Cultural Anthropology As Seen in Film

Perhaps one of the most valuable tools that we have available to study Anthropolgy in recent times is film. The audio and visual recordings of cultures worldwide have been made readily available through the use of mass media. Though some might see this as "armchair" anthropology, I have found that this attitude is dismissive and obtuse.
When studying cultures and societies of the past, researchers have been incredibly limited. They must rely on oral histories and related narratives, archealogical remains, ethnographic studies of ancestors and the like. History can and is often times distorted, and only a partial view can be obtained, the accuracy of which can come into question.
Through film, interaction, daily life, rituals, habits, and cultural differences are documented clearly and precisely, leaving little room for debate. The study of the human culture and society has been made vastly more accesable through this medium. This is not to say that other forms of study are obsolete or not valuable. Before the onset of recorded visual history, in prehistoric socieites and cultures of yesteryear, we must still rely on the methods mentioned above. That is all we have, and we must embrace and cherish the work of anthropologists past, and learn from their observation and interaction. But today, film, that wonderful concrete documentation, is a tool for all who study humans, who study culture, who study society...to embrace.