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David Blundell, Director
Historical Ethnographer/
Filmmaker
Anthropologist David Blundell, a native of Santa Monica, California, earned his doctorate producing life-history films by, for, and with Buddhist practitioners in Sri Lanka. His work in filmmaking continues in South Asia in terms of documenting social welfare development and teaching visual anthropology. |
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Dr Blundell conducted ethnography in Sri Lanka for producing the community-made films that include The Life History of Ven. Hanchapola Gnanavansa Thero: A Buddhist Headmonk in Sri Lanka, and others in a series made by, for, and with local Sinhala Buddhist practitioners.
A recently co-produced feature film for public television is Life as Cinema about the making of Phörpa (The Cup)—a
Feature film made in India by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
His publications on this community filmmaking approach to list a few are the book Masks: Anthropology on the Sinhalese Belief System, American University Studies in Theology and Religion, VII, Vol. 88. New York: Peter Lang Publishing (1994)—this book in Sinlala language Ves Muhunu: Sinhala visvasa paddhatiya pilibanda manava vidyava. Colombo: Pinidiya Publications (1997). An article “Case Studies in Making Buddhist Independent Film: The Path, Buddhist Headmonk in Sri Lanka, and Life as Cinema,” Hsi Lai Journal of Humanistic Buddhism, 5:312-322 (2004). And presentation “Visual Anthropology: Filming by the Language of Aesthetics and Ethics in Sri Lanka,” International Conference on Visual Anthropology, “Opening to the Future,” Kunming, China (2004). |
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