RAI Film Admin

#deaftravel: Deaf Tourism in Bali 2021 110'

Disability Futures Directed by Erin Moriarty Jorn Rijckaert .

An ethnographic film that explores the experiences of deaf tourists who visited Bali in the summer of 2018. The tourists from Europe, the USA, and India joined tours guided by two deaf tour guides,

18 Feet 2015 77'

Directed by Renjith Kuzhur .

Karinthalakoottam is an indigenous band that propagates the music of soul to connect people with a sense of historic resolution. 18 feet symbolizes the holy distance dalits, the downtrodden, were to

The 18-Year-Old Assembly Line 2016 30'

Directed by Luojunnan Yin .

We happened to make friends with this group of factory workers in the "post-90s" generation while we were working on another projects. We were quite fascinated by many things that we

ABU 2017 80'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Arshad Khan .

Arshad always knew he was different. Soon after emigrating from Pakistan to Canada with his family, Arshad realized he was gay. With Abu, Arshad tells his own story self discovery at a cultural

AWAKE, A Dream from Standing Rock 2017 89'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Josh Fox James Spione Myron Dewey .

The native-led resistance to the construction of a pipeline across the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota, captured the world’s attention. Awake tells the story of the defiant Water

About Love on a Small Island 2018 26'

Directed by Elaheh Habibi .

The film About Love on a Small Island is a participatory and reflexive ethnographic film exploring the meaning of love among a Sunni Muslim community in an Iranian village on Qeshm Island. Following

After Prayers 2018 61'

Directed by Simone Mestroni .

The story of Kashmir's conflict narrated through various life stories.

After the Silence 2018 28'

Material Culture Directed by Natalie Cubides-Brady .

An affecting portrait of a small town on the Magdalena River in Colombia during Day of the Dead, exploring the spiritual impact of the forced disappearances that became endemic during the nation’s

All Eyez on Me! 2021 30'

Shorts Directed by Robert Weijs .

Over a period of 15 years, the filmmaker visits the Loita Maasai in Kenya, becoming close friends with brothers Lenaai and Matinkoi. Lenaai, aware of how the outside world looks at the Maasai,

All God's Children 2022 67'

Werbner Award Directed by Robert Lemelson Chisako Yokoyama Adair .

Well over half a million children in Indonesia are on the autism spectrum and have varying difficulty with social interaction and communication. Idris is a nonverbal autistic boy living in rural Java

Ama-san 2016 113'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Cláudia Varejão .

A dive, the noon sunlight cuts through the water. The air in both lungs will have to be enough to rip the abalone from the rocks at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With no aid from air tanks or any

Amazonimations 2018 7'

Shorts Directed by Camilla Morelli Sophie Marsh .

A compilation of three animated films written, voiced and illustrated by the Matses people of the Amazon rainforest, on the Peru-Brazil frontier. Made in collaboration with an indigenous artist, a

Andrè Singer in conversation '

Talks
.

Animation 2023 60'

Special Programmes
Animation .

Screening online 3-31 March, and at Watershed (Bristol, UK) 25 March, 17:00-18:00

Anshan Diaries 2022 27'

Student Directed by Xiuzhi Dong .

Director Charles Xiuzhi Dong uses real family life as its backdrop. Casting his grandpa he investigates and retraces his family saga spanning three decades of Chinese post-cultural revolution history.

Anthropology, Creative Practice and Ethnography '

Talks
.

Anti-Racist Documentary Filmmaking Workshop '

Talks
Convened by Elena Guzman Miasarah Lai .

This workshop offers fundamental strategies for anti-racist documentary storytelling from concept to production. The need for anti-racist filmmaking has reverberated throughout the film industry with

Arandu - Listen to the Weather 2023 '

Special Programmes
.

A curated programme streaming online 3-31 March 2023. Click here to buy an online festival pass. Live in Bristol 22-25 March 2023. At ICA (London), Sunday 19 March 2023, 18:15 The aim of ARANDU -

The Archipelago 2015 41'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Benjamin Huguet .

The Faroe Islands: a remote group of islands, battered by the ever-changing weather patterns of the North Atlantic. For centuries, the Faroese have lived proudly off the natural resources that

Archival resources and Ethnographic Film '

Workshop
Convened by Caterina Sartori .

This session brings together archivists and professionals who are involved in the preservation, cataloguing and digitisation of archival film and photographic material; and artists and ethnographers

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay 2023 '

Special Programmes
.

The Art Of Moving 2016 88'

Directed by Liliana Marinho de Sousa .

Daya Al-Taseh, a video activist group made up of 4 Syrian friends, are producing anti-ISIS satirical videos in Gaziantep, a city in south-eastern Turkey. Despite being threatened, the group doesn’t

The Art of Andrew Omoding 2016 9'

Directed by Trevor H. J. Marchand .

