Anthropology


ON THE BATTLEFIELD
ON THE BATTLEFIELD

2024  African-American Studies  American Studies  American History  Anthropology  Short Films  Cultural Studies 

In the Southern Illinois region of Little Egypt, a sound recordist walks through the fields where once stood Pyramid Courts - the housing projects that formed the heart of the Black community of his hometown, Cairo.

VOICES OVER THE WATER
VOICES OVER THE WATER

2024  American Studies  Anthropology  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Education  Immigration  Performing Arts  Political Science  Sociology  World History 

Across the United States, thousands of people celebrate their ancestral heritage. They sing. They dance. Dressed distinctively, they make merry. Many are homesick for a land they never knew. Voices over the Water looks at Scottish identity in America and asks, who can claim this identity. How Scottish do you have to be to wear the tartan and march in a parade, or dance at a ceilidh?


LAST THINGS
LAST THINGS

Anthropology  Archeology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Environmental Studies  Photography  Physical Science  Science  2024 

Last Things looks at evolution and extinction from the perspective of the rocks and minerals that came before humanity and will outlast us. With scientists and thinkers like Lynn Margulis and  Marcia Bjørnerud as guides, the film seeks a picture of evolution without humans at the center.

RICHLAND
RICHLAND

2024  American History  American Studies  Anthropology  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Education  Environmental Studies  Family Relations  Political Science  Sociology  World History  Cinema Studies 

A U.S. nuclear company town stakes its identity on its little-known atomic origin story in this timely examination of the habits of thought that normalize the extraordinary violence of the past.


A COMMON SEQUENCE
A COMMON SEQUENCE

2023  Anthropology  Biology  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Health  Indigenous Studies  Latino Studies  Religion & Spirituality  Science  Sociology  Spanish Language 

Within the human struggle to live and work on a changing planet, questions of value, extraction, and adaptation echo across seemingly disparate worlds. A Common Sequence examines shifts of life and labor through a critically-endangered salamander and plant patents in the apple industry. Weaving the stories of Dominican nuns running a conservation lab, a group of fisherman attempting to live off of a depleting lake, engineers developing AI-driven harvesting machines, and an indigenous biomedical researcher resisting the commodification of human DNA, the film becomes a meditation on the shifting border between the natural and unnatural world, and the dynamics of power at play.

GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE
GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE

2022  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Environmental Studies  Sociology  Photography  2023 

Critic's Pick!  One of the most awarded films of 2022, Geographies of Solitude is a playful and reverent collaboration with the natural world filled with arresting images and made with an activist spirit. The film follows Zoe, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived Sable Island, on a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic with a rich ecosystem, for over 40 years.

I AM A TOWN
I AM A TOWN

2023  American Studies  Anthropology  Art History  Cinema Studies  Family Relations  Photography 

The community of Provincetown, which has been clinging to a distinctly American - and yet increasingly rare - way of life. In his immersive documentary debut, Mischa Richter, whose artist family has been living there for nearly a century, explores his home through shared moments and conversations with locals, pilgrims, outcasts, fishermen, drag queens and spirit guides in an exploration of what freedom and community mean in America today.

ROCK BOTTOM RISER
ROCK BOTTOM RISER

Anthropology  Asian-American Studies  Cinema Studies  Economics  Media Studies  Photography  Political Science  Science  Physical Science  Sociology  American Studies  American History  2022 

Explorers have long made Hawaii the hub for their searching. Today-as lava continues to flow on the island—another crisis mounts as scientists plan to build the world's largest telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii's most sacred and revered mountain. The film weaves a vital tapestry of post-colonialism and pop culture with cinematic brio and a wry wit. Rock Bottom Riser is an essential document and an exhilarating tour-de-force, a palimpsest that traverses geology, ethnography and astronomy.


A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING
A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

2022  Anthropology  Asian Studies  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Political Science  Sociology  World History 

Director Payal Kapadia deftly merges reality with fiction, weaving together archival footage with student protest videos to create a vital tapestry of the personal and the political. With its dreamlike editing rhythms and a revelatory use of sound, A Night of Knowing Nothing is both an essential document of contemporary India and a nostalgic look at youth fighting the injustice of their time.


