GLOSSARY

Cinema Verité– A genre of Documentary film that follows action and films what’s happening in real time. The camera is often hand-held. Rather than formal interviews subjects are filmed interacting with other people on camera.

Colonialism- The exertion of power by one country over another, to extract resources and profit. Colonialist powers often used culture, language and religion to dominate and control their colonies. Filmmakers are not colonialists, but when filmmakers come from colonial powers and make films about subjects of colonialism, their colonialist perspective can influence the way they tell the story.

Cultural Appropriation- When a member of a more powerful cultural group takes on characteristics of a less empowered group and profits by using their cultural history and characteristics.

Cultural Hegemony- The global dominance of colonial powers using language, literature, and religion.

Cultural Humility- In psychology, this term indicates the ability to empathize with the other without imposing cultural norms. Film offers the viewer the ability to see through another’s perspective. It encourages viewers to understand other cultures, beliefs, and behaviors, from the perspective of members of that culture.

Documentary- The term developed by documentary filmmaker John Grierson in 1926 for non-fiction films.

Ethnographic Film- This is the term used for films created for the purpose of anthropology rather than for entertainment.

Neo-Realism- A genre of narrative or fictional film that is set in the current time in a specific place. Neo-Realist films use non-professional actors to play characters similar to themselves in realistic settings. But the film has a screenplay and is directed and structured to tell a feature film story. Neo-Realist films are usually dramatic rather than comedic and often address issues of social justice, class, poverty and human rights.

Political Unconscious- A term averred by Marxist literary theorist Frederick Jameson to identify the ineluctable process of seeing and sensing political structures of oppression in literature and in film. It is the process of identifying class and class struggle in storytelling.

Post-Colonialism– Refers both to a historical period in the aftermath of imperialism and to an intellectual and political project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various forms of European imperialism.^[1]

Realism- Film cannot capture reality. All films are framed, edited and reconstructed. Realism is the attempt to reflect reality on film with the acceptance that events will often need to be reenacted or dramatized to be captured on film.