Intertwining gazes and voices: representational practices of minoritarian filmmakers in Vancouver

This thesis aims to reconfigure the practice of ethnographic filmmaking by learning from the insights of four minority filmmakers. Using renewed notions of authorship and creative agency, I explore each filmmaker’s approach to film production, as well as her relationship with her work and audience. Because of her unique sociohistorical background, I argue, she is able to experiment with a variety of representational techniques. Through ‘border filmmaking,’ she exercises multi-dimensional/-directional vision and speech, and strives to continually transgress and dissolve personal/social boundaries. Such intertwining gazes and voices challenge the conventional paradigm of ethnographic film, which has been built on notions of culture and identity as passive, bounded entities. Thus, I argue for a more experimental approach that stresses the negotiability of filmic meanings. I also argue that ‘shared’ ethnographic filmmaking must politicize the very process of production, which will consequently enable active dialogues in the academic and public spheres.