What is it about?
We come from small island societies where family and cultural knowledge is traditionally shared through conversation rather than writing. This case explores filmed talanoa, a method that blends meaningful cultural dialogue with visual ethnography. It follows Fritz, who co-created a short Sāmoan-language documentary with guidance from Teena, in conversations with his elders in their Indigenous language. The case highlights the protocols and processes of making a film with kin and the importance of careful, culturally grounded preparation.
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Photo by Ethan Elisara on Unsplash
Why is it important?
In our current times, ethnic Pacific researchers are not only questioning conventional approaches to ethnographic and documentary filmmaking, but are also positioning their cultural values and knowledge systems as culturally informed methodologies for community filmmaking. This article is timely: it highlights the importance of centring an insider filmmaker’s Indigenous language and ways of knowledge-gathering with and for their people throughout the collaborative filmmaking process.
Perspectives
Supervising Fritz’s ethnographic film thesis was a reciprocal relationship. As a collaborator on the project, I learned—along with the production team—how the student envisaged his role as an insider within his family and community, making a film with and for them. My hope is that this article encourages other ethnic Sāmoan and ethnic Pacific researchers who are creating community films to publish their methodologies and their creative and cultural processes, helping to grow Pacific knowledge systems within academia.
Associate Professor Teena Brown Pulu
Auckland University of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Filmed Talanoa: Synthesizing an Indigenous Knowledge Tradition and Visual Ethnography, January 2024, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.4135/9781529688313.
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