{"id":49,"date":"2024-11-13T20:32:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T20:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/ant252-f24\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2024-12-13T12:53:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T12:53:35","slug":"project-6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/ant252-f24\/projects\/project-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Filmmaker’s Influence Over Identity<\/strong><\/p>\n

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ABSTRACT<\/strong><\/p>\n

My interests are attuned to the construction of stories and narratives that tend to proclaim or make arguments through specific uses of popular plot lines, editing, statistics, data structures and scene structures. These visual elements are a part of creating invisible motivations, contexts, or even calls to action that enable filmmakers to portray and implement their own video choices in order to speak towards a specific audience. This can also support the ways in which specific identities are represented across film\u2014 the main part of my project. These relationships between the filmmaker and the motivations behind specific editing, plots or scenes are able to show the invisible relationships between identity of characters\/subjects and the way filmmakers portray those identities. Furthermore, I incorporate statistics that relate to identity.\u00a0 These statistics or data structures can portray and manipulate the way identities are portrayed, in relation to film.<\/p>\n

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INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Identity as a concept is very nuanced and complex. Throughout class discussions we have time and time again, seen how filmmakers translate identity. Whether this be through the meticulous usage of metaphors, editing styles or the reclamation of voice. We have mainly discussed how Indigenous communities use filmmaking to reclaim the narratives that western filmmakers have created about them. In examining the way filmmaking has impacted the narratives of Indigenous communities, I wanted to explore the way filmmaking has an influence or power to create and shape identity. Specifically, shape the way audiences perceive identity.<\/p>\n

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SCHOLARLY OVERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n

Faye Ginsburg in \u201cThe Parallax Effect: The Impact of Aboriginal Media on Ethnographic Film,\u201d applies the term parallax [a term used in astronomy] to a more universal usage of filmmaking. Parallax is described as: \u201cthe apparent displacement of the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points.\u201d (64) To further this explanation, Ginsburg describes the way one creates a parallax effect through cinematic perspectives. In which she states:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf harnessed analytically, these \u2018slightly different angles of vision\u2019 can offer a fuller comprehension of complexity of the social phenomenon we call culture and those media representations that self consciously engage with it.\u201d (65)<\/p>\n

Parallax allows cultural representations to be built from different points of view. Film representations only take small parts or emphasize specific areas of identity that won\u2019t fully encompass identities holistically. The idea here is that by taking multiple perspectives and views as a way of using parallax, one is able to construct a more accurate representation of the identity that one encompasses. Applying this to the discussions we have explored surrounding film and identity, I would like to offer an analysis of the ways in which filmmakers create personalities, characters, stereotypes and shape the identity of human beings and communities. By analyzing films and data representations through the lens of parallax, we can understand the ways in which filmmakers have made technical, plot and metaphorical choices to represent identities and create structured arguments. This is important because filmmaking and statistics create and form identities, which have a large impact on the way audiences understand communities and cultures. Additionally, in light of the way western filmmaking and Indigenous filmmaking differ [highlighting two different voices and perspectives,] parallax can offer an important understanding of; the addition of more perspectives, create a bigger picture\u2014 an overlap of multiple perspectives. The creation of a pluriverse, in Arturo Escobar\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

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IMAGINING INDIANS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us first examine Imagining Indians (1992), a film about the ways Hollywood cinema has misrepresented Indigenous and Native American culture. This film takes multiple interviews of Indigenous actors and their experiences on sets, in order to show the way Indigenous people have been misrepresented. In particular, closely examining the stereotypes of Native American people within films and their roles in films. I wanted to closely highlight the filmmaker, Victor Masayeva, and his film style. Particularly the loud metaphorical usage of dentistry or a doctor to reveal the ways in which Indigenous people are silenced by western pressures of representation.<\/p>\n

The three minute clip featured in figure 1, can be described as a narration of how sacredness has become less sacred in the Indigenous perspective due to filmmaking. The narrator emphasizes the participatory aspect of Indigenous cultural practice and the way that it is difficult to transmit this through film. Additionally the narrator describes how the preservation of language and the necessity of language helps keep things sacred. The simplification of language for wider audiences has made cultural practices less sacred. The narration ends with, \u201cto be able to be part of a spiritual community that knows\u2013\u201d and is cut off by the sawing noise that a tooth drill creates.<\/p>\n

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