Maybe this is a stretch. Maybe this is not what you were expecting. However, open your mind and hear me out.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, ethnography is:
I know this is speaking in general of cultures of the world, but what if we brought it down to micro level? Family. Family as the microcosm to the macrocosm of society. Families are usually comprised of people of the same race (though this may be changing more and more today) and families have cultures of their own. In our lives, our families impress upon us our first sense of culture. Even in a larger cultural context, a family still operates within its own culture, whether it is influenced by the surrounding one or not.
With this in mind, my film offers a short preview into the culture of the Villarreal Family, specifically Lalo, the family’s patriarch who they are all gathered for to celebrate his one hundredth birthday. Just a bit of background that is left out of the film, Lalo is a migrant farm worker who spent most of his life working in McAllen, Texas, which is a border town to Mexico. He spent long days in the fields and moving from town to town, and sometimes state to state in search of work. However, he and his family always returned to McAllen, and it is where he currently resides. There is a strong Chicano culture that permeates through; his family is very much proudly Mexican, but in the same token, they strongly identify as Texan.
Ethnographic film has a lot of observational elements. This film falls into that grey area as well, but its point is not necessarily to teach viewers anything about Mexican, Texan, or Chicano cultures. I feel we are often enriched in our lives when we expose ourselves to other viewpoints and other cultures, whether there is something that should be said or not. Experience the blessing of long life by viewing it vicariously through the eyes of Lalo and his family.
I think without inserting anyone’s particular voice or commentary into this short film, it allows for the me and those involved with the film to not be making any claims about a culture we ourselves are not members of. I remember when I was invited to film Lalo’s birthday, I was pleasantly surprised at how welcoming his family was. I was genuinely afraid that they would think me and the others on the crew would be making a mockery of their family, which was not our intent whatsoever. I think this is always a dilemma with ethnographic filmmaking. In addition, choosing one person to act as the representation of a group also has shortcomings. In this manner, I just want to portray a happy family that has its influences and cultural shades, but at the end of the day, is just a family like everyone else. They rejoice and love to be together too. That is something we can all find common ground over.
Ethnographic Film – Villarreal Family from Morgan Mays on Vimeo.