Anthropology Theatre
News, Reviews, Analysis
The Anthropology Theatre
Anthropological film is the product of theory and technology. The Anthropology Theatre reviews and introduces the public to exciting films to be viewed and critically analyzed. Check out our reviews of important and ground breaking films old and new. As well as news about screenings of films in California.
Recent Reviews:
The film that followed an Inuit man and examined his daily life in the harsh tundra. One of the pioneering films of the communication of visual anthropology.
Ritual healings involving the San Pedro cactus and unique diagnostic practices. A must see for people interested in medical anthropology, medicine, or Andean healing.
Timothy Asch uses this dynamic film to teach students about critical analysis of film. Included is raw footage of a brutal ax fight that will surely keep the viewer on the edge of their seats.
Featured Producers:
Dziga Vertov
Vertov promoted the concept of Kino Pravda, or film-truth, through his newsreel film series. His goal was to capture fragments of actuality which, when organized together, showed a deeper meaning which could not be seen with the naked eye.
The Lumiere Bros.
The work of the Lumiere Bros. consisted mainly of moving images from scenes typical of everyday life. In retrospect, compared to what film has developed into today, the Lumiere Brothers believed it to be a medium without a future as they suspected that people would bore of images that they see in their everyday lives. However, their earliest film sequence of a train pulling into a station reportedly had audiences screaming and ducking for cover as they believed that the train itself was about to charge out of the screen.
"..the most beautiful thing humankind ever created was culture" - Timothy Asch, Filmmaker