Les statues meurent aussi Tadié-Cinéma-Production presente ; réalisation: Alain Resnais, Chris Marker et Ghislain Cloquet ; un film de la revue Présence Africaine
File consists of handwritten notes, preliminary program, conference program and abstracts, diagrams of film and video equipment, charts, proposal for the founding of a society for visual anthropology, program of the American Anthropological Association in ethnographic film.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs relating to Arctic peoples that were part of a set made in connection with Robert Joseph Flaherty's documentary, Nanook of the North. They consist primarily of portraits of Arctic peoples, as well as images of a kayak in Hudson Bay, an man in the ice fields, and a close up image of a husky dog.
Biographical/Historical note:
Robert Joseph Flaherty (1884-1951) was born in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and spent his childhood traveling with his family to the mining regions in Michigan, Minnesota, and Canada. Formally educated at Upper Canada College and Michigan College of Mines, he mostly studied geology and engineering subjects. After leaving the Michigan College of Mines and marrying Frances Hubbard, Flaherty settled in Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), working as a surveyor and prospector across Canada. His father introduced him to Sir William Mackenzie, who was building a trans-Canada railroad (now the Canadian National Railway), and Mackenzie commissioned Flaherty to study the Nastapoka Islands. During this expedition (1910-1911), Flaherty developed a relationship with the Great Whale Inuit Camp. He completed three more expeditions (1911-1912, 1913-1914, and 1915-1916) for Mackenzie, during which he took numerous photographs and filmed the Inuit during his later expeditoins to Baffin Island and Belcher Islands. In 1920, Flaherty met Captain Thierry Mallet of Revillon Freres and convinced him to support a filmmaking expedition to the company's sub-arctic fur trading post, Port Harrison on Cape Dufferin. By the 1920-1921 expedition to Port Harrison (Inukjuak), Flaherty was focusing almost exclusively on film documentation, and most of his photographic work appears oriented toward the production of the film. Ultimately, Flaherty produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film and the pioneering ethnographic film, Nanook of of the North (1922).
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 90-17
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Robert Joseph Flaherty papers, 1884-1970.
Material relating to Flaherty held in the Archives of American Art in the Lotte Jacobi Place printed materials and the Preservation and utilization of documentary film footage shot by Robert Flaherty of John Howard Benson : typescript, 1978.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 90-17, Robert Joseph Flaherty photographs of Arctic peoples, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection of films produced and acquired by the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) contains materials created by and for the MAI as ethnographic studies and as documentation of its own activities (including archaeological expeditions and cultural exchanges) between 1917 and 1938. Tribes represented include: Arikara, Crow, Navajo, Pilaga, Pueblo, Shoshone, and Zuni. Also included is footage of Hidatsa representatives and Zuni translators in Washington, D.C. and at the MAI; footage of MAI founder and director George Gustav Heye; and footage of the Hawikku (Hawikuh) and Kechipauan archaeological sites, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. The collection consists mainly of successive 16mm and 35mm negative film duplicates and prints of now-destroyed original 35mm nitrate negatives. Series 4 gathers paper records directly pertaining to the collection. Preservation copies of the films exist on 35mm polyester film and Digital Betacam video tape. Access copies are available on DVDs.
The first series in this collection includes film, video, and DVD duplicates of ethnographic films funded, overseen, and filmed by agents of the MAI throughout the Western and Southwestern United States. The second series includes ethnographic films acquired rather than produced by the MAI of the Navajo and Pilaga. The third series consists of film produced by the MAI documenting its own activities, including an excavation at Hawikuh and Kechipauan, New Mexico; footage of MAI founder and director George Gustav Heye; and footage of Native visitors to the MAI and to Washington, D.C.
Arrangement note:
This collection is arranged into four series and chronologically within each series. Included are Series 1: Films Produced by the Museum of the American Indian, 1923-1927; Series 2: Films Acquired by the Museum of the American Indian, 1923-1924; Series 3: Documentation of Museum of the American Indian Activities, 1917-1938; and Series 4: Paper Records of the Ethnographic Film Collection. Titles within subseries are generally arranged alphabetically, with unrestricted titles listed before those restricted due to culturally sensitive content.
Within the collection, each unit of motion picture film (reel, videotape, or DVD) is assigned an identifying number. In this system, the final four appended numbers correspond to a title and a format. The full identifying number will appear as such: NMAI.AC.001.001.XX.YY, where XX corresponds to a numbered title and YY indicates the format of the print, as follows:
01: 35mm print (1917–1938, circa the original film dates)
02: 16mm dupe neg (made circa 1961 from XX.01 35mm)
03: 16mm print (from XX.02 for release, circa 1961)
04: 16mm print (from XX.02 for file/work or research, circa 1961)
05: 35mm dupe neg (preservation copy, made 2012–2014 from XX.01 and XX.02)
06: 35mm answer print (made 2012-2014 from XX.05)
07: Digital Betacam (preservation copy, made 2012-2014 from XX.06)
08, 09, 10 (if applicable): DVD (access copy, made 2012-2014 from XX.06)
11 and up: other copies and prints (see title-level notes for explanations)
Thus, for instance, the item with the number NMAI.AC.001.001.02.03 is the 16mm release print copy of the title "Deerskin Tanning and Wrapping the Leggings."
The content of each print or negative corresponding to the same title (XX) may be identical or similar. The content of the 1917-1938-era 35mm prints and the 1960s-era 16mm films differ. As the 35mm prints had deteriorated, damaged footage was removed prior to producing the 16mm negatives. After the 16mm negatives were produced, nitrate intertitles and additional damaged footage were also removed from the 35mm prints. The 2012-2014-era 35mm films were made by combining the existing 35mm prints with footage from the 16mm negatives in order to restore the most complete existing content to its highest possible quality. The Digital Betacam and DVD copies reproduce this restored footage.
