PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL OF ARTS

EVOLUTION ACADEMY
DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA ARTS

Class: Analysis of Media Texts

From Anthropology to Film: On Dead Birds and Robert
Gardner

Picture downloaded from Documentary Educational Resources - http://www.der.org/films/dead-birds.html

Professor: Student:
Arsim Canolli Arbr Jashari

Prishtina, 2012
Camera As a Tool for Anthropological Research

To document someone (a person, a community, a people) or something (a natural phenomenon

or other) is to try to collect the entirety of the deeds and the uniqueness of that someone or
something. In addition, the effort for serious and passionate documentation is an effort to
promote values such as high culture and nobility as the foundation of humanity. In our topic, this
entirety comes in the form of visual (cinematographic) documentation of the life, struggles and
death (mortality) of the Dani people of New Guinea, whom the film director and narrator refers
to as a mountain people. The director of Dead Birds, Robert Gardner, reveals how through this
documentary film he was able to treat fundamental issues of the human existence.1 Thus, the
intention of documenting (visually or by other means) someone or something is not only to
seize an activity or deed, but to spread certain messages through the fair use of different
metaphors and symbols in order to give meaning to the story and to provoke the viewers and take
them to another world (not necessarily imaginary).

Dead Birds, the film that we have taken as the basis of analysis in this essay, belongs to the
documentary genre but it contains many pieces and parts of imagination and invites the viewers
to imagine along. In the book The Cinema of Robert Gardner, Charles Warren says that
Gardners films are special and in their own way develop the issue of reality vs. imagination. 2
It is precisely the creation of another world and the spreading of messages that Robert Gardner
has achieved after 18 months of living with the Dani people in an effort to do extensive research
on their way of life. The author of the film has also shown himself to be brave, educated and to
have had the heart of an artist which, according to Gergj Fishta, one must possess in order to
create a work which reflects beauty and offers comfort.3

Right in the beginning of the film, the narrator reveals the myth about the dead birds and the
eternal snakes as the camera carefully follows a bird flying over the mountain where the Dani
people dwell. As the minutes go by, the viewers are able to understand that this bird could
represent the Dani people themselves whom Gardner describes as fluttering and feathering
people. Thus, through the use of this metaphor Gardner lays down the first (and most important)
topic of the film: How do people (here the Dani people) imagine and expect death? Gardner
himself later said that the film tries to say something more about how we all, as people, will
reach our animal fate.4

Later on in the film, by introducing the two main characters (Weyak and Pua), the director tries
to bring the viewers closer to the Dani people and to reveal their way of life. The narrator

1
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, New York: Berg.
2
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, The Music of Robert Gardner, pg.17-33. New
York: Berg.
3
Gjergj Fishta is widely considered as the national writer of Albania. He is the author of The Highland Lute,
Albanias national epic poem referred to as the Albanian Iliad.
4
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, New York: Berg.
provides explanations about the meaning of their names and how they say a lot about their
characters. The director draws interesting parallels between the way of life of the Dani people
(primitive) and the people of the Western society (modern). I have gained this impression
because as humans we tend to compare everything to something. Maybe the men of the Dani
people are different because they pass the time knitting or because they have more than one wife.
However, they are also similar to Western men in the sense that they also hunt for food and
fight to protect their families from enemies

Through the little boy Pua, Gardner presents the innocence of children and their affection
towards animals. The narrator adds that the meaning of the name Pua reveals the boys weak
character shown throughout the documentary. This may be considered as another use of a
metaphor to give explanations of the human qualities of one of the characters in the film.
Another wonderful scene which is similar to Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North is the
childrens game, where they fight one-another and imitate the adults while themselves
preparing for adulthood. It is very interesting that the way in which they fight is completely
similar to the adults, only that the weapons they use are lighter.

Further on, the documentary concentrates on the actual fight between Weyak and Puas tribe
against the enemies on the other side of the mountain. What today is known as a border
between countries and peoples, to the Dani people is the no mans land. On each side of this
land there is a tower to monitor the enemys movement. The fights that these tribes are
engaged in are comparable to combat sports in the modern society. The main difference here is
that while in modern sports the fight takes place between individuals, in the Dani society the
fight is carried on between two very organized groups of men.

What has impressed me here is the need of both tribes to take revenge for every death that they
cause to each-other. Something very similar still occurs today in the Albanian ethnicity. In the
very northern part of Albania one can still meet families that are trapped inside their houses
because of the fear for blood revenge. This phenomenon could be understood as a human
necessity for mutual fights. However, the Dani people also fight against ghosts, which represent
evil, grief and sorrow. Gardner has been able to comprehend the customs of the Dani people and
has turned them into interesting metaphors which make viewers to think and reflect on such
matters as life and death.

