The Anthropology Summer School of the Department of Anthropology (ASS), now being held for the fourth time and, this year, as part of the Prishtina International Summer University, has brought together students from different countries to discuss, in a close, critical, and creative manner, how cultures, societies, places, and people are represented through film.
This year, the ASS has focused particularly on ethnographic film and is taught by Professor Arsim Canolli from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Prishtina and Professor Eralda Lameborshi from East Texas A&M University in the United States of America.
The participating group consists of students from a wide range of academic fields, including anthropology, history, philosophy, art, social work, cultural studies, and literature. They also come from different countries, including Slovenia, Albania, Germany, Kosovo, Italy, the Netherlands, Türkiye, and the United States of America. It is precisely this diverse combination of experiences, disciplines, and perspectives that has made the discussions particularly lively and enriching, as each student brings a distinctive way of interpreting film, culture, and representation. During the first week, the students were broadly introduced to the history, theory, ethics, and practice of ethnographic film.
The opening lectures examined what makes a film ethnographic, how ethnographic film differs from documentary film, and why anthropologists use the camera to study everyday life, social relationships, and cultural practices more closely.
The students also explored the historical, theoretical, and aesthetic development of documentary and ethnographic film through the work of well-known filmmakers and anthropologists such as Robert Flaherty, Dziga Vertov, John Grierson, Margaret Mead, Jean Rouch, Robert Gardner, Frederick Wiseman, and David MacDougall, among others.
As part of the course, the students also watched Professor Canolli’s ethnographic film The Highland Museum (2012). Following the screening, they had the opportunity to discuss the film directly with its author, raising numerous questions about fieldwork, filmmaking choices, collaboration with participants, and the complex challenges involved in representing local people and cultural heritage on screen.
The course has also been highly practical. The students have gone outside the classroom to film short observational scenes, experiment with composition, framing, and camera perspectives, and then watch, analyse, and discuss their work together in class. These exercises have clearly demonstrated how differently people can observe, experience, and film the same environment.
In the coming days, the students will continue working with interviews, visit two rural locations, and take part in various exercises involving interviewing, editing, and collaboration. Organised into groups, they will produce short ethnographic films or ethnographic film chronicles as part of their final assignment.
The Anthropology Summer School, now organised within the Prishtina International Summer University, aims to teach students how to observe more carefully, listen more closely, and think more critically about the ways in which practical life, culture, traditions, everyday experiences, and the worldviews of other people are represented through film.