In a small village in Tanzania, Peter Biella made an old woman cry. As he played a recording of her singing to commemorate her granddaughter's birth nearly 30 years earlier, Mama Toreto became very emotional. She had never been in contact with such technology before.

Biella, a SF State cinema alumnus and current professor of visual anthropology, traveled to many countries, photographing and filming major social issues related to small communities in underdeveloped parts of the world.

Biella has been periodically visiting a tribe in Tanzania called the Maasai since 1980. He recorded their tribulations through migration, alcoholism and high rates of HIV infection.

During his first visit to the Maasai in 1980, Biella recorded one of the tribe's wives, Mama Toreto, singing about her granddaughter's arrival.

Twenty-seven years later, he went back to the village to visit Toreto. He played the recording he had made of her decades before and while listening to herself sing as a young woman, Mama Toreto became very emotional. Biella photographed her in this state, and as a result, won first place in the American Anthropological Association's 2008 photo contest.

"I realized when I won that this was a very happy story I told," said Biella. "Anthropologists get very excited when they go back to a site and reconnect with the people who live there."

Dinah Winnick, associated managing editor of the American Anthropological Association, worked with three other committee members to choose the finalist for the photo contest.

"Biella's photo was visually engaging and portrayed an intimate relationship with the people in it," said Winnick.

Amy Goldenberg, production editor for the AAA, was another member of the judges' committee and said it was very difficult to choose a winner.

"But Peter's photo had an immediate effect on me," said Goldenberg. "It showed a lot of strong emotion, and technically it was very strong."

Biella won many awards for his films and photographs, including the American Anthropological Association's Best Short Film Award in 2006 with a documentary titled "Artes en Ayacucho" in which he traveled to Peru to help textile workers receive better pay.

"I was very moved by winning," said Biella. "I've had a long and rocky relationship with AAA."

Biella's films and photos have all been what he called "applied anthropology" in which he is not just filming a subject, but is engaged in the issue at hand and helping the subject learn and grow.

"My films in Maasai were not meant for American viewers, but actually for the Maasai, so they could learn safe-sex practices and how to lower the rates of HIV and AIDS," said Biella.

Many who know Biella, believe he is at the forefront of anthropology.

"Peter's courses at SF State are the cornerstone of both the anthropology and cinema departments," said Dr. Douglass Bailey, anthropology department chair.

Bailey hired Biella to do a film in Romania with him in late May. According to Biella, it is a film that will illustrate how the European Union has not changed village life for anyone in Romania.

In addition to traveling to Europe, Biella will be going back to Tanzania this summer to visit the Maasai. This time, he will be taking a field school from SF State. SF State's Visual Anthropology program has created the "Maasai Migrants Film Project", which allows faculty and students to meet the Maasai and produce educational films for them.

"I am doing this field study course to encourage dialogue and provide a positive educational environment capable of producing practical solutions for some of the real social problems the Maasai experience," said Biella.

Dr. Bailey acknowledged Biella's achievements through SF State and his travels. "Peter's proven success shows through his classes," said Bailey, "He is really a world leader and we are lucky to have him here."

According to Biella, anthropologists have a very difficult job of connecting the government agency and the community. "It can be difficult to put yourself in their shoes since a lot of people are resistant to AIDS messages," said Biella

Biella started his film career in the early seventies at SF State. He found himself in the middle of his documentaries with no direction or purpose. His cinema professor, John Collier Jr., encouraged Biella to combine his art interest with his documentary interest. From there, Biella incorporated anthropology into his films, with a goal to make the world a better place while still being an artist.

He graduated with his Bachelor's degree in '72 and received his Masters in Cinema in '75. After his dissertation in Tanzania and receiving his Ph.D from Temple University in Pennsylvania, Biella returned to SF State to teach in '99. Biella is a professor of anthropology, but his courses are cross-listed in both the anthropology and cinema departments.

"It's very difficult to lecture both cinema and anthropology students," said Biella, "Whichever subject I focus on more, my students want me to focus on the other."

Biella applies the same belief to his classes as he does to his films--a documentarian must care as much about his subject as he does about the technical side of the camera and editing

"You can't just turn on the camera and think about the edits later," said Biella, "I am very concentrated when I'm filming and get very worried about small movements."

"It's in my nature to think that way," said Biella, "I love making films and it's all I need."