Herb Di Gioia
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Herb Di Gioia is a documentary film director who pioneered the field of "observational cinema" in his work and impacted ethnographic film making through his contributions as a teacher at Britain’s National Film and Television School. Di Gioia's films are recognized as a significant departure from the better-known works of other observational documentarians, like David and Judith MacDougall.[1]
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[edit] Work
The UCLA-educated Di Gioia was not an anthropologist by profession, but was drawn to the field by an interest in exploring the lives of ordinary people.[2] In the early 1970s, Di Gioia and his partner David Hancock became involved in the work of filmmaker Norman Miller, upon whom the National Science Foundation had bestowed a grant to produce a film series examining global ecological zones. Di Gioia and Hancock produced several films in Afghanistan which were incorporated into the Faces of Change Collection.[1]
After the death of his partner, Di Gioia focused predominantly on teaching, training anthropologists and filmmaking students at the National Film and Television School in ethnographic filmmaking. He is credited as one of the pioneers of the "observational cinema" form.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Grimshaw, Anna. (Spring 2006) Herb Di Gioia Abstract Article published in Visual Anthropology Review Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 46-59. Abstract accessed September 16, 2007.
- ^ Grimshaw, Anna. The Ethnographers Eye: Ways of Seeing in Anthropology. Cambridge UP, 129. ISBN 0521774756.
- ^ Grimshaw, Anna; Amanda Ravetz. Visualizing Anthropology. Bristol: Intellect Books, 22. ISBN 1841501123.
[edit] Filmography
- Afghan Nomads (1974)
- Afghan Village (1974)
- Naim and Jabar (1974)
- Wheat Cycle (1975)


