The Cinema of Robert Gardner [Paperback]

Ilisa Barbash (Editor), Lucien Taylor (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1845207742 | ISBN-13: 978-1845207748 | Publication Date: February 19, 2008

The most artistic of ethnographic filmmakers, and the most ethnographic of artistic filmmakers, Robert Gardner is one of the most original, as well as controversial, filmmakers of the last half century. This is the first volume of essays dedicated to his work--a corpus of aesthetically arresting films which includes the classic Dead Birds (1963), a lyric depiction of ritual warfare among the Dugum Dani, in the Highlands of New Guinea; Rivers of Sand (1974), a provocative portrayal of relations between the sexes among the Hamar, in southwestern Ethiopia; and Forest of Bliss (1986), a sublime city symphony about death and life in Benares, India. Eminent anthropologists, philosophers, film theorists, and fellow artists assess the innovations of Gardner's films as well as the controversies they have spawned.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Gardner transmits the sensation of the deep and literate gaze, and does so with an intensity that passes from the documentary into the visionary.'Seamus Heaney'Gardner's camera scans with precision and feels with sympathy-the objectivity of an anthropologist, the fraternity of a poet.'Octavio Paz

About the Author

Ilisa Barbash is Associate Curator of Visual Anthropology at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.  Her film works (all co-directed with Lucien Taylor) include Made in U.S.A. (1990), a film about sweatshops and child labor in the Los Angeles garment industry, and In and Out of Africa (1992), a video about authenticity, taste, and racial politics in the transnational African art market. Lucien Taylor is Director of the Media Anthropology Laboratory, Associate Director of the Film Study Center, and Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, and of Anthropology, at Harvard University.  Taylor's films include Made in U.S.A. (1990) and In and Out of Africa (1992), both co-directed with Barbash.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Berg Publishers (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845207742
• ISBN-13: 978-1845207748
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,025,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Written to Be Published, Not Read, December 12, 2008

By 

Barry Hampe "Author: 'Making Documentary Film... (Lake Ridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cinema of Robert Gardner (Paperback)

It is all too revealing that this book has several pages describing the "eminent anthropologists, philosophers, film theorists, and fellow artists" who contributed essays to the work, listing their degrees, academic titles, university affiliations, selected publications, and major artistic works, including their films.

But, oddly, for a book titled "The Cinema of Robert Gardner" no filmography of the cinema of Robert Gardner, no bibliography of his books, and no biography of Gardner

It's the sort of book that will be all too familiar to anyone who has ever served time as a graduate student in the social sciences: two editors, fifteen contributors, and lots of long sentences piled high with qualifiers and attributions. Stuff like this: "This is an anthropology that foregrounds the phenomenological priority of embodiment in our apprehension of the world, as the existential condition of possibility of both self and culture. (p. 9)" It's a book by academics for academics.

Robert Gardner is a landmark figure in the evolution of documentary film. He deserves better than this.

You can read my complete review of this book for the magazine of the International Documentary Association at http://barryhampe.com/barryhampewriter/bookreviews.html.