Ethnofiction refers to a subfield of

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

which produces works that introduces art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into peer-reviewed academic works. In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film in the area of

visual anthropology Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science ...

. It is a film type in which, by means of

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradit ...

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional ( memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc ...

or creative

imagination Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...

, often improvising, the portrayed characters ( natives) play their own roles as members of an

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established fo ...

or social group. Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction. An

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropolog ...

, he discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers. His camera is never a ''candid camera''. The behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by its presence. Contrary to the principles of

Marcel Griaule Marcel Griaule (16 May 1898 – 23 February 1956) was a French author and anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people of West Africa, and for pioneering ethnographic field studies in France. He worked together with Germaine ...

, his mentor, for Rouch a non-participating camera registering "pure" events in ethnographic research (like filming a

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

without interfering with it) is a preconception denied by practice. An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of ''cine-

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

''. Going further than his predecessors, Jean Rouch introduces the

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

as a tool in research. A new genre was born.

Robert Flaherty Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, '' Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputati ...

, a main reference for Rouch, may be seen as the grandfather of this

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...

, although he was a pure documentary maker and not an ethnographer. Being mainly used to refer to ethnographic films as an object of visual anthropology, the term ethnofiction is as well adequate to refer to experimental documentaries preceding and following Rouch's oeuvre and to any fictional creation in human communication, arts or literature, having an ethnographic or social background.

History

Parallel to those of Flaherty or Rouch, ethnic portraits of hard local realities are often drawn in Portuguese films since the thirties, with particular incidence from the sixties to the eighties, and again in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region (see:

Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Province Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro () is a historical province of Portugal located in the northeastern corner of the country. Vast plateaus, river valleys, mountains, and castles abound in Trás os Montes e Alto Douro. History A first attempt to regi ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

or the

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

islands (ancient Portuguese colonies), which step in the limelights from the eighties on thanks to the work of certain directors ( Flora Gomes, Pedro Costa, or Daniel E. Thorbecke, the unknown author of

Terra Longe Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...

) are themes for pioneering films of this genre, important landmarks in film history. Arousing fiction in the heart of

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

is something current in the Portuguese popular narrative (

oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used var ...

): in other words, the traditional attraction for

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

and surrealistic imagery in popular arts inspires certain Portuguese films to strip off realistic predicates and become poetical fiction. This practice is common to many fictional films by

Manoel de Oliveira Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira (; 11 December 1908 – 2 April 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about ...

and João César Monteiro and to several docufiction hybrids by

António Campos António Campos (29 May 1922 – 8 March 1999) was one of the pioneer filmmakers of visual anthropology in Portugal. Mainly using pure documentary techniques, he shot ethnographic films and tried docufiction. As well as in fictional films, he u ...

António Reis António Ferreira Gonçalves dos Reis, known as António Reis (27 August 1927 – 10 September 1991), was a Portuguese film director, screenwriter and producer, poet, sculptor and ethnographer. He was married to Margarida Cordeiro, co-director o ...

and others. Since the 1960s, ethnofiction (local real life and fantasy in one) is a distinctive mark of Portuguese cinema.

Chronology

1910s

* 1914 – ''

In the Land of the Head Hunters ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' (also called ''In the Land of the War Canoes'') is a 1914 silent film fictionalizing the world of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples of the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Can ...

'' by Edward S. Curtis,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

1920s

* 1926 – '' Moana'' by

, US

1930s

* 1930 – '' Maria do Mar'' by

José Leitão de Barros José Leitão de Barros (22 October 1896 – 29 June 1967) was a Portuguese film director and playwright. Among his most famous films are '' Maria do Mar'' (1930), the second docufiction after '' Moana'' (1926) by Robert Flaherty, the first Por ...

* 1931 – '' Tabu'' written by

and directed by

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

, US * 1932 – ''L'or des mers'' by

Jean Epstein Jean Epstein (; 25 March 1897 – 2 April 1953) was a French filmmaker, film theorist, literary critic, and novelist. Although he is remembered today primarily for his adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Fall of the House of Usher'', he directe ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

* 1933 – '' Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan'' by Luis Buñuel,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

* 1934 – ''

Man of Aran ''Man of Aran'' is a 1934 Irish fictional documentary ( ethnofiction) film shot, written and directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland. It portrays characters living in premodern conditions ...

