You thought group projects in school were tricky? Try writing a telenovela with 900 collaborators!

In this episode we talk with visual anthropologist Gina Knapp about how she worked together with villagers in highland Papua New Guinea to create a show that blended fiction with reality to tell some truths about their life. Using a collaborative process both challenging and therapeutic, "A Slice of Life" drew from over 100 hours of footage in Gina's personal archive as well as newly shot scenes acted by the villagers themselves. The group hopes to continue the series, and is looking for donations to help them shoot another nine episodes.

Watch the pilot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkMORZBPpGs

And contact Gina if you're ready to donate!

In Playing the Archive, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd dive into experimental archival research with interviews, radio plays, & more. This podcast is a part of the Second World Music project. To learn more, and find more of our dance videos, visit http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com.

Playing the Archive © 2025 by Sydney Hutchinson/Second World Music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International