3 pages due in 6 hours

A GUIDE FOR ANALYZING FILM

(Jacobs – ANTH 263)

Let us begin to ask various questions of film, such as:

1. Is there a larger theme or ideology inherent in the film?

2. How is this theme(s) or ideology(ies) expressed?

3. What types of voices (e.g., first person/subjective/confessional, third

person/“objective”) are used in the film? Is there a (sonic/aural) correlation between the

speaker who you see and the voice associated/assigned to him/her? Are voices

manipulated; how and towards what end(s)?

4. What genre/type of film is this (e.g., ethnographic, documentary, popular)?

5. What cinematic strategies (e.g., lighting, montages, close-ups, long shots, etc.) are used to

reinforce particular themes or messages?

6. What images or symbols are employed in the film? Are these images or symbols

presented strategically? If so, how?

7. Is there a narrator? What is the narrator’s primary function in the film?

8. Are the voices of the narrator and the people filmed on equal par? To what degree is

intersubjective nature of film/filmmaking apparent in the final product?

9. Who are the major characters in the film? Are women visible in the film?

10. Whose perspective(s) guides the film?

11. Does the film rekindle any thoughts in regard to the politics of representation?

12. Might stereotypes be challenged or reinforced in the film?

13. Does the film represent some aspect of culture using a cultural relativistic framework?

14. Are power relations between filmmaker and those filmed apparent in the video?

15. How “real” is this film? How is this “authenticity” brokered? Does it seem more like a highly edited production (as are all texts) or less-produced/ethnographic film?

16. Is the focus of the film properly contextualized? How so? How might the film be better

contextualized (historically, socio-culturally, politically, etc.)?