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Over the New Year, two members of the Digital Himalaya project team travelled to remote parts of and on to Gangtok, the capital of the state of in north-east , to return footage shot between the 1930s and 1960s. Mark Turin and Sara Shneiderman describe and document the process.

‘It’s as if our life span has been doubled’ the system, creating a dynamic tool for parts of Burma, principally collected by said Rinchen Lhamo, a 65-year old comparative research. five different anthropologists and grandmother from the village of Lubra, travellers. These materials were com- Mustang district, Nepal, after she Collections piled as an analogue videodisc in the watched digitised 16mm footage of her The five collections involved in the first 1980s, and included some 10,000 mother in 1962 on a portable DVD phase of the project make use of a wide photographs, a large number of film and player. ‘How could I ever expect to see range of original recording media and sound clips, and original fieldwork her face again?’ she continued, echoing were chosen for their historical value diaries and notes in an associated the delight and surprise of many and their coverage of diverse geo- database. The videodisc is now prac- villagers as they viewed this historic graphical areas and ethnic peoples of the tically obsolete, and we hope to re- footage of their region and relatives for Himalayan region: release it in a digital format. the very first time. This event was the 4. Thak Archive: materials from a initiative of Digital Himalaya, a pilot 1. Williamson Photographic Archive: study of the Gurung village of Thak, project to develop digital collection, 1,700 photographs taken between 1930 central Nepal, including over 100 hours archiving, and distribution strategies for and 1935 by the British Political Officer of film, more than 3,000 photographs, multimedia anthropological informa- Frederick Williamson in , Sikkim and continuous censuses and fieldnotes tion from the Himalayan region. and Bhutan. Williamson’s collection is covering the period 1968 to the present, now held in the Museum of Archae- collected by Alan Macfarlane and Sarah ology and Anthropology at the Univer- Harrison. sity of Cambridge, and includes a 5. Thangmi Archive: digital video, number of rare historic images. photographs and ethnographic data 2. Fürer-Haimendorf Film Collec- from the Thangmi communities of tion: over 100 hours of 16mm film from Dolakha and Sindhupalcok districts in various parts of the central and eastern north-east Nepal collected by Mark Himalayas filmed between 1936 and Turin and Sara Shneiderman from 1996 1980 by Christoph von Fürer-Haimen- to the present. dorf, Professor of Anthropology at Of the above five collections, three SOAS. The films are supplemented by are finite, historical resources, while the Digital Himalaya Haimendorf’s detailed field diaries. latter two are collections that continue A still from the 1962 cine reel taken by Professor Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf 3. Naga Videodisc: part of Haimen- to grow. Depending on the success of showing local women dancing in their finery. dorf’s film archive overlaps with a large this initial phase, the project may ethnographic collection relating to the expand to include other high quality Based at the University of Cam- Naga peoples of north-eastern India and archives. bridge, the project began in December 2000. The initial phase involves digi- tising a set of existing ethnographic archives comprised of photographs, films, sound recordings, fieldnotes, and texts collected by anthropologists and travellers in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Indian Himalayas from the begin- ning of the 20th century to the present. The project has three long-term objectives: (a) to preserve in a digital medium valuable ethnographic mater- ials that are degenerating in their current forms; (b) to make these resources available in a searchable digital format to scholars and the Himalayan com- munities from which the materials were collected; and (c) to develop a template for collaborative digital cataloguing that will allow users to contribute documen- Sienna Craig tation to existing collections and Sara Shneiderman introducing the Digital Himalaya project to the villagers of Lubra, eventually link their own collections to December 2002.

