The Anthropologist Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger, dirs. 81 mins. English, Russian, Sakha, Kiribati, Spanish, and Quechua with English subtitles. New York: Ironbound Films, 2015.

Abstract

The Anthropologist clearly signposts in the opening sequence what it is about, as we watch Margaret Mead's daughter Mary watching archive footage of herself with her mother; the film begins as a tale of two anthropologists' daughters, and their relationships with their mothers. Mead's daughter, Mary, remembering her mother is intercut effectively with archive footage of them both, woven throughout the film to neatly frame anthropologist Susie Crate's relationship with her teenage daughter, Katie. The latter relationship forms the bulk of the film as we follow the two of them across continents while Crate, an academic at George Mason, conducts anthropological research. Crate's daughter, Katie, is the result of Crate 'going native,' as she describes it, in Siberia. An intriguing and very human, though controversial, practice which is unfortunately just skimmed over within the film. Crate is now estranged from Katie's father and there does seem to be, judging by the expressions on Katie's face at one point, some residual resentment over her parent's relationship. But this tension is left unexamined by the filmmakers, and is surely a missed opportunity for deeper insights into their relationship. Katie talks about her identity and trying to fit into what looks like a predominantly white American neighbourhood where she lives with her mother. The film is shot over four years so we first see Katie at 14 and in the last shot she is 18, so this longitudinal filming does provide the opportunity to explore the changing relationship between mother and daughter.