Ethnofiction refers to a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduce art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into peer-reviewed academic works.
In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvising, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.
Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction. An ethnologist, he discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers. His camera is never a candid camera. The behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by its presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule, his mentor, for Rouch a non-participating camera registering "pure" events in ethnographic research (like filming a ritual without interfering with it) is a preconception denied by practice.
An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of cine-trance. Going further than his predecessors, Jean Rouch introduces the actor as a tool in research.
A new genre was born. Robert Flaherty, a main reference for Rouch, may be seen as the grandfather of this genre, although he was a pure documentary maker and not an ethnographer.
Being mainly used to refer to ethnographic films as an object of visual anthropology, the term ethnofiction is as well adequate to refer to experimental documentaries preceding and following Rouch's oeuvre and to any fictional creation in human communication, arts or literature, having an ethnographic or social background.
History
Parallel to those of Flaherty or Rouch, ethnic portraits of hard local realities are often drawn in Portuguese films since the thirties, with particular incidence from the sixties to the eighties, and again in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region (see: Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Province in Portugal), Guinea-Bissau or the Cape Verde islands (ancient Portuguese colonies), which step in the limelights from the eighties on thanks to the work of certain directors (Flora Gomes, Pedro Costa, or Daniel E. Thorbecke, the unknown author of Terra Longe) are themes for pioneering films of this genre, important landmarks in film history. Arousing fiction in the heart of ethnicity is something current in the Portuguese popular narrative (oral literature): in other words, the traditional attraction for legend and surrealistic imagery in popular arts inspires certain Portuguese films to strip off realistic predicates and become poetical fiction. This practice is common to many fictional films by Manoel de Oliveira and João César Monteiro and to several docufiction hybrids by António Campos, António Reis and others. Since the 1960s, ethnofiction (local real life and fantasy in one) is a distinctive mark of Portuguese cinema.
Chronology
1910s
1914 – In the Land of the Head Hunters by Edward S. Curtis, Canada
1920s
1926 – Moana by Robert Flaherty, US
1930s
1930 – Maria do Mar by José Leitão de Barros, Portugal
1931 – Tabu written by Robert Flaherty and directed by F. W. Murnau, US
1932 – L'or des mers by Jean Epstein, France
1933 – Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan by Luis Buñuel, Spain
1934 – Man of Aran by Robert Flaherty, UK
1940s
1942 – Ala-Arriba! by José Leitão de Barros, Portugal
1948 – Louisiana Story by Robert Flaherty, US
1950s
1955 – Les maîtres fous (The Mad Masters) by Jean Rouch, France
1958 – Moi, un noir (Me a Black) by Jean Rouch, France
1960s
1961 – La pyramide humaine by Jean Rouch, France
1962 – Acto da Primavera (Act of Spring) by Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
1963 – Pour la suite du monde (Of Whales, the Moon and Men) by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, Canada 1967 – Jaguar, by Jean Rouch, France
1970s
1976 – People from Praia da Vieira (Gente da Praia da Vieira) by António Campos, Portugal 1976 – Trás-os-Montes by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, Portugal