Andrew Omoding is a Ugandan-British artist. Andrew enters into partnership with his materials, allowing their sensible properties to guide his exploratory gestures and fingerwork. In stitching and

Artists’ Films and Ethnography '

Workshop
Convened by Marko Ray Wilkinson Al Cameron Barbara Knorpp .

Practitioners of ethnography and art have crossed paths multiple times in the 20th and 21st centuries - sometimes viewing each other with enthusiasm, sometimes suspicion. This programme consists

As Aye, 2022 26'

Student Directed by Sam Kenyon .

As Aye, is a fragment of correspondence with author and storyteller, Jess Smith, and with the ‘absent presence’ of Scottish Travellers in the archive and the landscape. Drawing on the memory and

Authors at the Festival & Reception '

Gala event
Convened by Paul Henley .

A number of authors attending the Festival will present their books in the course of a Drinks Reception to which all Festival pass holders are cordially invited. Copies of the books will also be

Awards Ceremony 120'

Gala event
Convened by Royal Anthropological Institute .

Join us to close the 16th RAI Film Festival as we announce the winners of this year's prizes and awards.

BE' JAM BE the never ending song 2017 85'

Directed by Cyprien Ponson Caroline Parietti .

In Sarawak (Borneo), “the ones who live upstream” are the first affected by deforestation. The Penan, (ex) nomadic hunters, must figure out how to go on living when one’s entire world is being

BROKEN SKIN 2018 24'

Directed by Lidija Burcak .

An emotionally charged poetic encounter between the filmmaker and other psoriasis sufferers, exploring skin as a metaphor of strength, belief, belonging and alienation.

Ballad for Syria 2017 49'

Directed by Eda Elif Tibet Maisa Al Hafez .

A musical documentary about Maisa Alhafez, a musician and a Syrian refugee living in Istanbul. Separated from many of her loved ones, she builds a multicultural community: “The Oriental Istanbul Mosaic Choir”.

Bariz (Paris) Street Camp Days 2020 69'

Werbner Award Directed by Nicolas Jaoul .

Summer 2015. La Chapelle neighbourhood, Paris. Hundreds of exiled people from East Africa survive on the streets, chased violently by the police, yet seeking to defend their rights as asylum seekers.

Bath People 2015 60'

Special Interest Directed by Stefania Bona Francesca Scalisi .

A small red-brick building carrying a big neon sign: "bagni". This is the last public baths in a city where everybody can take a shower in their own home. It is a microcosm of people's

Batusha's House 2016 70'

Directed by Tino Glimmann Jan Gollob .

KADRI BATUSHA has been building his tremendous house in the outskirts of Prishtina (Kosovo) for 15 years without any plans or permits. The architecture of this enormous building, with its towers,

Bearing 2021 29'

Shorts Directed by Rosie Reed Hillman .

The everyday frustrations, heartache and joy of early motherhood are revealed through intimate, observational vignettes, offering a frank and raw account of the filmmaker’s life as a new mum over

Beats of the Antonov 2014 68'

Global Racialisations Directed by Hajooj Kuka .

Sudan has been in an almost constant state of civil war since it achieved independence in 1956, and it split into a pair of sovereign states in 2011. On the border between the two, Russian-made

Belle River 2022 11'

Shorts Directed by Guillaume Fournier Samuel Matteau Yannick Nolin .

It is 2019. Spring flooding in Mississippi hits record highs. In Louisiana, the residents of Pierre-Part are preparing for the worst. Barring an unexpected turn of events, local authorities will soon

Between Islam and the Sacred Forest 2017 52'

Directed by Martin Gruber Frank Seidel .

An investigation into the rituals in a small village on the coast of Guinea, West Africa to commemorate a recently deceased woman (a Muslim celebration of the 40th day after death conducted by a

Between Jirina and Anna 2015 5'

Directed by Tereza Stehlikova .

My grandmother Jirina explains the history of a traditional costume that her own mother made. As Jirina's great granddaughter Anna tries the dress on, assisted by her own mother and grandmother, the

Beyond Life - Cooling and Cleansing, in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 2018 25'

Directed by Frode Storaas Knut Chr. Myhre Myhre .

On the rural slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a young man takes his own life, leaving a wife and small children behind. On the third day after his burial, a ceremony is conducted to cool and cleanse the

Beyond observation '

Talks
.

Beyond observation: A history of authorship in ethnographic film. A discussion with Paul Henley. More than just introducing the best in new ethnographic films, the RAI FILM Festival also aims to take

Bill Reid Remembers 2021 24'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida

Biographies of Struggle 2015 43'

Directed by Matteo Saltalippi Greca Campus .

