The Ethnographic Optic: Reframing 1960s French Cinema

Join us for an overview of the new book The Ethnographic Optic: Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, and the Turn Inward in 1960s French Cinema (Indiana University Press) with author Laure Astourian. The Ethnographic Optic explores the significant ties between colonial ethnography and innovative works of 1960s French cinema. Astourian probes the emergence of a self-aware urban French ethnography in both fictional and documentary films during the era of decolonization and offers fresh readings of canonical films including Moi, un Noir (Jean Rouch, 1958), La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962), and Muriel ou le Temps d’un retour (Alain Resnais, 1963).

This talk is in-person and will be viewable as a Vimeo live stream. 

Laure Astourian is a scholar of French cinema. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is Associate Professor at Bentley University. In addition to her book, her writing and translations have appeared in Studies in French Cinema, Dans le sillage de Jean Rouch, Romanic Review, KinoKultura, MUBI, Icarus Films, and Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Paris and the Phi Beta Kappa Mary Isabel Sibley Fellowship in French Studies. Astourian serves as an advisory board member of the Boston Cinema Media Seminar and as co-Chair of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Documentary Studies Scholarly Interest Group.