In the field of ethnographic film, W.S. Van Dyke (1889-1943) was known for having collaborated with Robert Flaherty but later broken off with Flaherty because they had different ideologies about making films of ethnic groups. Here's Karl G. Heider's comparison of Van Dyke and Flaherty in his book Ethnographic Film:
But while Flaherty pictures the brave-and-noble-savage in the Arctic, Samoa, and Ireland, the Polynesian films of Van Dyke and Murnau show the noble-savage-corrupted-by-civilization...It is interesting that audiences of today find Flaherty's documentary films more palatable than the Polynesian feature films. But actually the Van Dyke and Murnau films should be more appealing to anthropologists because they at least allude to real sorts of problems in real sorts of situations. Modern anthropology is much more concerned with the cultural conflicts of Tabu than with the reconstructed initiation ceremony of Moana. (Heider 26)
I underlined the last sentence of the quoted passage, for it informed my own understanding of this history of visual anthropology. To me, there are roughly three stages of development: the illustrative/exhibitive, the observational, and the reflexive. Today's ethnographic films have learned to cover all three areas. The educational documentaries that we watched class yesterday, especially the poverty films, are good examples of how we deal with visual materials in the future. I would like to think so because I agree more or less with Sarah Pink's arguments in her book The Future of Visual Anthropology. Basically, she argues that film can continue to be used for research, film can continue to the ever disappearing present, and film can can play an active role in public affairs.
2 comments:
i think that you have confused W. S. Van Dyke with Willard Van Dyke. The latter directed the films Prof. Streible screened in class the other day, The Children Must Learn and Valley Town; the former co-directed, with Robert Flaherty, the Polynesian island film White Shadows in the South Seas, before going on to direct more conventional Hollywood fare such as The Thin Man series of movies. Nonetheless, your point about the different cultural receptions of the dramatic (clichéd?) conflicts in Tabu and the staged rituals and ceremonies -- "real sorts of situations"* -- in Moana is well taken.
ed
*"Real" situations which have, of course, been reconstructed and staged!
It's true.
Willard Van Dyke (died 1986) was a still photographer turned cinematographer turned documentary filmmaker turned head of the MoMA Film Dept.
W. S. [Woodbridge Strong] "Woody" (aka "OneTake Woody") Van Dyke, Jr. (died 1943) directed many well-known Hollywood films, most at MGM in the 1930s.
We're talkin'
White Shadows
Trader Horn
Tarzan the Ape Man
4 Thin Man films
and 6 musicals with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald
Coincidentally, both gents made a movie called SAN FRANCISCO.
Incidentally, Willard made a sponsored film called NEW YORK UNIVERSITY in the 1950s, for the Alumni Association.
ds
If you find a copy of it, let me know.
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