“Filming Back” in siberian indigenous cinema

Abstract

This paper examines the Siberian films by Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio. It focuses on filmic means em-ployed in order to “film back” to outsider cinema. Applying film analysis as a method, it demonstrates how film form can be as political as content when used to give voice to Siberia indige-nous peoples and re-view earlier Soviet discourse of equality, integration and progress. It highlights two aesthetic strategies used by the filmmakers to “film back:” the re-appropriation of archival footage to rework the past and recredit indigenous in-dividuals; and the creation of a plural pseudo-autobiographical voice to break the Soviet monologue and embody the shared indigenous experience. Finally, it argues that looking at formal aspects helps to rethink our understanding of such notions as “talking back” and “shooting back,” often used indifferently, with the addition of the “filming back” concept, reserved to filmic issues.