Research Articles

Filming languages: implications of indigenous video production for language maintenance in Mexico

---

Abstract

This paper is an intervention into film studies from the point of view of language maintenance and revitalisation, to highlight the presence of indigenous languages in ‘subject-generated’ films. ‘Subject-generated’ is a term used by the visual anthropologist Ruby (2000) to identify films made by the ‘subjects’ of traditional ethnographic film. In Mexico, a similar meaning is conveyed by video indígena ‘indigenous video’, the term most often used in the present paper. Mexico is home to a vast number of indigenous languages, several grassroots indigenous filmmaking organisations, and a government with an official policy of intercultural education and media. Here the focus will be on the recent history and current situation of indigenous language community filmmaking in Mexico, though relevant examples from other parts of the world will also be included ... dialogue between relevant fields such as language documentation, visual anthropology, and language revitalisation will help indicate how scholarship can best support film and video production taking place among minority language speakers throughout the world. I therefore adopt a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon research from several academic traditions and geographical areas, as well as on the films themselves and interviews with their producers.

Keywords: film studies, indigenous languages, subject-generated films, ethnographic film, video indígena, Mexico, language maintenance, language revitalisation, language documentation, visual anthropology

How to Cite:

Edwards, C., (2009) “Filming languages: implications of indigenous video production for language maintenance in Mexico”, Language Documentation and Description 6, 213-235. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd244