Free Film Screening:
Expedition Content
(Ernst Karel & Veronika Kusumaryati, 2020, 78 min, USA, Color, DCP)
An immersive marvel of sonic ethnography, Expedition Content draws on audio recordings made by recent college graduate and Standard Oil heir Michael Rockefeller as part of the 1961 Harvard-Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea that set up tents among the indigenous Hubula (also known as Dani) people. In their nearly imageless film, Karel and Kusumaryati document the strange encounter between the expedition and the Hubula people. The work explores and upends the power dynamics between anthropologist and subject, between image and sound, and turns the whole ethnographic project on its head.
“Startling and fascinating… builds to a shattering climax.” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“Advances the possibility of a purely sonic cinema.” — Leo Goldsmith, The Brooklyn Rail
Screen/Society screenings are free and open to the public. (COVID-19 Info)
