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The Wedding Camels
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Wikipedia article
'The Wedding Camels' is an ethnographic film directed by David MacDougall and Judith MacDougall, filmed in 1974 and released in 1980 (108 min., Turkana with English subtitles), that examines the negotiations and cultural practices that surround the tradition of the Turkana people of Kenya of giving a bridewealth before a wedding.Wedding Camels, VHS. Directed by David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall, 1974, Berkeley, CA: University of California Extension Center for Media, 1980. The film was funded and distributed by the University of California Extension Center for Media.Emory University Institute of African Studies. African Studies Media Catalog, Emory University. http://www.ias.emory.edu/catalog.cfm?keyword=Turkana (accessed Nov. 13, 2009).
Overview
The film is observational in style and the Turkana subjects speak for themselves through subtitles, rather than being spoken about through narration. The MacDougalls' films fit into the forefront of the movement away from narration and towards observational and participatory cinema in the 1970s and 1980s.Barnouw, Erik. Documentary- A History of the Non-Fiction Film. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) 330. The husband and wife team have made several ethnographic films. 'The Wedding Camels' is the second of three they made about the Turkana, the others being 'Lorang's Way' and 'A Wife Among Wives'. The trilogy is referred to as Turkana Conversations, which speaks to the fact that the McDougalls seem to specialize in forming a comfortable relationship with their subjects that allows them to enter into their private world and record not just interviews, but private conversations among families and community members.
Awards
'The Wedding Camels' won the Royal Anthropological Institute's first Film Award in 1980, for best ethnographic film of the past five years. It has also been awarded honors at film festivals including the Berlin Film Festival, the Edinburgh Film Festival, and the Margaret Mead Film Festival.
References
Category:1980 films
Category:1980 documentary films
Category:Anthropology documentary films
Category:Documentary films about Africa
Category:Ethnography
Category:Films about weddings
Category:Films shot in Kenya
Category:Turkana people
Category:American documentary films
Category:1980s American films
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