Visualizing Anthropology

“Generation 25: Children of German Reunification” explores the lives of individuals in “Generation 25,” or the generation of 25-year-old people in Germany. These individuals were born when the Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1989 and grew up during the country’s reunification. These individuals also grew up during the “technological revolution” and seem relatively comfortable using technology to pursue their goals. This documentary explores how Generation 25’s development during these two historical events impacts these individuals’ current life perspectives and values.

I found the diversity in characters’ occupations and life experiences fascinating. As a 22-year-old, I anticipated seeing recently-graduated young people starting out on their career paths in office settings. I initially thought that these people would seem eager to make a difference in the world, even as they struggle with figuring out their own identity. While I did see parts of my expectations in the film’s characters, I was pleasantly surprised to see the various ways that Generation 25 individuals reflected these expectations. One man who was studying to become a priest eloquently voiced his views on his decision to choose an “alternative lifestyle”: pursuing priesthood and maintaining vows of chastity, obedience, and loyalty. A woman whose parents immigrated from Turkey spoke of navigating her Turkish and German identities, which I clearly relate to as a Filipina-American woman.

Filmmakers illustrate the diversity of characters through shots of characters’ residences and daily lives. Filmmakers seemed to choose each character intentionally, as each character seems to bring their own unique experience to the film. To highlight the unique personalities and stories of each character, filmmakers chose to use more natural sounds than music. This technique allowed viewers to focus on characters’ stories. They also accompanied characters’ stories with facts and surveys of Generation 25’s perspectives, adding credibility to characters’ experiences and putting them in a larger perspective. Filmmakers were also intentional about the film’s plot. They highlighted the differences and struggles in Germany today, such as race and East-West stereotypes, through characters’ stories, yet they attempted to convey a positive and optimistic note to the future. At the film’s conclusion, filmmakers showed shots of parts of the Berlin Wall that people today use as art.

One of the film’s major drawbacks is translation. All of the characters’ German dialogue was translated into English. Although I could still understand characters’ viewpoints, I feel that captions without spoken translation would have been more effective in conveying characters’ viewpoints. Otherwise, as an Anthropology major with little knowledge of Germany’s Generation 25, I found this documentary fairly informative and engaging.

Grizzly Man  is a documentary film about anthropomorphic Teddy Treadwell directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. Herzog’s documentary films are often characterized by his German accentuated voice of God narration. In Grizzly Man, Herzog did not only act as the hidden narrator, but was seen on screen. His role was more than a narrator. I think his actions and appearance in the film was powerful and necessary. While we can hear Herzog asking questions in multiple scenes, we see him when he listens to the tape. As he breaks this unseen cinema wall, we see his intimate reaction to what he’s listening to. His appearance on camera was necessary to show the tragedy of what he was listening to. If the voice of God himself is in front of us and is moved and crying because of what we hears, an extremely powerful effect is given throughout complete silence. Herzog utilized both his onscreen appearance and absolute silence to send a powerful message of sympathy and empathy.

“Greed: A Fatal Desire” explores how the human desire for more influences people’s happiness, living standards, and legacy. The broadness of this topic covers characters from diverse walks of life around the world. A few of the prominent characters include a psychologist in the United States, a wealthy businessman in Mozambique, and a Tibetan Buddhist abbess. The ninety-minute film is split into sub-topics (e.g., happiness, hope) that nuance the concept of greed.

The film’s audio forms the crux of this film. Each character in the film presented his or her own story and perspective on greed. Filmmakers presented the characters in their everyday environments, such as their homes and places of work. When interviewing characters, filmmakers often used mid-range shots that fostered human connection between the character and viewers. Oftentimes, shots of the character’s environment and soft instrumental accompaniment juxtaposed parts of characters’ interviews. The resulting imagery prompt viewers to focus and reflect on characters’ speech.

 

“Harvest of Empire: Exposes the Reality of Immigration” is a full length documentary film that traces immigration to the United States from different countries in Central and South America. There a lot of interviews used during this piece telling the stories of different immigrant experiences. It also discusses the history of immigration, explaining the responsibility the United States should feel towards the conditions that lead immigration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q896fYeNow&t=2030s

The interviews are usually shot head on. After a few seconds on an interview, however, the screen will turn black and white and the interviewee’s name will appear on the screen as shown.

I was not sure how I felt about this method of making their names known as I think it was unnecessarily dramatic but it did add drama to the film that suited the tone.

There were also sections where text and photos from the past events would appear between screens that I thought were interesting as it stopped too much narration.

In Grizzly Man, we are given the back story of a man named Timothy Treadwell. He is a Long Island native that was passionate about grizzly bears and sought out to prove to the world that they were harmless creatures. However, we find that Treadwell ends up dying at the age of 46 from a grizzly bear attack. Unlike many documentaries, Herzog, the producer, uses Treadwell’s story to craft an image of him. Though we are initially given the idea that Treadwell is somewhat odd, it becomes very difficult to follow the story with one idea in mind. Like I had already stated, Treadwell’s portrayal in the film was controversial. Though we do see two sides to Treadwell, his image as an activist for the grizzly bears was overlooked by his irrational actions of having close interaction with the beast. Herzog interviewed people that either supported Treadwell or failed to believe his actions of supporting the bears was true. However, Herzog leans towards the side where Treadwell’s image is irrational. He does this by outlining the story from a respectable view of Treadwell to a more unreasonable one. We see how Treadwell’s image goes downhill as he rages at the national park. He stresses out that the bears are not well cared for, yet the national park does a better job of respecting the animals’ rights compared to other locations. Also, the fact that Treadwell’s partner lost her life sacrificing herself for Treadwell demonstrates a selfish image of Treadwell. Herzog states in the film that Amie was as fearful of the bears, yet she only appears twice in Treadwell’s diaries. It is hard to sponge in these ideas because we find that the video recording of their death was not shared in the film. We only get the reaction of the filmmaker listening to the last breath of Treadwell. This makes Treadwell’s death more of a mystery and supports this theory of Treadwell being selfish. Plus, the Amie, the girl who died with Treadwell, was not given a respectable story. She was given little film backstory that overlooked her death. Though Herzog does his best to describe Amie’s story, Treadwell’s lack of footage of her makes his image worse. Overall, I found myself very conflicted on how to perceive Treadwell. I was unsure whether to commend him for advocating for grizzly bears or see him as inconsiderate for the consequences that were paid.