UC San Diego

This thesis explores the array of fragmented histories surrounding the ancient instrument known as the jews harp, and the consequent translation of this research into a cinematic form. It seeks to enunciate the instruments basic potential for connecting seemingly disparate cultures across the world through a shared ancestry, and discusses the formal decisions employed to illustrate this potential in a visual form. The cinematic iteration engages Norway and India through a mode of observation that seeks to generate a mythical dimension of reality. Through such mechanisms as highly constructed and minimalist shots, what is arguably an ethnographic modality of documenting culture is pushed to its very limits, consequently problematizing the operation of the ethnographic gaze itself