Margaret Mead

Active - 1972 - 2015  |   Born - Jan 1, 1901   |   Died - Jan 1, 1978   |   Genres - Culture & Society, Science & Technology [nf]

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Biography by AllMovie

Renowned U.S. anthropologist Margaret Mead shot untold amounts of film during the course of her lengthy, productive career. There is so much that approximately two-thirds of it remain uncatalogued in the U.S. Library of Congress. As with most of her studies, Mead's documentaries were ethnographic studies focused upon aspects of gender and culture in various societies. Mead became drawn to film as a means of accurately and neutrally recording data. For example, in 1936, she and her husband Gregory Bateson shot over 22,000 feet of film while recording material for a study on Balinese gesture. These films became the basis for several short educational documentaries such as A Balinese Family. Mead was a major figure in encouraging young anthropologists to use film in addition to their notebooks. The American Museum of Natural History, where Mead was curator emeritus of ethnography, put together the Margaret Mead Film Festival of ethnographic films in 1977. It was so successful that it has been put on annually ever since.