'Victims of foolish pleasure' : film, ethnography, and coloured women making music in the Great Karoo.
Date
2011
Authors
Key, Liza Jane
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Abstract
In 2003 I made a documentary film called Karoo Kitaar Blues with South African
songwriter and guitarist, David Kramer, on the rare musicians, music, and
instruments of scattered coloured communities in the Northern Cape. When I set
out, seven years ago, to make the film I had no intention of making an ethnographic
film or producing a visual ethnography in the anthropological sense (I am a
documentary filmmaker), but two academic reviews, critical of its lack of
'ethnographic context' caught my intention. This dissertation attempts to respond to
their critique. I explore the territory of visual anthropology and ethnographic
methodology in order to understand why my film, with hindsight, is and is not
'ethnographic', and to establish how ethnographic practice could enhance my work
as a filmmaker. I use Karoo Kitaar Blues as my visual monograph and examine the
differences between ethnographic film and documentary (in the observational
mode) with reference to ethnographic methodologies and theory in
ethnomusicology, and consider how film can be used 'as' ethnography or 'in'
ethnography. I conclude that Karoo Kitaar Blues film lies somewhere between
ethnographic and observational filmmaking.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND in fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS.
Keywords
Great Karoo (South Africa) -- Social life and customs, Colored people (South Africa) -- Northern Cape -- Music., Popular music -- South Africa, Colored people (South Africa) -- Songs and music