Yamal Nenets Film Series
Event-film as ethnographic research practice and a virtual field
Keywords: ethnography, ethnographic film, Finno-Ugric peoples
This article analyzes the Yamal Nenets Film Series (2024–2025), a nine-hour sequence of observational event-films edited from video footage recorded among Nenets reindeer herders on the Yamal Peninsula in 1999. In a context where pandemics and Russia’s war in Ukraine have rendered classical long-term fieldwork in Yamal politically and ethically untenable, the article asks how such historical audiovisual material can function simultaneously as an ethnographic source, a representational form, and a method of “returning” to a now-inaccessible field.
The article conceptualizes filming as a mode of embodied participant observation, in which handheld camera work, long takes, and synchronous sound attend to movement, gesture, and the sensory textures of tundra life. It then examines the re-editing of the footage into event-centred films that preserve the internal rhythm of everyday activities, alongside the technical and ethical implications of digital restoration. A third focus is remote post-production and translation under authoritarian conditions, where collaboration with Nenets partners must balance co-authorship with their protection from surveillance and political risk.
Situating the project within debates on observational cinema, archival ethnography, and “anthropology from home”, the article argues that the film series constitutes an open, processual archive rather than a closed documentary record. The archive remains receptive to new informational layers – such as Indigenous commentaries, researchers’ field notes, expert contextualization, and future reinterpretations – which accumulate over time and transform the meaning of the footage. As such, the series enables a form of virtual participant observation and pedagogical fieldwork simulation, while foregrounding the ethical demands of reflexive and security-aware collaboration with Indigenous research partners.
Liivo Niglas (b. 1970), PhD, University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, Research Fellow in Ethnology (Ülikooli 16, 51005 Tartu), liivo.niglas@ut.ee
References
AUDIOVISUAALSED MATERJALID
Aga kitsed…? 1998. Rež Liivo Niglas. Ateliers Varan. 26 min.
Brigaad 2000. Rež Liivo Niglas. MP DOC. 57 min.
Jamali neenetsite filmiseeria 2024–2025. Rež Liivo Niglas. MP DOC. 17 osa, 543 min.
Hoiunartade juures. 39 min.
Karja oodates. 14 min.
Karjavalves. 69 min.
Katka isa vereohver. 47 min.
Katka isaga karjavalves. 36 min.
Koosolek. 21 min.
Küttepuude hankimine. 30 min.
Laagripaigas. 7 min.
Liha. 24 min.
Lõuna püstkojas. 15 min.
Nabarituaal. 14 min.
Puhkepaus künkal. 44 min.
Puurtorn. 13 min.
Raadioside. 16 min.
Rännak uude laagripaika. 70 min.
Sõidupõtrade valimine. 54 min.
Vasikate ajamine. 30 min.
!Kung Series 1961–1974. Rež John Marshall. Documentary Educational Resources. 18 osa, 246 min.
Netsilik Series 1967. Rež Quentin Brown, Asen Balikci. Documentary Educational Resources. 21 osa, 630 min.
People of the Western Desert Series 1966–1970. Rež Ian Dunlop. Film Australia. 19 osa, 308 min.
Udmurdi palvused 2019. Rež Liivo Niglas. MP DOC. 4 osa, 136 min.
Yanomamö Series 1968–1976. Rež Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon. Documentary Educational Resources. 49 osa, 650 min.
The Ax Fight 1975. 30 min.
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