A Weave of Time (1986; 60 min) by Susan Fanshel
This film examines four generations of change in a Navajo family, and draws on anthropologist John Adair’s footage from 1938. Exploring the contemporary resonances of this footage 50 years later, this film delves into issues around cultural continuity and change.
Preserved with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources and archived in the NAFC
This is the eighth screening in the fall session of the bi-annual Recovering Voices Ethnographic Film Series
Founded in 1975, the National Anthropological Film Collection (NAFC) forms part of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives (NAA), and is devoted to preserving, documenting, and providing access to anthropological moving image materials. The NAFC collections are a unique repository for anthropological films and video that document cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the history of ethnographic filmmaking and related amateur expeditionary and travel filmmaking in the 20th century. Drawing on NAFC’s extensive archival film collection we will be screening the following historic ethnographic films, and will have time for discussion following each film.