ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role that the film festival format plays in informing the terms of ethnographic cinema. It examines this question in a context where the theoretical interests and technological conditions in which ethnographic cinema is produced are shifting both within and outside of anthropology. The chapter shows how curators of anthropological film festivals have maintained a sense of continuity in their events by producing programs that are self-reflexive, generative, and networked across disciplinary lines. It attempts to offer a historical perspective on some of the complex characteristics of the anthropological film festival, its role in the development of anthropological cinema, and its relationship to academia. The chapter revisits the role of the ethnographic film festival in this expanding and shifting context and offers some indications as to how curators and ethnographic filmmakers navigate these shifts productively.
