Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency
Doctoral Network
Ethnographic Film Making Workshop
This course is addressed to beginners who want to learn the technicalities of video camera use and sound recording. Expected participants should be PhD candidates of the C-URGE Doctoral Network on the Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency, as well as other PhDs and/or postdoc researchers at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania who wants to learn basic techniques of documentary filmmaking: Those who would like to experiment with filmmaking for qualitative social science research and do not know where to start. No previous filmmaking experience is required.
Learning outcomes
Participants learn the basic building blocks for documentary storytelling, experiment with different styles of ethnographic filmmaking, and participate in hands-on technical audio/visual work. Through practical sessions, collective labs, and exercises of photo shooting and filmmaking, they will gain an overall understanding of ethnographic approaches to film
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Course duration
The course comprises 24 hours articulated in 3 main sessions: March 11-12; March 25-26; April 4-5, 2024. Participants will be also requested to autonomously apply what they have learned during the 3 working sessions.
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How the course will be structured
This workshop will focus on technical aspects of basic camerawork, and other practical aspects of filming. Over the course of the three sessions, participants will learn how to do audiovisual storytelling, as well as how to shoot and make films using a range of easily available equipment.
Specific contents:
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Creative writing techniques and audiovisual storytelling
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Basic technical skills for professional camera use in documentary filmmaking
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Use of audio recording equipment
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Short screening of documentaries
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About the film maker
This workshop is convened by Prof. Mara Benadusi and Prof. Stefania Mazzone as part of the didactic activities of the PhD in Political Sciences at the University of Catania. The workshop will be directed by Parsifal Reparato who he is anthropologist filmmaker, producer, and journalist.
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Bionote
In 2011, he realizes his first short documentary movie, Mas alla de la Santería, concerning a medical anthropology research project about HIV prevention and therapeutic pathways in Cuban Santería. In 2012 he co-realizes the documentary Villa villa Vigna (awarded with a special mention for the competition “Rural4Youth” of the Ministry of Agriculture). In 2015 Parsifal co-directs the documentary Rezeki on the gold and stone mining industry in Sumatra, funded by the European Project SEATIDE at the University of Milano Bicocca. In 2017 he co-directs Underground Harvest, a documentary film about mining in Sumatra, and in 2018 was the Director the Italian unit for El camino de Santiago by Tristán Bauer, about the disappearance and murder of Santiago Maldonado in Argentina. He also realizes Nimble fingers, an ethnographic collaborative movie about Vietnamese women who live and work on the outskirts of Hanoi, in one of the largest industrial production sites in the world. The film was the second Italian most awarded documentary film in 2017.
