The Journal of Audiovisual Ethnomusicology (JAVEM) is a newly established, bi-annual, peer-reviewed streaming journal of ethnomusicological film and video sponsored by the Society for Ethnomusicology. JAVEM aims to advance the use of multimedia as a method for exploring music and its entanglements, and as a medium for presenting those explorations.

Over the past several years, ethnomusicologists have been energized by, and are organizing around doing ethnomusicology through film and multimedia. Professional discussion groups and conferences such as The ICTM Study Group on Audiovisual Ethnomusicology and the 2018 SEM Pre-Conference Symposium: “Film as Ethnography, Activism, and Public Work in Ethnomusicology” in Bloomington are two recent examples of intense networking activity surrounding film. In addition, several new publications on this topic have garnered noteworthy attention, to include Leonardo D’Amico’s Audiovisual Ethnomusicology: Filming Musical Cultures (Peter Lang, 2020), Michael B. MacDonald’s CineWorlding: Scenes of Cinematic Research-Creation (Bloomsbury, 2021), Barley Norton’s “Filming Music as Heritage: The Cultural Politics of Audiovisual Representation,” in Musical Heritage: Musicological and Historical Perspectives, Barley Norton and Naomi Matsumoto, editors (Routledge, 2018), and Benjamin J. Harbert’s American Music Documentary: Five Case Studies of Ciné-Ethnomusicology (Wesleyan University Press, 2018). Put simply, ethnomusicologists have a renewed energy in reviving earlier cinematic work. 

JAVEM provides viable public platform for ethnomusicological films. A public-facing venue for film screenings and multimedia installations gives scholar-filmmakers opportunities to reach new audiences, engage more diverse stakeholders in research topics and issues, and partner with organizations beyond the academy. This builds a structure for peer review and scholarly engagement with current research, theoretical perspectives, and filmmaking strategies in ethnomusicology and related fields.