documentary, and fictional film (Be sure to include examples of ethnographic, Nollywood/Bollywood/Hollywood films)

Answer 1

Potential and challenges of cultural representation through ethnographic,documentary and fictional film -

Ethnographic films in stricter sense communicate the academic research through anthropologist point of view. However,films can have liberty in creativity,depiction and presentation. In the ethnographic movies,main focus will be on culture representation of human societies in old era,primates, their behaviour, beliefs, lifestyle. Archaeological,cultural,biological and linguistic anthropology films form ethnographic films. It has huge potential to show cultural practices,trades, behaviour,beliefs and practices of the then social values. If we take example of bollywood movie Mohenjodaro, directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar ,it is best example of ethnographic film. It shows archeological and cultural anthropological aspects. The challenge for ethnographic film making is that academic research needs to be thoroughly done. The appropriate set,costumes, language, cultural practices and beliefs need to be depicted. The lifestyle,how humans lived thousand years ago,what were their norms and values is to be depicted through ethnographic movies. In Mohenjodaro movie, the lifestyle of human settlements in 2500 BCE is depicted. Ofcourse from entertainment point of view,the script has taken liberty to show a common man Serman's story through which cultural nuances have been shown. The rural living, their beliefs, lifestyle,their Gods, their concepts of faith and loss etc are shown beautifully in the movie. With academic reference,how the settlement got destroyed as it was submerged under water due to flood is also shown. The biggest challenge is to have sync between entertainment,creativity and academic research. This challenge is tactfully handled in the movie.

Coming to documentary movie, in short span one has to show entire script, storytelling in realistic way. The purpose could be education,information, instruction. It has potential to communicate exact message in short span . It has challenge to depict the message in realistic and meaningful way. So the direction and script needs to be accurate,to the point. It is non fiction. Let's take an example of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar documentary film in which Actor Mamuty has played role of Dr.Ambedkar. it is an excellent movie which has shown all facts of Dr.Ambedkar's life ,his contribution towards constitution making,his efforts against untouchability etc are shown in the documentary film appropriately. In the documentary, the challenge is to cover facts. It has no scope for fiction. Hence the entertainment aspect may be less. However,it is strong tool to communicate the message,to educate ,to spread awareness.

The fiction movies give full scope to entertainment, creativity. It has vast scope for imagination,innovation, exploration.The challenge is that it may not capture attention of audience of all age groups or all tastes. For example, science fiction movies are liked by kids and young crowd but not old people. Wherein thriller or horrie movies have special audience subset. If you take example of Hollywood's World war Z movie,it is scientific fiction movie. It shows that virus infects mankind and they all become zombie. Ultimately,to save world,the experimental antidote is tested by hero (Brad Pitt) and he succeeds. Or take another example of Matrix or Predator movies. The aliens or other creatures try to capture human kind on earth and how the saviors fight with these aliens is the concept. The moviw Avtar had shown fiction of another world of planet where the ultimate message is that every creature loves it's own planet and is ready to save it by flighting any odds. The fictional movies are great sources of entertainment and meaningful communication.