This paper explores ethnographic film as a collaborative way of creating worlds, not just documenting them. In cinema, diegesis refers to the full story world of a film—everything we see on screen, as well as what we imagine exists beyond it. While worldbuilding is usually linked to fiction, this lecture shows how it also plays a vital role in ethnographic filmmaking when combined with anthropological ideas of worldmaking: the view that reality is not fixed, but actively shaped through culture, language, art, and imagination.
Focusing on ethnofiction, developed by visual anthropologist Jean Rouch, the lecture examines ethnographic filmmaking as a shared, performative process in which participants act out lived experiences through projective improvisation. Drawing on theories of role play and play worlds these methods echo participatory theatre practices such as Forum Theatre and Psychodrama. Performance becomes a space for reflection and transformation (carefully structured to address ethical concerns) allowing ethnographic access to the imaginary contexts of the fieldwork.
The lecture also introduces ethno science fiction, a practice that invites individuals and communities to imagine their own possible futures through speculative improvisation, addressing social, political, and environmental change. By creating distance from everyday reality in a narrative tension between estrangement and cognition this approach encourages critical thinking through collective imagination.
Ultimately, ethnographic filmmaking is presented as a shared diegesis—a dynamic process of worldmaking. While open to anthropological analysis of how cultural meaning is created through processes of imagination, the shared diegesis goes beyond representation by encouraging social change within a reflexive context.
Pitt Rivers Museum Research Seminar in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, Hilary Term 2026
Fridays, 12pm-1.30pm (Weeks 1-8)
In person at the Pitt Rivers Museum Lecture Theatre (entry via Robinson Close).
Convened by Chihab El-Khachab and Paola Esposito.
