Anthropology Department Week: Meet Cholpon Zhanadyl

February 27, 2013

“There's a common belief among anthropologists that you must immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world in order to truly understand your own” says heroine of Scarlett Johansson in the movie she starred “The Nanny Diaries” as a perspective student applying to Anthropology department for one of the prestigious schools in New York City.

I absolutely agree with this statement! Anthropology gives different variety of understanding world around you, and importantly to open your own.

I graduated Cultural Anthropology department 2010. Since then I have worked in several International Organizations dealing mostly with regional development such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Help Age International, Rural Development Fund in various important projects. These jobs required high qualifications in understanding the society and the people, strong analytical and research skills. Basically saying, that’s where knowledge I have gained from Cultural/ Social Anthropology was used.

Anthropology is fundamental science for any other studies, so if you chose Anthropology, then you should be sure that you are learning a heart of all studies. It is a perfect combination of psychology, sociology, history, archaeology, linguistics, economy, politics and cultural studies.

During my study at the AUCA, I was interested in a very interesting branch of it - Visual Anthropology. Visual Anthropology is about presenting the world around you through the camera. It can be documentary films and photos, which are great tools to research and visualize the subject and present it to the world.  I made several documentary photo films based on my researches throughout Kyrgyzstan, some of my documentary photos were exhibited in the National Museum of Art. Consequently, I was somehow connected to the art. The art of Filmmaking.

I strongly believe that cinematography as well as visual anthropology (research) is the best tool to tell your ideas and thoughts to the audience. They illustrate socio-cultural, historical, and political issues and discover the essence of relationships, thoughts and being a human.

At the present, I am working in filmmaking industry, following my childhood passion. I continued my education at the New York Film Academy, studying Filmmaking course. I want to make my own contribution to the development of Anthropology discipline and Film Industry in Central Asian region.

Anthropology is not just a social science, but its amazingly interesting world to discover!

CholponZhanadyl

Social Anthropologist, Independent Filmmaker, Scriptwriter

Anthropology graduate ‘10

New York Film Academy graduate’12

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