The ethnographic film as a way of thinking: responsibilities of the encounter with the other

Abstract

This paper addresses the ethical encounter between the filmmaker/researcher and the subject in the scope of ethnographic film, reinforcing its importance as an artistic and scientific field capable of dealing with places and people in situations of identity and social risk. The basis for the discussion is the research project Island City (Roberti 2020), which studied and documented deeply embedded and socioeconomically fragile urban communities in the city of Porto, Portugal, where major changes (commercial, touristic, political) were taking place in recent years, affecting those communities. We approach the valuing of the right here and right now of fieldwork as a fundamental element in this relationship between the self and the other, where we can understand the truth of the reality portrayed, Jean Rouch’s cinematographic ballet, and where it is fundamental to distinguish what should and should not be filmed.