'' by

, UK

1940s

* 1942 – '' Ala-Arriba!'' by

* 1948 – ''

Louisiana Story ''Louisiana Story'' is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed by Robert J. Flaherty. Although it has historically been represented as a documentary film, the events and characters depicted are fictional and the film was commissioned ...

'' by

, US

1950s

* 1955 – ''

Les maîtres fous ''Les maîtres fous'' (; "The Mad Masters") is a 1955 short film directed by Jean Rouch, a well-known French film director and ethnologist. It is a docufiction, his first ethnofiction, a genre he is considered to have created. Historical backgr ...

'' (The Mad Masters) by Jean Rouch,

* 1958 – '' Moi, un noir'' (Me a Black) by Jean Rouch,

1960s

* 1961 – '' La pyramide humaine'' by Jean Rouch,

* 1962 – ''Acto da Primavera'' (Act of Spring) by

* 1963 – '' Pour la suite du monde'' (Of Whales, the Moon and Men) by Pierre Perrault and

Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National ...

* 1967 – ''Jaguar'', by Jean Rouch,

1970s

* 1976 – '' People from Praia da Vieira'' (Gente da Praia da Vieira) by

* 1976 – '' Trás-os-Montes'' by

and Margarida Cordeiro,

1980s

* 1982 �
''Nelisita'': narrativas nyaneka
by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho,

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

* 1988 – '' Mortu Nega'' (Death Denied) by Flora Gomes, Guiné-Bissau

1990s

* 1997 – ''

Ossos ''Ossos'' (English: "Bones") is a 1997 Portuguese film directed by Pedro Costa. The film was shot in the Fontainhas district of Lisbon (also known as "Estrela d'Africa"), where disadvantaged dwellers and immigrants from former Portuguese colonies ...

'' by Pedro Costa,

2000s

* 2000 – '' No Quarto da Vanda'' (In Vanda's Room) by Pedro Costa,

* 2003 – ''

'' (Remote Land) by Daniel E. ThorbeckeTerra LongeDavid & Golias
/ref> * 2006 – '' Colossal Youth'' by Pedro Costa,

* 2007 – ''Transfiction'' by Johannes Sjöberg

2010s

* 2011 – '' Toomelah'' by Ivan Sen * 2012 – ''

The Act of Killing ''The Act of Killing'' ( id, Jagal, meaning "Butcher") is a 2012 documentary film about individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966. The film is directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and co-directed by Christine Cynn and ...

'' by Joshua Oppenheimer,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

* 2014 – '' Cavalo Dinheiro'' (Horse Money) by Pedro Costa,

* 2014 – '' La creazione di significato'' (The Creation of Meaning) by

Simone Rapisarda Casanova Simone Rapisarda Casanova is an Italian experimental filmmaker currently living in Canada. In 2014 he won the Leopard for Best Emerging Director at the Locarno International Film Festival. Life Rapisarda Casanova was born in Catania, Italy. H ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

* 2015 – '' Dead Slow Ahead'' by Mauro Herce * 2018 – '' Zanj Hegel la'' (Hegel's Angel) by

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

* 2018 – '' The Dead and the Others'' by

João Salaviza João Salaviza (born João Salaviza Manso Feldman da Silva; 19 February 1984) is a Portuguese film director, screenwriter, editor, producer, and former actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including the Short Film Golden Bear, the Sh ...

* 2019 – '' Vitalina Varela'' by Pedro Costa,

* 2019 �
Work, or To Whom Does the World Belong
by Elisa Cepedal, Spain

Footnotes

External links

Ethnofition
at The University of Manchester (watch video)
Ethnofiction and Beyond: The Legacy of Projective Improvisation in Ethnographic Filmmaking
by Johannes Sjöberg

– Article (French) by Gaetano Ciarcia a
Université Montpellier III

Rouch & Cie. – un quintette
– Article (French) by Andrea Paganini at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Ethnic Portraits and Ethnofiction
a
Mubi

The war of dreams: exercises in ethno-fiction
by Marc Augé (google books)
Ethnofiction : drama as a creative research practice in ethnographic film
a
Mendley
– Paper by Bloom, Elizabeth A., Ed.D., STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON, 2006
Language description and "the new paradigm": What linguists may learn from ethnocinematographers
– Article by Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, University of Cologne, a
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch
a
UK Visual Anthropology
* {{Film genres Ethnography Visual anthropology Anthropology documentary films Film genres Cinematic techniques Drama genres Documentary film genres Fiction by genre Fiction forms Television genres