This preservation and restoration effort was made possible by funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, Save America's Treasures, and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, as well as support from the National Museum of the American Indian.
Historical Note:
The Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation was founded by George Gustav Heye in 1908 as a repository for his extensive collection of American Indian artifacts. Through the MAI, Heye funded extensive archaeological and anthropological fieldwork throughout the Americas. This collection represents a series of ethnographic films made in the course of MAI expeditions throughout the Western and Southwestern United States, as well as similar films purchased by the museum. The films record a variety of American Indian traditions, including crafts, foodways, games, and ceremonies, and were spurred by the era's perception of Native communities as "fast-disappearing" and vulnerable to dramatic change. The activities recorded range from quotidian to highly culturally sensitive, as followed Heye's all-encompassing collecting strategy.
The MAI's motion picture expeditions took place between 1923 and 1927 and were carried out by a number of agents of the museum, usually in the course of gathering artifacts. Many of these agents were anthropologists accompanied by professional photographers, but other footage is amateur. The MAI treated the series in full as technical educational material, noting in their 1962 motion picture film catalog that "they are not suitable for general entertainment."
The moving image collection of the MAI included these self-produced films as well as similar films purchased by the museum and film shot in the course of the museum's activities, including documentation of archaeological digs, staff, and Native visitors. In 1961-1962, recognizing the educational potential of its collection, the MAI received a grant from the National Science Foundation to transfer the original deteriorating nitrate prints to safety film, discarding film and editing prints in the process. In 2012-2014, the National Museum of the American Indian completed a transfer of the titles to Digital Betacam and DVD formats, combining footage from both original and 1961-1962-era prints to salvage as much content as possible. This work was completed with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, Save America's Treasures, and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Series 1: Films Produced by the Museum of the American Indian includes film, video, and DVD duplicates of ethnographic films funded, overseen, and filmed by agents of the MAI throughout the Western and Southwestern United States. The following film subseries are represented: Ethnographic Films of the Zuni Indians, 1923, funded by James B. Ford, filmed by Owen Cattell, and assisted by Donald A. Cadzow and Lorenzo Chaves (Zuni); Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, 1923 (unattributed); Arikara Indians of North Dakota, 1924, filmed under Melvin R. Gilmore and by MAI photographer Edwin Francis Coffin; and Crow Indians of Montana and Shoshone Indians of Wyoming, both 1927, filmed under William Wildschut.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
1 Videocassettes (Digital Betacam) (Duration 11 minutes, 53 seconds at 18 frames per second)
1 Electronic discs (DVD) (Duration 11 minutes, 53 seconds at 18 frames per second)
6 Film reels (2 dupe negs, 4 prints (all MOS). 06.01 is particularly weak. Handwritten note on 06.02 original can: "Cut for release prints.", 3 16mm and 3 35mm film reels)
Container:
Item 06.01-06.08
Type:
Archival materials
Moving Images
Videocassettes (digital betacam)
Electronic discs (dvd)
Film reels
Scope and Contents note:
Original file call number: 3002.
Subseries Restrictions:
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
1 Videocassettes (Digital Betacam) (Duration 26 minutes, 23 seconds at 18 frames per second)
3 Film reels (1 dupe negs, 2 prints (all MOS)., 3 16mm film reels)
2 Electronic discs (DVD) (Duration 26 minutes, 23 seconds at 18 frames per second)
Container:
Item 07.02-07.04, 07.07-07.09
Type:
Archival materials
Moving Images
Videocassettes (digital betacam)
Film reels
Electronic discs (dvd)
Date:
1923
Scope and Contents note:
Original file call number: 3007.
Subseries Restrictions:
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
3 Film reels (1 dupe neg, 2 prints (all MOS)., 3 35mm film reels)
Container:
Item 08.01, 08.05-08.06
Type:
Archival materials
Moving Images
Film reels
Date:
1923
Scope and Contents note:
Original file call number: 3007.
Subseries Restrictions:
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
3 Film reels (1 dupe negs, 2 prints (all MOS)., 3 35mm film reels)
Container:
Item 09.01, 09.05-09.06
Type:
Archival materials
Moving Images
Film reels
Date:
1923
Scope and Contents note:
Original file call number: 3007.
Subseries Restrictions:
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
2 Electronic discs (DVD) (Duration 19 minutes, 20 seconds at 18 frames per second)
3 Film reels (1 dupe negs, 2 prints (all MOS)., 3 16mm film reels)
1 Videocassettes (Digital Betacam) (Duration 19 minutes, 20 seconds at 18 frames per second)
Container:
Item 10.02-10.04, 10.07-10.09
Type:
Archival materials
Moving Images
Electronic discs (dvd)
Film reels
Videocassettes (digital betacam)
Date:
1923
Scope and Contents note:
Original file call number: 3003.
Restrictions:
Restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Series 4: Paper Records of the Ethnographic Film Collection includes paper records pertaining to the Museum of the American Indian's moving image expeditions, purchases, and record-keeping. Photocopied excerpts are combined with original records to provide the researcher with a comprehensive picture of the MAI's treatment of this film.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
6 Photocopies (1 folder; photocopied excerpts from 6 issues of Indian Notes totaling 19 p.)
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Photocopies
Date:
1924-1928
Scope and Contents note:
Indian Notes was a quarterly serial publication that described the activities of the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation and their preliminary results. This subseries gathers references to motion picture expeditions and financial records from this collection's era.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Ceremonial images are restricted due to cultural sensitivity. Consult the archivist for further information.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection, Call Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
