Robert Gardner (anthropologist)

Robert Grosvenor Gardner (November 5, 1925 – June 21, 2014) was an American academic, anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker who was the Director of the Film Study Center at Harvard University from 1956 to 1997. Gardner is known for his work in the field of visual anthropology and films like the National Film Registry inductee Dead Birds and Forest of Bliss. In 2011, a retrospective of his work was held at Film Forum, New York.

Biography
Gardner was the sixth child and third son, born in the home of his grandmother Isabella Stewart Gardner. He was a cousin of poet Robert Lowell.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1947, Gardner became an assistant to Thomas Whittemore at Harvard's Fogg Museum. This allowed him to travel to Anatolia, Faiyum, and London, working with Coptic textiles and restoring Byzantine art. He briefly taught medieval art and history at the College of Puget Sound in Washington state, where he studied the writings of anthropologist Ruth Benedict. Following this, he gained an MA in anthropology from Harvard. It was during his graduation period that he took part in an expedition on Kalahari Desert Bushmen, for which he took photographs, recorded films, and carried out elementary research work. In 1957 he founded The Film Study Center, a production and research unit at the Peabody Museum at Harvard, where he made documentary films till he left the center in 1997.

He lived in Cambridge, MA with his wife, psychiatrist Dr Adele Pressman, and children.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, as of 2010, gives the Harvard University's 'Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography', worth $50,000.

Screening Room
Gardner also hosted a Boston television series from 1972 to 1981 on an ABC affiliate, showcasing works by independent filmmakers, ranging from animation (Jan Lenica, Caroline Leaf, John and Faith Hubley), experimental (Hollis Frampton, Standish Lawder), and documentary film (Les Blank, Hilary Harris).

Filmography

 * Blunden Harbour (1951)
 * Dances of the Kwakiutl (1951)
 * Mark Tobey (1952)
 * The Hunters (1957)
 * Dead Birds (1963)
 * Marathon (1964)
 * The Nuer (1971)
 * Mark Tobey Abroad (1973)
 * Rivers of Sand (1973)
 * Altar of Fire (1976)
 * Deep Hearts (1981)
 * Sons of Shiva (1985)
 * Forest of Bliss (1986)
 * Ika Hands (1988)
 * Dancing With Miklos (1993)
 * Passenger (1998)
 * Scully in Malaga (1998)
 * Good to Pull (Bon a Tirer) (2000)

Related filmmakers

 * Tim Asch
 * John Marshall