Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

governor ofNew Jersey, mandated special screenings ofSpielberg's film
as an antidote to racism and anti·Scmitism in her state. Viewers with little
prior interest emerged from the theatre convinced that the Holocaust 'really
bappencd'; some even express interest in reading or viewing survivor
testimony. Oac: rabbi, steeped in the historical. literary, and cinematic
representations oftile Sboah, confessed to me that, viewing Spielberg's
film, be bad wept forthe first time over the murdered Jews ofEurope and
'could finally mourn' (Horowitz: 119).
With so much mainstream anention on the film, even winning the 1993 Oscar for Best
Picture, much ofthe film's Jewishness needed 10 be subsumed within the overall
narrative, perhaps so as nOllO a1ienale a Gentile audience, or, following the implications
of Radner and Lanser, to avoid encouraging anti-Semitic anacks. For the Jewish
audiences ofSchindler's List, the film's Jewishness emerged beyond the apparenl conlent.
CONCLUSION
An ethnography of seeing is ultimately an anaI)1ical approach. ralher than a purely
descriptive one; yet 1M anributes through ....nich one examines the popular films ofa
pankular group need 10 be ethnographically delennined.
Karl Heider. in his invesligation ofme -ethnographic film", noted that such a
creature did not actually exist as a bounded category (Heider: 3). Likewise, when looking
for Jewish cinema. I discovered that it too .....as an imaginary bounded category, Heider
recommended that. instead of looking for those films which fell either inside or outside
this non-existent categOT)'. one examined the ethnographicness ofcinema - in his
pwview. what one could learn about an ethnographic topic by looking at a specific film
286