Alan Lomax, “Choreometrics and Ethnographic Filmmaking”, Filmmaker’s Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4, February . (Lomax’s seminal account of the scientific study of dance patterns was brought to my attention by Nick Ray, his friend since the s. We were sitting in Lomax’s apartment, which Nick used to borrow when the owner was away for the weekend. Drawing on the ideas of some of the writers above, I was explaining that I believed that much of the power and poetry of Nick’s films depended on their articulations of space and movement. The same is true of those of Renoir. Lomax’s insights are relevant not only to documentary and ethnographic filmmakers, but to any analysis of how films communicate their meanings and generate their impact).

Watch on MUBI → Stream on Criterion → ▶ Trailer + Save