“When moviemakers make movies about folklore, those might be movies, but will not contain folklore in their essence. When ethnographers make a movie, it might contain the folklore, but will not be a movie…”
/Jean Rouch: The Folklore Movie/

This indeed is true, except for the case when someone has diplomas from both ethnography and filmmaking. Well, my life and movies until now are proof of the latter! Already during my years at the Ballet Institute (where I majored in folk dance), I had the possibility to travel, with my mentor and others, to areas and villages where the traditional dance-events and dance-customs constituted as integral a part in people’s lives as their own handmade objects and traditional attire. A magical new world, unlike any I have seen before, opened up before me. I knew that it was not enough to wonder in awe at this world and that I needed to learn how to find my way through it in order to know it. So, I decided to get a diploma in Hungarian language and ethnography at the Eötvös Lóránt University, in order for me to be able to conduct research as a professional. While I visited countless villages as a trained ethnographer, I started to feel more and more that it is not enough for a few of us who study this, to know individual outstanding musicians or dancers, or to see traditions that span back centuries: we need to show it to as many people as we can, since these traditions are our nation’s treasures! In order for me to be able to show them in a professional manner, I applied to the Theater and Film Arts Institute’s 3-year graduate program in non-fiction moviemaking and got accepted. All the others in my grade were practicing television employees, who thought that I was in there to maintain some kind of statistical balance in admissions. I was the outsider amongst them, the minority outside the profession, who (according to them) had to be admitted. I quickly proved to them that my experiences in ethnographic field research, my ease at making contact with fellow men, my ability to communicate, my endurance and ability to improvise provide a lot of advantages during the making of a film. For both ethnographic research and the making of ethnographic documentaries, one needs immense amounts of empathy and humility. One has to be able to get other people to talk or sing about their innermost feelings or show to the stranger the customs of the community that are considered taboo; it is not an easy task, especially if the person asking the questions is a young woman! Already, as an ethnographer, I learned that I must stay determined but unseen if I want to record an event. Before I go do research – or later to film – I must do serious preparation; I must read all available material before I get to my destination place. After that comes the hardest part of the process: I have to ask and have to be able to guide the people in a manner that makes them feel that it is important for them to show and tell about their culture. I must radiate that I am seriously interested, and approach their customs – that are often looked down upon by urban folk – with good intentions. One of the greatest successes of my professional career happened in the Transylvanian village of Méra, during the “Juhbemérés” (the traditional yearly inventory of sheep and sheep-produce), on the night of the big event, when the sheep owners get together for a council, to pin down that year’s rules. Until then, no woman (except for the host’s wife) was allowed in. I was let in, and could even bring my colleagues and the cameras. Another memorable event was when we were allowed to film – against the strict regulations – during the midnight mass in the village of Sugatag in the Máramaros region of Transylvania. It is because of my attraction and respect towards old customs that I only travel with a small crew and work with a maximum of three people, persons who love this field just as much as I and on whom I can rely on personally and professionally. Making an ethnographic documentary is a huge responsibility: one must not lie, and yet has to present reality so that the audience can understand it and fall in love with the topic. It is also a responsibility, because wherever the camera appears, it involuntarily influences the life of the very people whom the movie is about.

Hédi Sztanó