CAMERA’S EYE

The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History hosted an evening tribute to renowned French ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch (1917-2004), who died this year in Niger. His techniques were critical to developing the cinema-verite aesthetic – a handheld camera style taken up by Jean-Luc Godard and other directors.

Rouch’s concept of “shared anthropology” endeavored to bring the documentarian and his subjects closer to one another, rather than viewing each other hierarchically or from a distance.

Panelists included the executive director of Documentary Educational Resources, Cynthia Close; filmmaker Ann McIntosh; an anthropology professor at New York University, Faye Ginsberg; and an anthropology and sociology professor from West Chester University, Paul Stoller.

Humorous anecdotes were told about Rouch. For example, when one asked him a question, he would reply but invariably give an answer to a different question – often, a more interesting one.

Screened that evening was a short film Rouch made of Margaret Mead. At one point, she sat in her office and Rouch asked what was visible out side the window. Mead pointed to an area where a railroad line had run in the past. The audience in the auditorium laughed when Mead said, in an aside, that America sold the scrap metal to Japan, which shot it all back to us in the war.

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ANTHROPOLOGY OF INTRODUCTIONS

A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, Clifford Geertz, delivered the ninth annual Irving Howe memorial lecture at the CUNY Graduate Center. Mr. Geertz’s topic was: “What Was the Third World Revolution?”

A professor at CUNY Graduate Center, Morris Dickstein, introduced CUNY Graduate Center’s provost, William Kelly, who introduced another CUNY Graduate Center professor, Talal Asad, who, in turn, introduced Mr. Geertz.

When Mr. Kelly’s kudos-filled introduction of Mr. Asad was far longer and more elaborate than that of Mr. Asad’s of Mr. Geertz. Mr. Asad explained that introductions are not overtly rational, otherwise the most eminent among the crowd, Mr. Geertz, would be introducing the other speakers. Mr. Asad said rather, the purpose of introductions is to honor.

The Oxford-educated Mr. Asad described Mr. Geertz among the two or three most renowned anthropologists of the last 50 years. The audience chuckled when Mr. Asad added self-effacingly, “and the other two are not me.”

After this lengthy process, the audience laughed when Mr. Geertz began by saying, “I feel well introduced.”

Among those in attendance were political philosopher Michael Walzer, who serves as co-editor of Dissent magazine; philanthropist Max Palevsky, who sponsored the lecture series, and many others.

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NEW GIFTS TO NEW SCHOOL

New School University is expanding its international programming and has received major gifts for projects relating to globalization. A $10 million grant from the Starr Foundation will establish the India China Institute. The New School’s provost, Arjun Appadurai, and the dean of its graduate faculty, Benjamin Lee, will lead the India China Institute.

An additional gift of $3.7 million dollars from the Bernard & Irene Schwartz Foundation will establish the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and endow The Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Economics and Policy.

International students now account for 22% of New School University’s degree-seeking students, who come from 109 countries around the world.

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JUDGE FOR YOURSELF

Friends and colleagues gathered in Midtown to fete Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano in celebration of his book “Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws” (Nelson Current).

At the event, Roger Ailes said of Judge Napolitano, “Whereas most people will waffle, the judge is different. No matter how wrong he is, he does not waffle.”

Publisher Thomas Nelson, founded in 1789, is among the oldest publishing houses in America. “Constitutional Chaos,” is its latest project. The book was issued under the imprint “Nelson Current,” hues closely to the motto that government is best which governs least.

The judge – a product of both Princeton and Notre Dame who loves both football and croquet- recounted a humorous jury duty story. Of all potential jurors he has known, none was so nervy as one who demanded to be dismissed by claiming to be a soothsayer. He argued long and hard that since he knew how the case would end, how could he possibly be asked to serve.

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GEHRY GIFT

At the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Holiday Bazaar held at Sotheby’s through Saturday, a bevy of gifts await auction bidding. Those who admire Frank Gehry’s buildings may welcome a checked armchair designed by the architect.

Perhaps one of the fair’s organizers would like to find the chair under her Christmas tree. One co-chair of the bazaar, Mireya D’Angelo, said, “I studied at Williams College under Tom Krens, the director of the Guggenheim Museum who hired Frank Gehry to design the famous Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in Spain, so I greatly admire the creative genius of Mr. Gehry.”

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LITERACY LAUGHS

At a party commemorating the 25th anniversary of “Fortunoff on Fifth,” the honorary chairman of Literacy Partners, Liz Smith, thanked the firm for donating $15,000 and 10% of purchase proceeds to the Literacy Partners.

“Even if you can’t read, you can still appreciate jewelry,” she said.

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KNICK-KNACKS

Poet Billy Collins was conducting research at Poets House on Spring Street and was headed later to a book party for Sharon Olds at Glucksman Ireland House at New York University …Humorist Christopher Buckley has won the 2004 Thurber Prize for American Humor. The two runners-up were Dan Zevin and Robert Kaplow… Among those in attendance at a program at the Center for Jewish History on Tuesday hosted by American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House were the consul general of Brazil, Ambassador Julio Cesar Gomes dos Santos; the deputy consul general of Brazil, George Prata; City Council member Gale Brewer; the deputy consul general of Spain, Maria Luisa Huidrobo; and the vice consul general of Turkey, Murat Omeroglu.