Traditions and Other Forms of Memory by Indigenous Ethnic Groups of the North Caucasus in Documentaries

• In Event: Visualizing the Caucasus: Cultural Identities in Film and Art

Abstract

This paper is focused on the representation of the memory of Indigenous ethnic groups of the North Caucasus in documentaries. This contemporary ethnographic cinema released in the period from 2020 to 2025, and it differs from the multitude of films that represent a stable ideological narrative or exoticization of the region. These documentary filmmakers (I. Poroshin, A. Fedotov, M. Troshinkin, etc.) are not anthropologists, but they actively use the methods of visual anthropology to create the most profound portraits of modern locals. Due to the democratization of audiovisual content production, these films are becoming a tool for self-reflection and conversation with “others” about one’s own culture. These works on developing a new language of self-description of the region's inhabitants and actualize a conversation about cultural memory”.

Author

• Amira Khalid