Off the record: Archaeology and documentary filmmaking

Abstract

Archaeologists have long expressed frustrations with how archaeology is portrayed in the documentary genre, contending that filmmakers and programme makers sensationalise, dumb-down, and misrepresent the study of the material past on screen. Yet, whilst we demand that “the media” broadly speaking, and “documentary” more specifically, should understand and represent our discipline in all its complexity, we must ask ourselves: are we willing to do the same in return? The purpose of this thesis is to locate archaeology’s place in documentary, and documentary’s place in archaeology. The aim is not to merely interject into the discourse on this matter but to reset the agenda, by profiling, problematizing, and reframing how archaeologists understand the relationship between the discipline of archaeology and the practice of documentary filmmaking, particularly with an eye to a UK context. To this purpose a mixed-methods strategy was undertaken, including: a survey of UK-based archaeologists profiling their experiences of and attitudes to archaeology documentaries; a historical survey of archaeology’s treatment in non-fiction filmmaking from the 1890s to the 2010s; and an autoethnographic study of the making of an archaeology documentary, as seen from the filmmaker’s perspective. By identifying and interrogating the instances of confusion, unease, and conflict that arise when these two fields converge, as well as those instances of shared benefit and similitude, this thesis seeks to cultivate a space for greater awareness, mutual understanding, honest dialogue and intellectual growth. Ultimately, I contend that archaeologists are filmmakers too, and despite the many tensions and misunderstandings between the two fields, nonfiction and documentary filmmaking has indeed played an overlooked and underappreciated role in the conception and development of archaeology as a discipline.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Kathryn Elizabeth Rogers: orcid.org/0000-0003-2373-0906

ORCID for Michael Williams: orcid.org/0000-0001-5386-5567

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