Ethnological Film Fund of the National Museum of Georgia – an outstanding collection of visual anthropology

The Documentary Film Fund of the National Museum of Georgia has an excellent collection of visual anthropology. The work on the films was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. Older films (from the 1920s and 1940s–1950s) are still stored in the fund. Films were created as a result of expeditions by the National Museum of Georgia. This case was led by Mirian Khutsishvili. Many wellknown Georgian scientists (V. Bardavelidze, T. Ochiauri, and L. Chilashvili) were involved in the work of the expeditions and then inthe production of films. The following films are currently preserved in the fund: "Tusheti," "Khevsureti," "Pshavi," "Mtiulet-Gudamakari," "Tianeti," and "Shrovetide in Georgia." Mountain regions are also covered by the film "In the Footsteps of the Caucasus Pass Railway," in which, in addition to the mountainous corners of Georgia, Ingushetia is also recorded, which is kept in the fund as a separate film under the name "Ingushetia." In addition, the fund preserves a large amount of unedited material, a large part of which is not included in the above-mentioned finished films. This unedited material is about other ethnographic parts of Georgia (Kartli, Kakheti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi). The material recorded in the films of the National Museum Film Fund allows us to travel clearly into the past. The footage is interesting for an ordinary citizen and very important for a student who is studying the profession of ethnologist or anthropologist. The material is valuable to scientists as well. Almost all the nuances of the lives of the mountaineers of Eastern Georgia in the 1960s and 1970s of the last century are shown in the films. Shots and stories make it easier for us to perceive the Georgian ethnographic reality and help us to understand well the works of relevant Georgian scientific and ethnological content.