Ethnodrama: The making of a dramatized ethnographic film to give collaborators a voice

Abstract

The production project of a fictional film through the collaboration between an ethnographer and a theater group from Ngaoundéré, Cameroon resulted in a film genre coined ‘ethnodrama’. This model of collaboration limits the authorship of filmmakers while preventing the ethnographic relevance of the film to be corrupted by them. This thesis describes the creative process behind the development of the films that were made following ethnodramatic procedures while analyzing each constituent of the genre and of the topic selected for the film that was made during fieldwork. The ethnodramatic film called Accueil explores the welcoming of people from different settings in the Cameroonian region of Adamaoua, most prominently refugees and immigrants, while Accueil: Behind-the-stories is the master’s film associated with this thesis that studies these creative procedures. The use of fiction to represent truth and the conditions under which it is advisable to be used are discussed among the theories that this paper approaches. Models of collaboration that inspired this project are also compared to how ethnodrama engages with the discourse within anthropological filmmaking as a collaborative model itself. Finally, an analysis of each stage of the project up to its completion precedes the conclusion.

Keywords: acting, Africa, authorship, Cameroon, collaboration, directing, ethnofiction, ethnography, fiction, film, immigration, legends, mobility, myth, theater, truth, visual anthropology.