A "Black Film"? - Conflicting Readings of Local Realities in The Albanian Shpati Mountains

Abstract

The article accompaining the ethnographic film "Polyphonia-Albania's forgotten voices" by film director Biørn Reinhardt and ethnomusicologist Eckehard Pistrick, introduces an ethnographic perspective to the field of media perception studies. The convergence/divergence of the filmmakers perspective with the expectations of the villagers in Shpati, the ongoing discussion of how to represent local culture visually and aurally and the social relevance of inclusion-exclusion processes are prominent topics of the article. Its material is based on interviews after the screening of the film in April 2012 at the place where it was shot.