New arenas for small media: towards an ethnological exploration of family cinema

the advent of cheap, user friendly, video technology has created a huge revolution in representational agency. videos are now made by production units that are at times comprised of families, churches, music groups, community associations or individuals. in this way, videos produced and distributed within local and atypical networks profoundly shape contemporary imaginaries. this article is an analysis of the so called family cinema phenomenon that is still peripheral in ethnological research. the analysis of experiences of "family film archives", a recognized field of studies for historical sciences, shows for example how these media become "memories" of events for families and individuals. this article will address the importance of field-based research on how "local videos" are produced from an economic, political and aesthetic perspective. this can be a key strategy for understanding how imaginaries are "locally produced" and how they relate to global narratives.