Reflections on a Twilight World: Ethnographic Imagination in the Movies and Marvels of Christopher Nolan

Abstract

What makes something anthropological? This thesis stems from my own fundamental belief that every story we tell—whether it be a movie, a novel, a song, a painting, or even a scientific paper—is made possible only through experience, observation, and the human need for connection. Through my passions for cinema, I examine through an anthropological perspective how people’s memories, emotions, and imaginations are necessary frameworks for achieving coherence and resonance across audiences— especially in the massively collaborative realm of filmmaking. Weaving together my ethnographic fieldwork at USC film school with a rich set of existing theory, I use the innovative, imaginative works of filmmaker Christopher Nolan to explore both ethnography and film as effective mediums for communicating experience and widening discourse across difference.