Dead Birds

Gardner’s 1961 expedition to Netherlands New Guinea (now West Papua) to film the Dani people (also known as the Hubula) resulted in the much-debated, influential ethnographic film Dead Birds, which explores the ritual warfare between villages and raises questions about the role of violence in society and culture. For Gardner, “It was an attempt to see people from within and to wonder, when the selected fragments of that life were assembled, if they might speak not only of the Dani but also of ourselves.” Fred Camper noted, “The poet Robert Lowell wrote of ‘the guilty significance of what it tells us about ourselves’—but the film has been justly criticized for the way its controlling narration reduces the images to illustrations.”

In the final years of his life, Gardner began to edit footage shot on that expedition. After his death, the editing was completed by Olivia Wyatt, and soundtracks were constructed by Ernst Karel from sound recordings taken by Michael Rockefeller during the expedition. This project inspired Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati’s film Expedition Content, which screens on Wednesday, March 8. We are delighted to present a selection of these short films of the Hubula people and their environment at both programs.