Das Filmen von Riten und Bräuchen

Simon, András (2004) Das Filmen von Riten und Bräuchen. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 49 (3-4). pp. 363-380. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

Since the earliest times, capturing celebrations, customs and rites in a motion picture has been very important in the history of Hungarian and international ethnographic and anthropological filming. When filming rites, the rites themselves - with their more or less definite dramaturgy - determine the content and construction (structure) of the film. The problem of documenting rites lies with the fact that customs and rites are extraordinarily complex, varied and often having sophisticated system of symbols which make them very difficult to describe. That is why fieldwork - participant observation and making interviews - is that important. During it we have to reveal and examine the background of the custom and the ritual organisation. In the present study, I undertook to list the practical, methodological questions we had to face during videotaping customs and rites of religious and secular nature which are discussed in both the Hungarian and the international literature. The questions are based on the experience with our own recordings and films made at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Szeged, Hungary. We applied filming as a research method each time when studying a subject. I examine and interpret concepts equally important during making scientific documentary, interpreting data, and cutting: questions of objectivity and subjectivity, and the possible levels of depicting reality. The whole process of film-making and the created film itself receive their total value and role in the threefold interrelation of the film-maker, the informants and the audience of the film.

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