John M. Bishop

Several filmmakers discuss the introduction of Western modes of communication, especially film, to native cultures. While these tools can help a native people to document their own culture, it can also "swallow" their culture, encroaching upon and irreversibly altering it. The film takes its title from a book written by filmmaker Edmund Carpenter in 1972 about his engagement with media in Papua New Guinea.

In The Wilderness Of A Troubled Genre is a conversation over time and space with ethnographic and actuality filmmakers recorded 2000-2012. The film considers the ethos, practicalities, practices, and ethics of making films about real people across cultures. It includes pioneers in the field like Robert Gardner, John Marshall, David MacDougall, and Richard Leacock; established filmmaker anthropologists such as Paul Henley, Sarah Elder, Rolf Husmann, Metje Postma, and Michael Yorke; as well as emerging filmmakers. Shot and edited by John Bishop, this is a spirited engagement with a film-making practice that continues evolving and challenging filmmakers today.

Several filmmakers discuss the introduction of Western modes of communication, especially film, to native cultures. While these tools can help a native people to document their own culture, it can also "swallow" their culture, encroaching upon and irreversibly altering it. The film takes its title from a book written by filmmaker Edmund Carpenter in 1972 about his engagement with media in Papua New Guinea.

In The Wilderness Of A Troubled Genre is a conversation over time and space with ethnographic and actuality filmmakers recorded 2000-2012. The film considers the ethos, practicalities, practices, and ethics of making films about real people across cultures. It includes pioneers in the field like Robert Gardner, John Marshall, David MacDougall, and Richard Leacock; established filmmaker anthropologists such as Paul Henley, Sarah Elder, Rolf Husmann, Metje Postma, and Michael Yorke; as well as emerging filmmakers. Shot and edited by John Bishop, this is a spirited engagement with a film-making practice that continues evolving and challenging filmmakers today.