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choosing the format which will afford the widest range of people the most efficient and inexpensive access to these resources over time is not a simple proposition. We must consider the needs and priorities of each target audience, and create a flexible and adaptable system with multiple layers and entry points. If more than a few token members of the Himalayan communi- ties from which the material originated are to have access to this visual docu- mentation of their history, the multiple obstacles of illiteracy, unwritten lan- guages and poor technical infrastructure must be overcome. At the same time, in order for researchers to find the archive useful as a comparative resource, effective search and retrieval tech- niques, detailed documentation and high resolution images must be incor- porated. The challenge here is not so much in bridging the gap between Asia

Sara ShneidermanSara and Europe, but rather that between From left, Mr. Khendzong Yapla and his mother recognise relatives from the Williamson collection educated, English-speaking computer dating back to the 1930s. users in urban centres like , Delhi or London, and their rural Technologies and Methodologies computer, is an option which bypasses counterparts, who often do not have the Each of the three aspects of the project some of the pitfalls outlined above. An education or facilities to make use of requires a different set of technologies. archive in DVD format would provide new technologies. Bridging this divide Digitisation is naturally the first step: access to non-literate and less advanced has been a central problem for ethno- scanning photographic prints, nega- users by offering limited interactivity graphic studies published in other tives, and slides, creating digital master together with high quality playable mediums: books published in English copies of film and video through content making use of voiceovers in have remained inaccessible to the non- telecine transfer and other analogue-to- local languages. With the advent of English speaking communities which digital conversion processes, and small battery-operated DVD-Video they describe. Digital technologies storing these masters in high resolution players, it is possible to play DVDs in provide unprecedented capabilities for digital formats. The second step is data areas with no infrastructure or elec- transporting and displaying large management and interface design, to tricity supply. Local groups could attend amounts of visual ethnographic which we will return shortly. The third demonstrations to watch film footage material. Only by dismantling the step concerns questions of storage and and listen to voiceovers on a battery- existing ‘digital divide’ can new distribution: should all of the materials operated DVD player. The widespread technologies surmount the communi- be available over the internet? Should distribution of single DVDs is limited, cation barriers which often frustrate the we use DVD? How will different users however, and in addition, the pace of ethnographic endeavour. respond to each format? Furthermore, technological development suggests we must think ahead to ensure that the that in its current form, DVD has a Consent and Confidentiality digital format in which we archive films limited life-span, making it a risky Whether online or on DVD, issues of and photographs can be easily migrated choice as a long-term archival medium. confidentiality and consent remain to new platforms as technologies Technology is now developing and central to the construction of an archive develop, and thus avoid the problems of changing at an unprecedented rate, and such as ours. While copyright clearance obsolescence that have plagued prev- has been received for the materials in the ious ethnographic archiving projects initial collections, privacy and protec- such as the Naga Videodisc. tion for the individuals appearing in the Broadband internet offers ways of photographs and films are of serious making archives available to a geog- concern. The potential problems are raphically diverse audience. In large heightened by the immediacy and lack parts of the West, however, and certainly of anonymity inherent in visual in the Himalayan region, the bandwidth representation, and the fact that many of necessary to transfer large digital files the images originated in generations with comfort is still unavailable. Even if past when mass distribution of visual the appropriate hardware and software information was inconceivable. Al- were soon put in place, many of those though anthropologists may have been who might like to view images of their certain that the people they filmed or own communities are not literate in photographed consented to these English or familiar with the basic activities at the time, the advent of the computing concepts needed to search digital age threatens previous under- an online database. While Digital standings of ‘informed consent’. When Himalaya continues to investigate the Fürer-Haimendorf first travelled to use of Unicode fonts for Nepali and Nepal in the 1950’s, the country had just Tibetan, constructing a multilingual opened to the outside world. How could search tool remains a challenge. his informants consent to having their A DVD-based archive, functioning as Sara ShneidermanSara images broadcast over the internet fifty a self-contained portable resource A young Thangmi shaman performing in his first years later? How could they have requiring neither internet access nor a village festival, May 2000. anticipated that the words they uttered British Universities Film & Video Council www.bufvc.ac.uk No 50, March 2003 11 VF50.qxd 28/02/2003 11:17 Page 12

