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Here, There, and Everywhere: L eviathan and the Digital Future of Observational Ethnography
Author(s) -
Landesman Ohad
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
visual anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.346
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1548-7458
pISSN - 1058-7187
DOI - 10.1111/var.12057
Subject(s) - filmmaking , ethnography , sensibility , active listening , visibility , citizen journalism , movie theater , sociology , aesthetics , visual arts , media studies , art , computer science , literature , communication , anthropology , geography , world wide web , meteorology
V éréna P aravel and L ucien C astaing‐ T aylor's L eviathan (2012) is often analyzed in terms of its radical film language and the unique immersive spectatorial experience it creates. Contrary to this approach, which tends to rely on a critical discourse of rupture and newness, this article discusses the film in terms of the continuities it forms with the observational sensibility in ethnographic filmmaking. L eviathan , it argues, marks a noteworthy maturation of this tradition by deploying digital technologies to create new conditions of visibility and listening. Registering explicitly and self‐reflexively how its makers are inextricably bound up with the world they document, L eviathan marks new horizons for participatory observation in ethnographic cinema.