Please Don't Beat Me, Sir!: A Review

I have been thinking about this for weeks: What qualifies me to write a review for an ethnographic film? As of now, I am eight weeks into a course on visual anthropology and two-and-a-half years into an anthropology degree. I don’t know film theory (and frankly don’t care for it), and as it regards this particular film, I know next to nothing about the cultures of India, let alone India itself. And then I thought: Who is the intended audience of such ethnographic film? With the exception of those that find a wider audience (like Melissa Llewelyn-Davies’ 1984 BBC series, “Diary of a Masai Village” [sic]), most of these films are intended for institutional-use – I am the intended audience, and I guess that is my qualification.

The oft-asked question throughout my visual anthropology course has been based on the core of Karl G. Heider’s Ethnographic Film: What is “ethnographicness?” To really get to the heart of such a difficult (and at times, contentious) inquiry, I ask, Who speaks on behalf of the film’s subject? It is from this perspective that I review the film, Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir!

This is the story about the sons and daughters of “criminals,” their choice to turn away from the ways of their elders, and how they cope with a world that is not ready for their metamorphosis.

My First American Anthropological Association Meeting

The title of this article rings like a child’s story or artwork – “My First Bicycle,” or “My First Vacation.” Typically, these stories are those of great anticipation for someone that may have not yet experienced it in like, but more commonly they are stories that those experiential veterans can read with appreciation, remembering to forgive the writer for naiveté; after all, it is their “first.” I title it this way because that’s how I feel here this week, at my first American Anthropological Association: a neophyte in a sea of weathered professionals and their favored protégés.

This would have been my second, had our Student Government come through on funding last year. Alas, we did not make a solid case to them, and still more, were going for nothing more than personal enrichment. This year is different; this year, our department sent four students to the AAA to present posters. And here I am. So let’s start with what I expected:

Uh...I'll take the mulligan.

This is a mulligan on throwing my hat into the ring on blogging about anthropology, except this time, my effort is not aimless or hasty. Unfortunately I have little time, so I'll be piecing it together when I can. In the meantime, I refer you to some of the great blogs that occupy my time whenever I do have it.

anthropologies project

Anthropology in Practice

Anthropology Major Fox

Gene Expression

Greg Laden's Blog

john hawks weblog

The Panda's Thumb

PhD Comics

Powered by Osteons
Savage Minds

Why Evolution is True

You can follow me on Google+ (+Dick Powis) or Twitter (@plazdiquehardt). And finally, you can watch this video with Ben Goldacre, which pretty much sums up my passion.

Stay tuned!

[Edit: How the hell did I forget Savage Minds? I'm not saying this because Kerim Friedman actually commented on my accidental omission, but because I genuinely feel this: Savage Minds really is, I think, the best anthropology blog out there. Sorry!]