Stéphane Breton (1959) is an ethnologist and documentary filmmaker. He is a specialist in Melanesia. He is a lecturer at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), where he teaches anthropology and documentary filmmaking. As part of a general anthropology of Melanesia, he has studied West Papua (Indonesian province of Papua, New Guinea Island) – wodani language and ethnography. His research interests include witchcraft, trade and currency,ethnolinguistics, body and sexuality, but also museography and image, documentary film and television.

A French non-fiction filmmaker and anthropologist (who teaches at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris), Stéphane Breton does camera work and sound recording for his films,that he shoots alone in remote parts of the world (West Papua, Kyrghyzstan, New Mexico, Nepal, and hopefully next time in Siberia), but also also in the street down the block where he lives in Paris. His films include “Them and Me” (2001), “Heaven in a Garden” (2003), “A Silent Summer” (2005), “The Outside World” (2007), “Night Rising on Clouds” (2007), “The Empty House” (2008), “Ascent to the Sky” (2009). He has published several books: The masquerade of gender (1989, anthropological essay); Rivers motionless (travelogue in New Guinea). Men appointed mist (with Jean-Louis Motte) (1991, photo album and travelogue in New Guinea).

Films screened at retrospective

Them and Me
(original title: “Eux et moi”, 63 min, 2001, France, West Papua)

Shot behind the scenes, from the point of view of a subjective camera, the film shows the ambiguous relations and negotiations of the ethnologist with the wodani people who live in the small hamlet lost in the mountains of New Guinea where he did his fieldwork.

The Empty House
(original title: “La maison vide”, 52 min, 2008, New Mexico – USA)

Shot like a western without a gun, at a drunkard’s distance, the film takes place in New Mexico (USA) among an ancient Spanish community eaten to rack and ruin by rust, beer, and dust storms.

Ascent to the Sky
(original title: “La montée au ciel”, 52 min, 2008, Nepal)

In a small valley in Nepal, at the end of a path worn out by so many feet and so many centuries, two old shepherds escape from their village to climb the mountains. Shit all around, purity of heart, bedazzlement.

Retrospective is supported by Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (EU, Regional Development Fund).