MARTIN GRUBER, 2022, Sharing the Camera. A Guide to Collaborative Ethnographic Filmmaking, Sean Kingston Publishing, 182 pp., ISBN: 978-1-912385-44-77

Keywords: collaboration, ethnographic film, Indigenous media, participatory video, toolkit

This book offers a comprehensive and inspiring introduction to what Gruber describes as collaborative ethnographic filmmaking, which combines ideas and methods from the fields of ethnographic film, Indigenous media and participatory video. The emphasis is on collaboration, not just as a buzzword, but as a conscientious effort to work with a diversity of persons in the process of making film, ideally of a high aesthetic quality and cinematic complexity. It is all about sharing the camera, because even inexperienced people can learn to make film, for instance through hands-on workshops facilitated by researchers and/or filmmakers. And when researchers give up control over the camera, people we work with can take power over their own filmic representation and create their own films. Collaborative ethnographic filmmaking makes a lot of sense and Gruber shows us how it can be done. He openly shares his experiences, even his mistakes, in a tone of experimental curiosity and courageous reflexivity. Written in a very readable style, the book is structured into two parts.  

Part I outlines a toolkit for collaborative filmmaking, following a carefully selected theoretical and methodological framework. This framework draws on concepts and methods in ethnographic filmmaking, Indigenous media and participatory video, which are treated in separate chapters. Focusing on participation and collaboration, the book provides a comprehensive overview of these fields, serving as a useful introduction for scholars from various disciplines. For instance, the chapter on ethnographic filmmaking traces participatory filmmaking to the pioneering work of Robert Flaherty, followed by a succinct overview of the works of Jean Rouch, John Marshall, Judith and David MacDougall. The inclusion of Gruber’s various conversations with David MacDougall anchors his analysis empirically, a dialogical exchange between a master and apprentice. Gruber recognises the male dominance in earlier ethnographic filmmaking, and makes some effort to bring forth female voices, not least the work of Faye Ginsburg. The judicious discussion of how these forerunners in ethnographic filmmaking have dealt with questions of collaboration provides an insightful history into visual anthropology as well as broader discussions in anthropology.

In addition to building on the work of anthropological filmmakers, Gruber draws on Indigenous media and participatory video. He foregrounds the societal significance of cultural and political activism through Indigenous media-making, targeting local as well as international audiences. In addition to discussing various examples of Indigenous media production, he argues that recent collaborations between Indigenous media makers and anthropologists constitute some of the most innovative examples of contemporary audio-visual and multimodal anthropology. Participatory video is described as an approach aimed at enabling representatives of marginalized groups or communities to discuss and communicate issues of concern to them through video production. Participants are usually trained in basic filmmaking skills through workshops and guided in the filmmaking process. Although not common in anthropology, participatory video has been used in community film projects as well as various development projects, inspired by Paulo Freire’s seminal Pedagogy of the Oppressed from 1968. Gruber also discusses the less known but very inspiring combination of participatory video, drama and/or fictionalization, or what some scholars have called participatory video drama, which he also compares with theatre for development, traced to Augusto Boal. While acknowledging some of the critique against the use and misuse of participation in