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Anthropomorphic expression in first-person natural history documentary
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2021) Harvey, Colleen Ruth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cindy Stillwell
This paper argues a case for the first-person mode of address in natural history documentaries to better frame anthropomorphic interpretations by the viewer and enhance the filmmaker's creative potential. Four documentaries are analyzed to illustrate how forms of narration can influence anthropomorphic effect. I will evaluate 'March of the Penguins' (United States release) and discuss how the filmmaker's use of third-person, expository narration conceals a human bias in the documentary's rhetorical construction. This narration forces anthropocentric moments onto the non-human beings that often result in 'crude anthropomorphism,' while at the same time over-generalizing the non-human animal experience and scientific knowledge. I will also discuss how first-person narration in documentaries is able to highlight the human bias of the author by allowing her or his subjective preoccupations to drive the storyline. In this manner, the first-person author brings emotional complexity to the documentary through the human subject, rather than uncontextualized human emotions projected onto the non-human animal. I will investigate the ways in which a first-person narration allows for different techniques to move between objective and subjective viewpoints to reveal current scientific knowledge about and behavioral understandings of the non-human animal. To this end, I will examine three first-person natural history works: 'Of Penguins and Men', 'My Life as a Turkey', and my documentary film 'In the Land of Sea Turtles'. I argue that the first-person authors demonstrate greater conscientiousness to truth in the storylines chosen, values asserted, and scientific claims about non-human animals than the expository authors of 'March of the Penguins'.
Directing audience attention: cinematic composition in 360 natural history films
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2021) DeHart, Clark Gabriel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert
Since cinema's creation, the standard format for viewing video content has been a flat, planar image projected onto a screen. The recent invention of the 360-film format allows for a panoramic view of a spherical visual video surface. Cinema composition is a series of aesthetic tools and processes that support a visual framework that filmmakers utilize during production. Composition choices in filmmaking help direct the audience's attention to the most important aspects of each scene. 360 formats in natural history filmmaking defy some of the conventional cinematic standards that have been in place since the early development of cinema production. These differences are due to the larger field of view in 360 filmmaking, which is created by the panoramic, equirectangular shape of 360 video. Through case studies of 360 natural history films 'My Africa', 'Expedition Everest', and my production 'You Are Here: National Parks in 360', this paper examines how the 360-film format has affected composition choices in natural history filmmaking and analyzes the 360 conventions used to direct audience attention in alternative cinema formats.
Consequences of interspecies cultural intersection in nature documentary
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2019) Samollow, David Dunham; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert
Nature Documentary films routinely center around the behaviors of animals, rarely focusing on cultural interspecies interactions with humans. Using 'Grizzly Man', 'Blackfish', 'Forty Ton Mirror', and 'The Lost Tapes of Dian Fossey', this paper explores the cultural collision of people, their expectations, and animals in both captivity and the wild. The approach each film takes will be examined and highlight the details used to reach their conclusions. With one exception, the underlying them[e] concludes that such interactions result in a detrimental outcome to both humans and animals.
The representation of mental illness in the media: the use of the nature documentary
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2019) Huetter, Abigail Esther; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert
The misrepresentation of mental illness in the media has been the norm for the last sixty years. Mental illness in film and television is portrayed as dangerous and criminal. The representations shifted to show weakness and vulnerability rather than criminality, yet these depictions still resulted in stigmatization for the mentally ill audience. Documentary filmmakers within the last decade have attempted to tackle the subject of depression and other mental health issues and provided facts and science about the illness. These films were not aimed towards mentally ill audiences; they instead attempted to educate and inform the audiences that had preconceived notions about mental illness. Although good in intention, there was still a lack of representation for authentic and honest characters on screen with mental illness. This paper argues that the form of the nature documentary is the ideal backdrop to represent mental health issues. Nature documentaries demonstrate the science behind why we feel happy while we are outside; what happens in our brain chemistry that makes us feel so good and at peace. My thesis film 'Out of the Woods' borrows elements from the nature documentary and showcases real women on screen with mental illness, in order to increase its visibility to the public eye, without triggering the viewer into reacting to a prepossessed stigma of mental illness from earlier media representations.
Experimental cinema and embodiment in nature-based video installations
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2017) Mullen, Catherine Mary; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cindy Stillwell
Nonfiction filmmakers have a variety of different approaches they can take to produce science and nature based documentaries. In my paper, I focus on a slow, experimental style of filming and editing. I stress that by using these techniques when it comes to films with the environment or animals as subject matter, filmmakers can stimulate the senses within the audience to garner a greater intellectual connection between viewer and film. I analyze 13 Lakes (2004) by James Benning and Landscape (for Manon) (1987) by Peter Hutton to illuminate specific slow, experimental techniques that also appear in my thesis film Birding Blind (2017), a three-channel video installation.
