Armila

Armila is a cinema vérité documentary film that utilizes a day-in-the-life framework to tell a story of the changing people, culture and environment in an indigenous village. The town Armila lies in the semi-autonomous Guna Yala region Panama (aka Kuna Yala, Cuna Yala and the San Blas Islands) less than five miles from the border with Colombia. Regional pride is ubiquitous, but as the people adopt Western customs, technologies and ideals, parts of their culture erode under economic and technological pressures. Armila explores the tension points between indigenous and Western culture in this community. Utilizing diptychs, it juxtaposes the dualities in the village and measures the impact of their collision on Guna society and the surrounding environment. This work provokes the viewer to consider the effects of globalization, plastic, pollution, tourism and mass media on cultures that still maintain close ties with the natural world.

Author

• Blumberg, Elliot Jacob

Language

• en

Keyword

• Panama
• Cinema vérité
• Indigenous
• Documentary film
• Kuna Yala
• Globalization

Date created

• 2014

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• New Media Photojournalism

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Sterner, Susan L

Committee Member(s)

• Sterner, Susan
• Bulisova, Gabriella
• Kleinfeld, Michael
• Turner, Tyrone
• Frankfurter, Michelle

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/qr46r099x