John Bishop makes documentary films in folklore and anthropology, including Himalayan Herders, Hosay Trinidad, Land Where the Blues Began, and Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me: Edmund Carpenter. He archived John Marshall's Ju'hoa footage for the Smithsonian Institution and was a cameraman for part of A Kalahari Family. He teaches video and ethnographic film at UCLA in the department of World Arts and Cultures and operatesmedia-generation.com, a production and distribution company.
This film focuses on Edmund Carpenter’s pioneering role in visual anthropology and media ecology. A maverick who explored the borderlands between ethnography and media over fifty years, Carpenter looked at the revolutionary impact of film and photography on tribal peoples, He opened the Pandora’s box of electronice media with delight and horror, embracing it even as he recoiled from its…
Seasons of Migration is a dance about culture shock, and the film combines the performance with the choreographer’s and dancer’s commentary, and stories of the troubles and triumphs of Cambodians who emigrated to Long Beach, California. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro grew up in Pol Pot’s camps; as a teenager she trained as a Cambodian classical dancer, later emigrating to the United…