How do you see me? : The camera as transitional object in diasporic, domestic ethnography
- Submitting institution
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University of Bristol
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 94660614
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness
- Publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- ISBN
- 9781474463560
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- July
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- An observational documentary about an Iranian diasporic family AND accompanying chapter (multi-component).
Massoumi conceived, filmed and edited the film focusing on his mother’s domestic life and relationship with his father, examining intimate details of lived experience (including his mother’s seizures) and his relationship with them on camera. The central line of inquiry is an investigation of the intersubjectivity of ‘domestic ethnography’ (Renov 1999) – i.e. documentary filmmaking that involves a filmmaker’s parent - within a diasporic context:
Research questions: 1) What bearing does diasporic displacement have on the encounter between filmmaker and subject in domestic ethnography? 2) What insights can domestic ethnography provide into intergenerational experiences of diasporic displacement? 3) What conceptual approaches can help us gain a greater understanding of diasporic, domestic ethnography?
Research on personal or autoethnographic documentary practice and Iranian diasporic cinemas is well-established. This project is rare in its specific focus on the lived experience of long-term Iranian migrants in Britain. Through the iterative process of filmmaking and critical reflective writing, new insights were made into diasporic domestic ethnography.
Research insights: together, the film and the accompanying chapter (Massoumi 2020) offer significant new insights into the psychological role of the camera for the filmmaker in the intimate domestic encounter between filmmaker and parent (q.1). Introducing a new
framework (object-relations psychanalysis of D.W. Winnicott) for understanding the psychological motivations shaping diasporic domestic ethnographies (q.2 and 3), the research posits the camera as a ‘transitional object’, simultaneously a defensive strategy and creative vehicle for diasporic filmmakers negotiating personal and collective traumas in the home, with potential for a wider application in other documentary contexts.
Dissemination: Exhibition and Q & A with public audience at Royal Anthropological Institute: https://raifilm.org.uk/event/how-do-you-see-me-screening-and-discussion-with-filmmaker-nariman-massoumi/ Review of screening and Q&A in Iranian diasporic publication Kayhan Life: https://kayhanlife.com/culture/film/portrait-mother-filmmaker-massoumi-screens-new-documentary/ Exhibition at academic conferences and seminars.
Output: film/chapter
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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