Paul Julien: An Intensely Public Private Filmmaker

Paul Julien (1901–2001) was widely known for his ethnographic expeditions, particularly in Africa, between 1933 and 1962. He popularized his physical anthropological research as well as his adventures in books, radio talks, and public lectures illustrated with still and moving images. Focusing largely on Julien's film legacy, the article follows his career as a lecturer to his films and photographs on the basis of his archive (films, photos, documents, books, correspondence) as well as newspaper advertisements and reports. The article also indicates the limits of the latter source and provides contextual information on the contemporary nontheatrical film circuit in the Netherlands. Finally, it discusses a few practices and circumstances that have to be overcome in order to evaluate Julien's legacy properly: his status as an unaffiliated researcher and filmmaker/photographer; the distribution of his archive over two major heritage institutes; the composite nature of his public presentations; and the colonial infrastructure and mentality that made his expeditions possible in the first place.