“CHILDHOOD AND MODERNITY”

“Childhood and Modernity” is a five-year project conducted by David MacDougall that encourages Indian children to explore their surroundings using video cameras.  Unlike many video projects intended to help disadvantaged children, the aim here is quite different: to see what children can teach us about their society from their unique position as children. 

It is inspired by recent efforts to treat children not as objects of research but as active collaborators and contributors to new knowledge, often on subjects they know better than adults. 

It recognises that children throughout the world have considerable independence as individuals and make important economic and cultural contributions to society.  In introducing the project, MacDougall will present several short films made by eleven-year-old children in Rajasthan and New Delhi. 

>> HABITUS Library, 9 October, 16:00 - 17:00

DAVID MACDOUGALL

David MacDougall is an ethnographic filmmaker and writer on visual anthropology and documentary cinema. Born in the USA, he has lived in Australia since 1975. He was educated at Harvard University and the University of California at Los Angeles. David MacDougall has taught visual anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking at a variety of institutions, including Rice University, New York University, and the Australian National University, as well as numerous video workshops focusing on social research methods in Australia, Norway, India, and Italy.

Selective filmography

2007 SchoolScapes
1987 Link-Up Diary. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
1978 To Get That Country. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
1977 Good-bye Old Man. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 
1979 Lorang's Way. (Co-directed with Judith MacDougall.) Fieldwork Films.
1972 To Live With Herds. University of California at Los Angeles