DOCUMENTARY | 1994

(Master’s thesis, University of Oslo, Norway)

Traveling to the East examines the background for the voyages to the voyages to the Orient in the early 20th century and aims to contribute to the discussion on representation of the Other, especially in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, and linguistics. Although the film uses the archive materials of Georg Morgenstierne (1892-1978), a well-known Norwegian linguist who specialized in Indo-Iranian languages, it does not intentionally portray his life, but rather uses him as a catalyst to explore the themes of Orientalism and Otherness.

The documentary explains and uses Edward Said’s methodology – his way of analyzing historical, philological and sociological texts – to understand the portrayal of the Oriental, the Other. Furthermore it explores the relationship between Edward Said’s Orientalism and Georg Morgenstierne’s archive materials.

Writer and Director | Nefise Özkal Lorentzen