This DVD is an anthology of four videos selected from an installation exhibited in Belgium in 2013 and authored by anthropologist Juan Javier Rivera Andía and filmmaker Peter Snowdon. The DVD itself is presented as the record of a video installation but it does not provide enough details of the art event in either visual or print form, which makes it difficult to imagine how the installation was presented to the public. The material was extracted from Rivera Andía’s anthropological archive comprising more than a hundred hours of recordings with the purpose of illustrating the ethnographic research he conducted in the northern Peruvian region of Lambayeque. It is a thoroughgoing attempt to make creative use of audiovisual material shot, albeit not as a documentary film, by Peter Snowdon.

The accompanying DVD booklet starts by positioning Rivera Andía as a Peruvian subject whose encounter with the unknown region is described in detail by highlighting his training in Europe and the USA and his unfamiliarity with the Quechua-speaking region of Lambayeque. Rivera Andía’s study fills a gap in existing scholarship about this understudied northern region and illustrates how anthropologists primarily interested in the study of culture stumble upon political conflicts. The conflict in question is the result of a mine project initiated by a multinational corporation in Lambayeque with the blessing of the Peruvian central and local governments. Partly as a result of this, the ethnographic methods employed during the process of gathering data pose serious questions. While the authors draw attention to these difficulties in the booklet, it is worth rehearsing them here. In particular, the modus operandi of the research team raise doubts about the impact of ethnographic research on the society studied and the validity of the study of subtopics that appear as no more incidental illustrations for the viewers. For instance, although the main field of research of this compilation is ostensibly not Musicology or Ethnomusicology, the third segment––“Of Guitars and Men”—can be useful for the study of emic terminology on musical conventions for the courtship music played with the Andean charanga. The gender attributes of this instrument (primarily masculine) indeed presume a patriarchal courtship social dynamic for the Quechua male population of Lambayeque. Yet the recording only shows interactions between the (male) researchers and the subjects. This limits the usefulness of the visual material for future research. Likewise, the editing of the clips and their selection reduces the spectrum of data that would allow deeper engagement with the material (although it undoubtedly opens up the subject for further research). It is as if unsure of whether to produce an art film or a more detached piece of film ethnography the authors struck a middle ground that meets the requirements of neither genre.

The second segment (“We Are Going to Record”) illustrates the ambiguities of the ethnographic methodology applied by the authors. Here, the focus is not the collection of fieldwork data but the preparations for a recording. In these poignant clips one notices the spirit of the old-style ethnographer deciding what should be preserved of a vulnerable group of people who suffer drastic transformations during socio-political struggles. The work of Rivera evokes the iconic picture of Frances Densmore (1867–1957) with a gramophone and a Sioux Chief. The picture was taken as part of the preservation efforts by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Her research was pioneering in its use of sound recording, the use of which she justified in terms of preserving Native American groups and traditions on the verge of extinction (Myers Reference Myers1992:3–18). Rivera Andía’s informant, an unnamed old Quechua lady, explains that she never sang without instrumental accompaniment. At the same time, she passively accepts the strict directions of the research team in front of recording equipment. These at times perplexing fragments contrast with the segment “The Blood in The Veins,” in which Snowdon mixes images of the active opposition of the Quechua community against a big Canadian copper mining corporation. In a vein reminiscent of nineteenth-century ethnography, Rivera Andía is using his work as a means to express his concern about the social situation of his informants and the urgent need to document their customs. The quality of the video and once again the editing of the material, however, make one uncertain as to whether it can effectively function as a basis for further study. Once again, the goal seems as much to preserve as to seize upon the artistic potential intrinsic in the video documentation.

A last aspect that is worth reflecting upon is the authors’ attention for and approach to gender during both the ethnography and the post-production stages. “On Guitars and Men” deals explicitly with male informants and researchers and adopts an explicitly male perspective. In fact, the male gaze is dominant throughout the four-part installation. Male informants are shown as community leaders (first and fourth segments), proficient translators and organisers of recording sessions (second segment), and playful musicians discussing sexuality and women with empathetic male interviewers (third segment). In contrast, as the male player of the charanga explicitly points out while performing the courtship song, the women are missing. This absence contrasts with the abundance of pictures of women in the DVD booklet, which can be interpreted in line with what Ching, Buckley, and Lozano-Alonso refer to as “depicting Latin America as female” (Ching 2007:4). Furthermore, some of the women in the film speak only Quechua. Yet the DVD contains no Quechua subtitles. Featuring English and Dutch subtitles only suggests that the film is intended for English and Dutch speakers in industrialised countries rather than the communities where the film was shot.

Despite its unresolved ambiguities, this interdisciplinary collaboration is very suggestive and remains the only ethnographic study to have engaged head-on with the complexities of its subject. Likewise, the installation is symptomatic of the growing commitment of academia to contemporary environmental movements led by Native American groups.