David Lamelas’s The Desert People: An Odyssey for Authentic Representation

Authors

  • Loretta Ramirez Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/contemp.2016.176

Keywords:

David Lamelas, Argentine Artist, ethnographic film, fictional documentary, Native American representation

Abstract

In The Desert People (1974) by Argentine artist David Lamelas, screened at the UCLA Hammer Museum (January-June 2016), five travelers contribute to an ethnographic documentary about the southeastern Arizonan Papago tribe. However, the travelers’ untimely doom triggers a paradox—their screened interviews could not have been filmed prior to their demise. This paradox prompts audiences to reevaluate the film’s authenticity in the representation of the Papago’s reality. The verdict may be that depiction of human relations in visual culture is inadequate. Yet, might fragmented truths that function to keep alive a dying society still be worthy alternatives to the total disappearance of a Native American culture? The Desert People explores this question.

Author Biography

Loretta Ramirez, Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach

Loretta Ramirez teaches in the Chicano & Latino Department at California State University Long Beach(CSULB). She holds an Anthropology BA from Stanford, English MA from Loyola Marymount, Art History MA from CSULB, and is earning her English PhD at University of California Irvine. She is a J.Paul Getty Center Docent.

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Published

2016-11-30

How to Cite

Ramirez, L. (2016). David Lamelas’s The Desert People: An Odyssey for Authentic Representation. Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 5(1), 136–143. https://doi.org/10.5195/contemp.2016.176

Issue

Vol. 5 (2016): Agency in Motion: Agency and Reenactment in Visual Culture

Section

Reviews

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