Ethnographic Cinematography: A Quest for Identity in Nabin Subba's A Road to a Village

Abstract

This study explores and analyzes the representation of native identity in Nabin Subba's film A Road to a Village, which focuses on the depiction of cultural archetypes, the projection of the hero, and the application of ethnographic cinematography. Cinematography, though, is a technical aspect of the visual arts; it is intrinsically linked to the overall subject matter, agenda, and specific theme of a perfect work of cinema. The narrative portrays the experience of hardships faced by a man from the indigenous community whose traditional ethnic skill is facing threats by the arrival of a road to the village and rendering him unable to adjust with modernity. This tragic hero juxtaposes the popular image of a problem-solving protagonist, which could be analyzed through the belief of the Rai community in collective identity rather than individualistic one. On the other hand, Subba has employed the symbols and images from the myths and culture of the Kirat community through deliberate framing, angles, and movement of the camera as aesthetic coherence between the issues and craft of the cinema as the techniques of ethnographic cinematography are a quest for ethnic identity as well as the identity of Nepali cinema. This study calls for future study on Nepali cinemas with the lens of ethnographic cinematography and examine the role that cinema to incorporate intercultural dialogue, social justice, and identity of indigenous community amidst rapid socio-economic transformation they have been facing.