EXPEDITION CONTENT
EXPEDITION CONTENT

2021  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Education  Indigenous Studies  Political Science  Sensory Ethnography Lab  Sociology  World History  2022 

An immersive marvel of sonic ethnography, Expedition Content draws on audio recordings made by recent college graduate and Standard Oil heir Michael Rockefeller as part of the so-called Harvard-Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea in 1961

STRANGE NEGOTIATIONS
STRANGE NEGOTIATIONS

2021  American Studies  American History  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Family Relations  Music  Religion & Spirituality  Political Science 

Musician David Bazan retreated into a solitary life after renouncing his long-held Christian beliefs and walking away from his critically-acclaimed band, Strange Negotiations follow David a decade into his journey, during which he has become a sort of reluctant prophet to Americans during the 2016 presidential election.

FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO
FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO

2021  Aging / Gerontology  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Family Relations 

Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings.

THE TWO SIGHTS
THE TWO SIGHTS

Anthropology  Cultural Studies  Europe  Sociology  Cinema Studies  2021 

The Two Sights (An Dà Shealladh) explores the disappearing tradition of second sight in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. As we listen to locals' accounts of haunting experiences—phantom horses, ghost voices and other supernatural phenomena—Bonnetta connects their testimonies with striking 16mm images and a carefully-curated sonic montage of the physical and aural environment of these enchanted islands.

THE DAWN CHORUS
THE DAWN CHORUS

Environmental Studies  Anthropology  Religion & Spirituality  2021 

A cinematic meditation of the dawn of May 3, 2020–International Dawn Chorus Day–as observed from around the world during the Covid-19 lockdown.

THE EARLY WORKS OF ANA VAZ: 2007-2016
THE EARLY WORKS OF ANA VAZ: 2007-2016

Anthropology  Environmental Studies  Directed by Women  Latin-American Studies  Short Films  2020 

This collection of eight early films by Brazilian artist and filmmaker Ana Vaz proposes a critical reflection on the relationship between colonialism, modernity and the impending ecological disaster. At the core of the collection is a cycle of works that explore the colonial and post-colonial exchange between Europe and the Americas.

OCCUPATION 1968
OCCUPATION 1968

2019  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Eastern Europe  Europe  Peace & Conflict  Russia  Short Films  World History 

An anthology documentary consisting of five short films on the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, each by a different director from the five countries that participated in the occupation. 


CHINESE PORTRAIT
CHINESE PORTRAIT

2019  Anthropology  Asian Studies  Art History  Cinema Studies  Photography  Urban Studies 

From acclaimed director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing BicycleSo Long, My Son) comes a personal snapshot of contemporary China in all its diversity. Shot over the course of ten years on both film and video, the film consists of a series of carefully composed tableaus of people and environments, each one more extraordinary than the last. 

HÍBRIDOS, THE SPIRITS OF BRAZIL
HÍBRIDOS, THE SPIRITS OF BRAZIL

2019  Anthropology  Cultural Studies  Cinema Studies  Dance  Directed by Women  Indigenous Studies  Latin-American Studies  Music  Religion & Spirituality 

HÍBRIDOS, THE SPIRITS OF BRAZIL is an ethnomusicological journey into the sacred culture of Brazil, from Roman Catholic to Ubanda and candomblé--mixures of African traditions with Catholicism.

HOW TO RUST
HOW TO RUST

2018  African-American Studies  Art History  Cinema Studies  Sensory Ethnography Lab  Anthropology  Directed by Women 

From the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University comes a postindustrial fable told in iron, rocks, and wood.  A unique look at Detroit artist Olayami Dabls’ installation “Iron Teaching Rocks How to Rust”


INTO THE HINTERLANDS
INTO THE HINTERLANDS

2018  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Dance  Directed by Women  Sensory Ethnography Lab 

The Detroit-based performance ensemble, The Hinterlands, practice a form of ecstatic training which they see as a provocation towards the unknown. The “hinterlands” evokes an unknown space both physical and imaginary whose mystery is its very source of generation and from which true creativity emerges. Their practice is one of ecstatic play, of finding the edge of one’s balance, and the limits of one’s body.

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