Anthropomorphic narrative : humanizing animals in factual writing and filmmaking
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2015) Bailey, Caitlin Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert
Anthropomorphism, a strategy for storytelling whereby human characteristics are applied to non-human characters, has been criticized for its anthropocentrism and tendency to misinterpret animal behaviors. Evidence suggests that anthropomorphism makes an audience more sympathetic and better able to connect with an animal character since they can metaphorically see themselves reflected in said animal. I propose that anthropomorphism needs to be analyzed in layers. In this paper I look at the first layer of anthropomorphism: anthropomorphic narration or the humanizing of animals through story. I caution against describing species as "bad", or emphasizing behaviors or characteristics that humans do not find pleasing or particularly interesting. Misrepresenting a species can lead to social stereotypes that harm its conservation potential. Finally, I explore the use of religious themes as applied to "humanized" animals. The French documentary "La Marche de l'empereuar" (2004), the graphic novel "Maus: A Survivor's Tale I" (1986), Jim Trainor's short films "The Bats" (1999) and "The Moschops" (2000), and my thesis film "Hunting the Horned Horse" (2015) are used to explore anthropomorphic narration.
The smell of cedars steeped in rain : a history of film and the national parks
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2015) Goode, Eliza Lily; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dennis Aig
The national park system reflects a defining aspect of American identity: a fundamental connection to nature. In many ways the history of the national park system is a history of American attitudes toward wilderness and nature. Art and artists have played a crucial role in that history, particularly writers, photographers, and painters. However, the nonfiction films that portray the national parks are mostly educational in nature, and too often fall short of the joyful representations that celebrated painters, writers, and photographers have created for and in the parks. I propose a less interpretive, more immersive model for national park films.
Jumping at the sun : the social construction of myself as nature filmmaker
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2014) Smith, Sarah Maigin; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias
In this essay I deconstruct myself as a science and nature filmmaker by 1) interrogating the historical forces behind my understanding of nature; 2) coming to terms with what I've learned about the subjectivity of textual experience and the constructed "objective realities" of science driven knowledge, and 3) by showing how I travel between the two in my own filmic style through a textual analysis of my thesis film 'Lucky Star'. Within this analysis I look at two films that I studied and used for inspiration - Agnes Vardas' 'Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse', 'The Gleaners and I', (2000), and Cindy Stillwell's 'Mating For Life' (2012).
Imaginative embodiment : a strategy for incorporating nonhuman agency in nature films
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2015) Roqueta, Edward Michael; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cindy Stillwell
The natural history filmmaking genre is the primary strand of documentary cinema that features narratives about wildlife, the environment, and nature issues. However, the genre has adopted storytelling and filmmaking conventions that express anthropocentrism, a hierarchical worldview that values human rationality and morality as superior to nonhuman nature. Natural history films tend to either negatively anthropomorphize animals by projecting uniquely human emotions or morals onto them (anthropomorphic error) as a way to increase view identification, or avoid anthropomorphism altogether in favor of objective human-perspective narration that depicts nonhuman nature as mechanistic and void of any creative, intentional, or active experience. In this paper I argue how imaginative embodiment, or anthropomorphizing a nonhuman with an informed and expressed attentiveness to their biology and sensory capacities, can be a useful strategy that gives agency to animals in film while committing minimal anthropomorphic error. I use the films, GREEN (2011), Bear 71 (2012), and my thesis film SUN BEAR (2015) as case studies to explore how cinematic language and voiceover narration imaginative embodiment strategies can be crafted in ways that express the point of view, intentionality, and agency of nonhuman others in an ethical manner. Imaginatively embodying an animal through cinematic language and voiceover narration allows viewers to ethically consider the moral status of a nonhuman other without having to negatively anthropomorphize them, describe them as being human like, or lose their agency and intentional stance in objectifying scientific language. An ethically important aspect of using imaginative embodiment to tell stories of the natural world is that it supports an environmental ethic that appreciates the vast entanglement of agentive life forces and helps to abolish repressive human-animal or culture-nature binaries in favor of an environmental ethic expressive of biocentric sensibilities. As the natural history genre of documentary filmmaking continues its evolution as the major media outlet representing, educating, and telling stories about nature, wildlife, and environmental issues, imaginative embodiment can be a useful tool for incorporating agentive first-person nonhuman experiences in non-fiction cinema.
A critique of the portrayal of grizzly bears in contemporary natural history films
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2005) Shier, John Walter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.
Natural History films and television programs are based on the perception that the grizzly bear is an animal that only lives, that only belongs in wilderness. These films and programs spread and strengthen this perception among audiences, compelling them to relegate grizzlies to the few parcels of land that still meet our society's definition of wilderness. The perception ensures that the grizzly's long-term survival in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is threatened; the regions wilderness areas simply don't provide enough habitat for the bears and many people are unwilling to tolerate the presence of grizzlies anywhere except wilderness. Natural history films require a new grizzly archetype if they are to have a positive impact on behalf of the grizzly. This archetype, which perceives the grizzly as an appropriate species for both wilderness and rural landscapes, must be based less on an anthrocentric perception of the grizzly and more on an ecocentric perspective.

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