The Ethnographer

El etnógrafo

A memorable, sensitive documentary following the English anthropologist John Hillary Palmer, who lives and works with the marginalised Wichi community in rural Argentina.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.


Image gallery

  • Director-Screenwriter Ulises Rosell
  • Producer Pablo Rey
  • Argentina 2012
  • 89 mins
  • Production company Fortunato Films

John Hillary Palmer is an English anthropologist who has spent over two decades with the marginalised Wichi community in Salta, northern Argentina. He first travelled to spend time with them while working on his Oxford University doctorate and has remained with them since. Ulises Rosell’s delicate and heartfelt film follows Palmer as he works with the Wichi – campaigning, advocating, assisting, and advising. It also captures his home life with his Wichi wife Tojweya and their four young children. Anthropology here is not just a job, it’s a way of life where the personal and the political are always in dialogue. The Ethnographer is a powerful film about language, identity, political efficacy and advocacy that isn’t afraid to watch, wait and respect the customs and rhythms of the world it is trying to document.
Maria Delgado

Director statement

The Ethnographer is an intimate portrait unfolding a social conflict. Understanding the main character, empathising with his everyday life, will let us see the rest of the intercultural universe in a different light. To me, the point of view is everything and the rest of the film is imbued with the protagonist’s stance. I want my documentaries to show the exceptional things, the details. I hope that John Palmer, his life, and his family meet this requirement.
Ulises Rosell

Director biography

Born in Buenos Aires in 1970, he studied Communication at the UBA and Filmmaking at Universidad del Cine. Initially working in a triumvirate of former fellow students, with Andrés Tambornino and Rodrigo Moreno, he co-wrote and co-directed two shorts and the 2001 feature The Resting Place, which played at that year’s LFF. Solo, he has completed both documentaries and fictions for each of TV and cinema.

Filmography

1994 Aqueronte [s; co-d]
1995 Dónde y cómo Oliveira perdió a Achala [s; co-d]
2001 El descanso (The Resting Place) [co-d]; Bonanza (En vías de extinción) [doc]
2006 Sofacama (Sofabed)
2011 Los sónicos [TV]; D-Humanos [ep La Pasarela only; doc]
2012 El etnógrafo (The Ethnographer)