Biographies of Struggle is a documentary analysing the longest steelworkers' strike in Italy since the last wave of labour unrest in the 80s. The Terni ThyssenKrupp factory threatened by 550 job cuts

Bonfires 2017 6'

Shorts Directed by Martin Bureau .

Huge bonfires are lit by Protestants in Northern Ireland on July 12 each year, as part of the celebrations of the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. They are made from wooden pallets, tires, and garbage. To

The Book of the Sea 2018 85'

Material Culture Directed by Aleksei Vakhrushev .

An intimate look inside day-to-day life on the frozen fringe of the Bering Strait in Russia, home to the Inuit and Chukchi. We follow community leader Alexei, his wife Galya (a nurse) and their son

The Bride of the Nile 2015 63'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Edouard Mills-Affif .

A secluded village in the Nile Delta, a traditional Egyptian family. A drama of tragic proportions is being played out. Like millions of young girls throughout the world, Heba must marry a man that

Bridging the Gap 2021 7'

Animation Directed by Nina Ross Meg Barrett .

Aged 18, Meg started hearing a voice. She tried ignoring it, didn’t tell a soul, yet the voice grew. More abusive, more delusional and often completely out of her control. Eventually, her paranoia

Broken Gods 2019 42'

Werbner Award Directed by Dakxinkumar Bajrange (Chhara) Alice Tilche .

Set among the Rathava and Bhil Adivasi communities of western India, Broken Gods documents the social impact of Hindu religious evangelism among India’s Indigenous groups. As Indigenous people join

Cantadoras: Musical Memories of Life and Death in Colombia 2017 70'

Intangible Culture Directed by María Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez .

A portrait of life in rural Colombia, towards its Carribean coast, told through the words and songs of the resilient Afro-colombian singers that farm there. Through intimate interviews and the

Cara Romero: Following the Light 2022 27'

Shorts Directed by Kaela Waldstein .

An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX.

Careers in Ethnographic Film '

Workshop
Convened by Ed Owles .

What do people do with a degree in visual anthropology? A panel from a variety of roles across academia, TV and independent filmmaking discuss their career paths and how their training in

Carnival King of Europe '

Workshop
Convened by Giovanni Kezich .

European winter festival masquerades possess a number of common elements - relating to character and content as well as structure - that are astonishingly similar across great geographical distances,

Centenary of Jean Rouch '

Gala event
Convened by Paul Henley .

After a brief introduction to the work of Jean Rouch, there will be a screening of one of his major works, "Moi, un Noir". This will be followed by a Round Table discussion and Q&A,

The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters 2022 85'

Werbner Award Directed by Catalina Tesar Dana Bunescu .

In a traditional Transylvanian Roma community, boys alone inherit the family’s badge, the tahtais (chalices), silver cups that come from their ancestors. As a result, couples often resort to sex

Changa Revisited 2016 60'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Peter Biella Leonard Kamerling .

This is the story of Tanzania Maasai elder Toreto ole Koisenge and his passage through three decades of cultural and economic change. Seen from two points across a thirty year divide, the film uses

Chasing Houses 2017 60'

Directed by Justin Time .

The experimental road movie enters the contradictory space between home and mobility. Through the vastness of the US American West, CHASING HOUSES follows mobile homes on their journey from tear down

Chasing Shadows 2019 70'

Werbner Award Directed by Roger Canals .

This film is an intimate portrait of the Kyangyang prophetic movement in Guinea-Bissau. The members of the movement communicate with their ancestors, who transmit messages from the high God through

The Chateau 2018 113'

Directed by Lisbet Holtedahl .

A portrait of one of the richest Cameroonian industrialists Al Hajji Mohamadou Ousmanou Abbo. Filmed over a period of more than ten years, the red thread of the story is the construction of Al

Chosen People 2016 18'

Directed by Qihui Wu .

Responding to systematic racism and historical erasure, the African diapora has developed a multitude of tactics for mitigating oppressive ideological conditions. Among them, the Hebrew Israelite

Christmas at Moose Factory 1971 13'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

This lyrical short documentary marked the directorial debut of legendary Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin. Filmed at a residential school in northern Ontario, it is composed entirely of drawings by

The Chronotopes of Palestine 2015 38'

Directed by Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek .

The Chronotopes of Palestine (38’) is a collection of five ethnographic short films, which explore different modes of remembering the homeland among three generations of exiled Polish and British

The Cinema Travellers 2016 96'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Shirley Abraham Amit Madheshiya .

An affectionate but melancholy ode to a vanishing phenomenon in rural India: the travelling cinema. The huge projector has been repaired countless times by its ingenious operator. The tent and screen

Closing Reception & Awards Ceremony '

Gala event
Convened by Paul Henley .