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indigenous sum- and update supporting information on mary of the his collection. Thanks to the almost power of a mov- photographic memory of certain ing image. Sikkimese residents and the encyclo- As the after- paedic knowledge of Mr Khendzong noon wore on, Yapla, Secretary to the Government we watched the of Sikkim, we were able to fill a five-minute film number of the gaps. During our short clip again and stay we advised on the digitisation again. Each time, and preservation of the royal photo we paused on archives now held by a registered trust different sections, in Gangtok. On departure, we left and the villagers behind a number of copies of the DVDs debated the iden- and CDs we had shown with interested tity of each indi- parties on the understanding that vidual. Many viewing copies would be circulated. As Frederick Williamson Archive Frederick Booksellers by the Chö-khang, , Tibet, August 1933. people could lo- generations of archivists have attested, cate an aunt or an the surest way of stimulating use is (gossip about their neighbours or per- uncle, and a few older villagers even by distributing as many copies of haps criticism of the ) might recognized their own parents. Small the material to as many people as be available to millions of faceless children were called in to ‘meet’ the possible. viewers around the world? While many grandparents they had never known. It Despite the excitement shown at of the individuals who appear in also became clear that several of the both events, people remain wary of Haimendorf’s films have now passed early scenes in the film were not actually their images being used for adverse away, what will happen when their from Lubra, but from the neighbouring purpose, and they are right to be descendants view the digital archive and district of Dolpo. Apparently Haimen- concerned. How can any of us know come across images of their grand- dorf had spliced these scenes together how these images will be manipulated parents taking part in some politically without making a note of their different over the next hundred years? Old compromising activity or making sources. In addition, the four villagers film doesn’t die, it just gets clipped into statements still embarrassing to the who could actually recall the anthro- ever smaller pieces, further removed family today? At the risk of precipi- pologist’s visit all concurred that the from its original context, and used for tating an anthropological catastrophe, women’s dance early in the film was not ever-more egregious purposes. For the Digital Himalaya team set out to in fact a natural part of the wedding example, what of the image of a bare- return digitised photos and DVDs to ritual, but rather a feat of anthropo- breasted Masai woman placed on the communities in Nepal and India in logical engineering-Haimendorf had web as part of an ethnographic archive, December 2002 and January 2003. asked all of the village women to put on and later spotted on a pornography - Footage from Mustang, Nepal, their finest clothes and dance so that he site? Although we cannot guarantee from 1962 could film them. During the three day against such misuse, our hope is that by On Christmas Day, 2002, we arrived visit, we showed the short film over 40 engaging community members in the in the village of Lubra, an ethnically times, but there were still requests for project from the early stages we will Tibetan village located in a remote side more. Since the village is not electrified, be able to pre-empt problems as they canyon of the Mustang valley, carrying it made no sense to leave the DVD arise. a DVD of digitised 16mm footage from player behind, but we departed with 40 years earlier. This was a village we the promise that we would look into Future Directions had worked in previously, building up ways of establishing a local viewing All of these considerations will shape relationships of trust and understanding, station. the way Digital Himalaya develops over which all facilitated the process we were the coming years. Salvaging ethno- there to initiate. It was decided that the Footage from Sikkim, India, from graphic films and photographs by local (Buddhist temple) would the 1930s assuring that they are properly digitised, serve as the most suitable location for a In January 2003, we travelled to catalogued, and kept in context is a public viewing of the film. The whole Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, to meet priority. Involving indigenous commu- village turned out for the event, and with a number of local dignitaries and nities in the process of documentation is crowded around the small portable researchers from the Namgyal Institute another. If we can accomplish even screen. We decided to provide no of . We brought with us these objectives, we will be on the way additional contextual information about digitised photos and 16mm films dating to creating an appropriate ethnographic the silent footage, hoping instead to back to the 1930s, taken by Frederick archive for the digital age. We need to elicit viewer’s comments about its Williamson, a British colonial officer construct an open, non-linear archival content and form. The first viewing was stationed in Sikkim during the Raj. structure that offers a range of access greeted with complete silence: no-one Unlike Haimendorf’s anthropological points and different paths through the pointed, spoke or expressed any footage of Nepal, which focussed on visually-rich materials. We hope that emotion. At the end of the five-minute ordinary people and their lives, Digital Himalaya will be a dyna- film clip, there were requests to view it Williamson was more of a high society mic ethnographic archive that accu- again. After the initial disorientation of photographer. His fascinating and rately remembers the past and is a seeing moving film of the village for the unique collection houses images, some culturally responsive resource for the first time, it began to fall into place for black and white stills, others cine film, future. the villagers, and the race was on to of many influential figures in the region identify each individual appearing in the during the 1930s including the royal Mark Turin and film. We asked whether the film families of Sikkim and Bhutan, and the Sara Shneiderman contravened the taboo on displaying rarely photographed 13th of Digital Himalaya Project images of the deceased. ‘Not at all,’ a Tibet. The weakness of the Williamson [email protected] village elder replied, ‘this is different collection was the paucity of his from a photograph, which only reminds descriptive captions – early ‘metadata’ films, photos and more information are us of death. Here the people are alive, – and in the process of showing and available on: so there is no problem’. An interesting sharing the footage we hoped to refine www.digitalhimalaya.com British Universities Film & Video Council 12 No 50, March 2003 www.bufvc.ac.uk