Films

Marking 40 years since its original release as well as its more recent digital remastering, David MacDougall will present the classic trilogy he made with his wife Judith on the Turkana pastoralists of East Africa, widely regarded as one of the early masterpieces of the approach to ethnographic filmmaking known as “Observational Cinema”.

Following the screening of "A Wife among Wives", David will then participate in a debate about how Observational Cinema has evolved over the last forty years, as represented both in his and Judith’s more recent work, and in the works of other filmmakers drawing on the same tradition.

Also participating will be Colin Young, the original producer of the trilogy, influential theorist of Observational Cinema and former director of the National Film and Television School, and James Woodburn, a leading advocate of ethnographic film in the UK and an eminent East Africanist anthropologist.

The session will be chaired by Michael Stewart of University College London, whose sponsorship has contributed to making this Masterclass possible.