One weekend only: Presenting Gregory Bateson

The documentary “An Ecology of Mind, ” which won a Golden SpIFFy award at the just-completed Spokane International Film Festival, is playing this weekend only at the Magic Lantern Theatre . Following is the review that I did for Spokane Public Radio.

Gregory Bateson isn’t exactly a household name. Not the way Margaret Mead is, at any rate. Any beginning anthropology student knows of Mead, the pioneer cultural anthropologist whose influence on her chosen field of study was vast, wide-ranging and, as the 20 ^th century progressed, decidedly controversial.

Bateson was Mead’s third husband, the Englishman whose own resume includes not just anthropology but linguistics, philosophy, semiotics,  and, not least, cybernetics. As Bateson’s daughter, Nora Bateson, points out in her documentary “An Ecology of Mind,” Bateson’s interests and expertise were so diverse that he couldn’t be easily categorized. Thus the irony: One of the world’s great thinkers, a man who was fascinated by the interconnectedness of all things and who probed that fascination through the asking of questions rather than the posing of easy answers, is today less well known than a host of less-skilled authors, talking heads and would-be experts.

“An Ecology of Mind,” then, is Nora Bateson’s attempt to correct the historical record. At the same time, her film offers a loving portrait of a man, already in his mid-60s when she was born, whom she barely knew. It is her attempt to know better the man whom she recalls with obvious affection.

The task she took on was hardly easy. Pinning Bateson down takes a fair amount of effort. Coming up with a simple definition of, say, systems theory is one thing. Doing so in a way that educates the average filmgoer without making her film feel like a mere academic exercise is something else entirely. Yet Nora Bateson manages to do so by always keeping the man she knew at the center. By using historical film footage both of him and shot by him – remnants of the work he and Mead did in South Seas native cultures – to illustrate the points she wants to make. By interviewing a coterie of people, friends, colleagues and family, who knew Bateson best.

And by making her film itself as close to art as she could manage, blending animation with personal reflection, relating her own feelings toward her father in a way that feels like a mixture of pride, child-like joy and, yes, grief, sometimes all at once.

What becomes amply clear is that Bateson is needed today more than ever. His ability to see life from different angles runs counter to the intolerance evident in so much of what passes for contemporary public debate. In this era, which seems more and more to push individuals more toward black-and-write thinking – with any kind of larger shared truth conveniently, often intentionally, ignored – Bateson’s beliefs feel as fresh as they do refreshing.

Nora Bateson herself has written, “This film hopes to inspire its audience to see our lives within a larger system - glistening with symmetry, play, and metaphor. An invitation to ask the kinds of questions that could help thread the world back together from the inside.”

Gregory Bateson took the first steps toward such a worldwide societal reunion long before he died at age 76 in 1980. His daughter, now, in a quietly profound way, has continued the journey. It’s up to the rest of us to complete the process. Watching “An Ecology of Mind” is a good place to start.

Below : “An Ecology of Mind.”