Although the director has concentrated the film towards a vast discussion about death, it is
symbolic that the last scene of the film shows Weyak drinking water. This tells the viewers that
although death awaits each of us, the motivation to solve the everyday problems, as well as
sorrow and grief, is as important as life itself. For all that we have said so far and for many other
reasons, Dead Birds is rightly considered as one of the pillars of visual anthropology.
Camera As a Tool for Cinematographic Observation

Robert Gardner is primarily known as a modern anthropologist, who has used the camera as the
main tool for research and observation. His works have been the center of a large debate among
critics of anthropological practice for being too artistic and poetic and for not having contributed
sufficiently to the development of anthropological research through film. 5 From what we have
been able to read and research thus far, the majority of modern anthropologists from post 1900s,
when film had just started to grow into an industry, have either refused the introduction of the
camera into their work or have only used it for purely scientific purposes. Indeed, these two
fields of creation, cinema and anthropology, had thus far never been acquainted with, or used by,
one-another precisely because there was always a general thought that they belonged to two
extremely opposing angles: one (cinema) was aiming at creating its own branch within the arts,
while the other (anthropology) was struggling to create its distinct way of modus operandi within
the social sciences. Hence, Robert Gardner can be viewed as a pioneering figure in the
development of a standing relationship between cinema and anthropology. As Ilisa Barbash and
Lucien Taylor rightly note in their introduction to The Cinema of Robert Gardner, Gardners
films offer both artists and scientists a whole new world where these two extremes coalesce and
fulfill one-another.6

While before in this essay we have discussed about (remove)Gardners general anthropological
approach (through camera) in relation to the way of life of the Dani people in Dead Birds,
hereafter we will try to concentrate on the purely cinematographic aspects of Gardners works
and career.

Let us now discuss in more detail (removed about) Gardners cinematographic qualities in his
works, particularly in Forest of Bliss and Passenger. While cineastes, cinephiles, and film
scholars would argue that it is almost impossible for a documentary film to enjoy a long life and
success without a (conventional) story and narration inside, the two Gardner films that we have
mentioned above prove the opposite. The withdrawal of narration or interviews in these two
works has contributed to an enhancement of visual and sound experience not quite witnessed in
documentary film before. The combination of masterfully composed shots with the precise
emphasis of certain sounds within the film is what makes Gardners body of work, particularly
the two works in discussion, a special cinematic experience and an enormous and precious
legacy for all: viewers, students, scholars, and filmed/studied communities.

In Forest of Bliss, the cinematic essay of the ancient Indian city of Benares, which as noted by
David MacDougall, resembles the city symphonies of the 1930s, Gardner brings about an
experimental attempt to let (ethnographic) film speak, above all, through the powerful images of

5
A frontrunner in this debate is considered to be American anthropologist, Jay Ruby.
6
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, Resounding Images, pg.1-13. New York: Berg.
the citys actuality and through the emphasized sounds of the rituals that are performed in the
film.7 What differentiates this work from the city symphonies that we have mentioned before, is
Gardners attentive eye and human experience to concentrate on particular subjects/objects
which make the life and the people of Benares singular. It is through images and sound, rather
than through narration or dialogue, that we are able to embrace and experience the deeds and the
relationship between people, animals, marigolds, boats, kites with the ritual of death in the city
that welcomes death. This film, thus, speaks (visually) about a distinctive and complex
relationship and it does so through well composed images captured by the mind of a caring
human being.

Passenger, meanwhile, is an outstanding artistic harmony which illustrates the relationship

between the artist (Sean Scully) and his work of art. Gardners efforts and attempts to
comprehend the very particular nature of the artist, his knowledge on the art and art theories, and
his carefulness to capture aesthetic images within the creative space are an inspiration for
anyone. The most difficult part for the realization of such a work through visual means is the
placement of the camera in the right spot and the struggle to create a story within the observation
process. Someone could say that the work process of the artist is a story in itself, but in fact, the
artists work is only one side of this process. What is essential here is Gardners ability to
visually document the phenomenon that we have described above: the relationship between the
artist and his work, and the relationship of these with the cineaste and the camera. It is the report
artist-work which has been superbly emphasized throughout the film.

As noted continuously in the book The Cinema of Robert Gardner, the works of Gardner,
specifically Forest of Bliss, lie between actuality and imagination. 8 In cinematographic terms,
this is an outstanding achievement as it represents a happily constructed relationship between
two different film forms, which when combined together create a third form, or ideally, disregard
form in its entirety and contribute to the making of a masterful, formless work. The body of work
of Robert Gardner, without a doubt, offers a variety of cinematic themes and topics and doubts
for researchers and scholars to explore.

Note: This essay has been edited from its original version in 2014. The research has been limited
due to the lack of sources (books) of the genre available in Kosova/o. I wish to thank my
professor and mentor, Mr. Arsim Canolli, for providing me with the book The Cinema of Robert
Gardner.

Additional sources:

http://www.robertgardner.net/

7
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, Gardners Bliss, pg.153-173. New York: Berg.
8
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. (2007), The Cinema of Robert Gardner, New York: Berg.
http://www.der.org/

http://www.filmstudycenter.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCl0UHbB2YM