What made this trilogy special was that, unlike most television reportage, it had a temporal dimension. That is to say, it offered not a brutal, intrusive and uncomprehending snapshot, but a sympathetic, well-informed and thoughtful history of ten difficult years in the life of a tribe. Its insight derived from an anthropologist, David Turton, who has been studying the Mursi for years and who was able to provide the absolutely essential explanations of the mysterious events filmed by the Granada crew. This is the kind of illumination which is often provided by books or by personal experience, but almost never by television. J. Naughton
Colour 1974-1985
Film-maker: Leslie Woodhead
Anthropologist: David Turton
This is a trilogy made by Granada Television's Disappearing World team about aspects of the culture of two groups of people, the Mursi and the Kwegu, in southern Ethiopia. The first part of the trilogy is listed in Volume I of the 1982 RAI Film Library Catalogue, but the other two films are listed in this catalogue under their separate titles. The titles are:
THE MURSI
THE KWEGU
THE MIGRANTS
J. Naughton, 1985. Review of the trilogy. The Listener (London), 24 October.
W. Shack, 1987. Review of the trilogy. American Anthropologist, Vol. 89, pp. 780-81.
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