Disappearing World (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The series was made available on videocassettes for educational purposes as early as 1980.
• Most of the films are held in the Royal Anthropological Institute film library.
• Episodes filmed in Mongolia during the 1970s were not distributed under the title Disappearing World at the request of the Mongolian government.

Series title

The title references salvage ethnography, and early episodes depicted societies facing major change. Later episodes covered urban, complex societies, but Granada declined to change the name. In 1980, Peter Loizos called the title "something of an albatross"; 1990s series producer David Wason noted the films more often reflect a changing world than a disappearing one.

Filming of episodes

Episodes were shot on 16 mm film over about four weeks on location, then edited at Granada over roughly three months. Each episode was made with an anthropologist who worked with the producer from the start, drawing on the anthropologist's personal relationships with the community. In the United States, some episodes were re-edited for PBS series NOVA (1974) and Odyssey (1980–1981).

History

Granada chairman Denis Forman saw an amateur Amazon film and believed well-made ethnographic films could have broad appeal. He backed a series from its director/producer Brian Moser, who trained at Granada. The series debuted in 1970 with A Clearing in the Jungle, directed by Charlie Nairn. Moser was series editor until 1977, when production went on hiatus due to disputes. It resumed in the early 1980s under a succession of editors including André Singer, Leslie Woodhead, and David Wason.

Reception

The series received unusually high ratings for a documentary and was voted the best commercial series in 1978. Anthropologists largely received it well; Gregory A. Finnegan said it brought an unprecedented wide awareness of anthropological subjects to the British public. Peter Loizos wrote that it had the most positive influence in British mass media on public views of both "primitive people" and social anthropology. It generated much writing among anthropologists about documentary film style, working conditions, and cooperation between filmmakers and anthropologists, with both positive and negative assessments. In the United States, John Corry of The New York Times called its approach a "throwback" to the old days of educational television with an "austere ethos" that lets viewers judge for themselves. After reviewing The Last of the Cuiva, Pia and David Maybury-Lewis of Cultural Survival Inc. and Harvard University recommended the film for enjoyment, awe, sorrow, and contemplation of the indigenous world, noting it tries to tell "how it was" and "how it is now."