Dennis O’Rourke’s “Cannibal Tours” – Does Observational Film Need to Be Realistic?
Abstract
Sikora examines Dennis O’Rourke’s film in terms of the elements of its construction and its realistic (or documentalistic) elements. The theme of the film is a non realistic journey. The focus is not on specific places, but on tourism. This is an interesting example of multi-sited anthropology, that poses many questions. Do tourists encounter real places and learn about the authentic lives of “the natives”, or quite the opposite - do they enter spaces of created fictions, that they themselves in part are responsible for? Should film, that demonstrates the creation of fiction, refer to “real” space and time, or should it follow the markers of its fictionalised time-space? Does observational film need to be realistic?
Keywords:
Dennis O’Rourke, observational film, realismReferences
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Authors
Sławomir Sikorakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Warsaw Poland
Adiunkt w Instytucie Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UW. Autor książki Fotografia. Między dokumentem a symbolem (2004). Publikował m.in. w „Kontekstach”, „Czasie Kultury”, „Roczniku Historii Sztuki”, „Dialogu”, „Latarniku”. Współtłumacz: J. Berger, O patrzeniu (1999), C. Geertz, Dzieło i życie. Antropolog jako autor (2000), J. Clifford, Kłopoty z kulturą. Dwudziestowieczna etnografia, literatura i sztuka (2000).
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