Documentary Educational Resources,
50 Years Later
Short Films: Reflexive
This selection of DER films includes voices and visions of those who are usually at the mercy of their documenters’ perspective. The poetic documentary Blunden Harbour is gently undressed—revealing the projections and generalizations that often accompany reverence—with Jamaine Campbell’s restoration of its humanity and intimacy in a radically compassionate inversion of “director’s commentary.” Thomas Henderson—who appears as a young boy in the film—names his 'Nakwaxda'xw relatives as they appear onscreen, describes their activities and relates what has happened since. And the indigenous media project of Brazil, Video in the Villages, confronts the manifold implications and effects of televisual mediation and representation in The Spirit of TV. With no Western mediation, the Waiãpi harness the medium to study themselves and other tribes while communicating frankly to their oppressors. Next, Jero on Jero comments on the ability of the filmmakers to faithfully capture—rather than denigrate—a sacred experience; a spirit medium is finally able to watch herself channeling in trance, as if seeing another self speaking words she has never heard before. Finally, Nina Davenport takes a different approach in Hello Photo, surrendering to the inherent bias and voyeurism of the tourist’s camera and its effect on those in front of and behind the camera—attempting to capture the beautiful and various facets of a culture as it wittingly and unwittingly puts itself on display.
PROGRAM
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Blunden Harbour (excerpt)
Directed by Robert Gardner and William Heick.
Canada, 1951, 16mm, black & white, 5 min.
Print source: HFA -
Blunden Harbour Revisited
Directed by Robert Gardner and William Heick / Jamaine Campbell and Thomas Henderson.
Canada, 1951/2014, digital video, black & white, 21 min.
Copy source: Jamaine Campbell -
The Spirit of TV
Directed by Vincent Carelli and Video in the Villages.
Brazil, 1990, digital video, color, 18 min.
Waiãpi and Portuguese with English subtitles.
Copy source: Documentary Educational Resources -
Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed
Directed by Linda Connor, Patsy Asch and Tim Asch.
US/Indonesia, 1981, 16mm, color, 17 min.
Balinese with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA -
Hello Photo
Directed by Nina Davenport.
US/India, 1994, 16mm, color and b&w, 55 min.
Print source: HFA