Documentary Anthropology
Bringing Anthropological Perspectives to Prime Time
From Animal Planet’s Wild Kingdom to the History Channel’s Digging for the Truth, JWM Productions is responsible for a variety of documentary specials and educational TV series. However, owner Jason Williams started out not as a filmmaker but as a cultural anthropology graduate student at New York University. Deep into his Ph.D. research on small‐scale Polynesian societies, British‐born Williams realized that fieldwork was not for him; instead, he had become increasingly interested in film production. His advisors encouraged him to take filmmaking classes, using him as a guinea pig for a new visual anthropology department. Williams believes that film allowed him to communicate more deftly and to a much wider audience than he could in language.
After leaving academia, Williams worked for CNN and Time‐Life before founding his own production company in 1996. As an executive producer at JWM Productions, his primary role is to maintain the high quality of the company's work. He finds that his anthropological background and training provide him with a novel perspective on many issues and believes that anthropologists can see things “at a slight distance,” giving them a sensitivity to fresh avenues of interpretation. For example, an episode of Digging for the Truth on Stonehenge investigates the social and technological changes that occurred during its construction, such as the transition from stone technology to metallurgy that coincided with a dramatic increase in the size of the labor force.
Some JWM Productions projects have been important in the documentation and preservation of key artifacts. During the early months of the current war in Iraq, Williams worked with a team of National Geographic filmmakers and archaeologists to track down the treasures of Nimrud, a collection of Assyrian grave goods that many believed lost. The team was integral to the recovery of the priceless collection from a flooded room of the Central Bank of Iraq.
Jason Williams (right) discusses a scene with Lisa Ling and Don Liberatore, a submersible pilot from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. Photo credit: Priit Vesilind.
Although he no longer directs as much as he would like to, Williams is particularly excited about JWM Productions’ present work on the documentation by Odyssey Marine Exploration of the salvages of shipwrecks in the Atlantic and a documentary on Albanian families that sheltered Jews escaping from Nazi Europe during the Holocaust. The anthropological training of Williams and several of his frequent contributors ensures the production of entertaining features with interesting perspectives.