Steven Hughes, chair of the panel of judges will invite his fellow judges to announce the 2017 film prizes and to give a brief explanation of the reasons for their decision. After each prize

A Cobra 2016 19'

Directed by Carlos Sautchuk .

What we call Amazonia is actually a diversity of environments, artifacts, actions and actors. These elements are in a constant relation of genesis, producing each other in particular places and

Concrete Sea 2021 15'

Shorts Directed by Julia Naidin .

As an exercise of resistance, Sônia follows the process of destruction caused by the sea, which day by day, advances into the beach and approaches her home. She makes daily records of this process

Cornershop Beats 2022 8'

Shorts Directed by Bassam Al-Khaled Abdel Malek Al Ali Saja Awad .

In a family run grocery shop in Saida, Lebanon a father and son try to make their dreams come true.

Cracks 2018 54'

Directed by Dimitra Kofti .

Shiny supermarkets stand next to dilapidated factory buildings in the Bulgarian city of Pernik, one of the Balkans once most important industrial areas. Pernik used to be a symbol of

Creative Mentorship - Session 1 105'

Forum
Convened by Caterina Sartori .

This special event provides a chance to glimpse exciting new ethnographic film projects in the making. In these sessions, filmmakers will pitch their projects and share a short extract from their

Creative Mentorship - Session 2 105'

Forum
Convened by RAI Film Festival .

A chance to glimpse exciting new ethnographic film projects in the making. In these sessions, filmmakers will pitch their projects and share a short extract from their works-in-progress. They will

Cruces 2020 23'

Student Directed by Carlos Tobon Franco .

An immersive expedition throughout the geographies and stories composing the Latin American journey to reach US soil. By weaving together oral histories and the landscape, the film is structured to

Cycles 2022 9'

Shorts Directed by Nisreen Hazineh Anas Al Sheikh Shawki Al Hallak .

We have fallen and are trying to stand. We keep on going… The world keeps spinning and we spin along with it in search for our daily bread in the current economic situation. We have become like the

Damiana Kryygi 2015 94'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Alejandro Fernández Mouján .

The year is 1896. In the Paraguayan forest, a three-year-old Aché girl survives the massacre of her family by white settlers. She is baptised 'Damiana' by her captors. At the age of 14, she is

David MacDougall 2023 90'

Special Programmes
.

This conversation will take place on Monday 6 March 2023 10:00 - 11:30, UK time, online. It will be live streamed here. Click here to buy a Full Festival Pass for entry to all the festival’s

Death of the One who Knows 2020 82'

Werbner Award Directed by Dana Rappoport .

In the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Indonesia), Lumbaa is one of the last masters of ritual speech. After his forced conversion to Pentecostalism, he is compelled to stop all his ritual activity and

Decolonising the Archive shorts #1 70'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Rethinking how collections are made and remembered

Decolonising the Archive shorts #2 73'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Rethinking how collections are made and remembered

A Delicate Weave 2017 61'

Intangible Culture Directed by Anjali Monteiro KP Jayasankar .

A fascinating tapestry of four different musical journeys across Gujarat, India: we meet a group of young men in Bhujodi who meet every night to sing the verses of 15th-century Indian mystic and poet

Desterro Guarani 2011 38'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Vincent Carelli Ernesto de Carvalho Patrícia Ferreira Ariel Duarte Ortega .

The Mbya-Guarani’s history of contact and expulsion from the land. As Ariel Ortega thinks about the history of contact of the Myba-Guarani, he tries to understand how his people got expelled from

The Devil and the Holy Water 2016 12'

Directed by Diego Maria Malara .

For centuries, exorcism has been a daily practice in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. But as Ethiopia has undergone extensive social change, exorcism has been revolutionized. New problems produce new

Disability Futures 2023 '

Special Programmes
.

Don’t miss the plenary session with Anneleis Kusters and Erin Moriarty: Birth of a genre: Re-framing language in deaf ethnographic film

Dreaming The Memories of Now 2018 92'

Directed by Geska Helena Brečević Robert Brečević .

Journeying into the mythical space of southern Mexico, visual artists Geska and Robert Brecevic and their five-year old daughter Katja unearth complex stories in which time, memory and nostalgia are

Drokpa 2016 79'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Yan Chun Su .

Drokpa is an intimate portrait of the lives and struggles of nomads on the eastern Tibetan plateau. With rare access to a small community of nomads living on the vast yet rapidly degrading

Duende 2022 27'

Student Directed by Lucia Barrenetxea Lopez .

Duende takes us through one of the most awaited festivals in Granada, Spain: Easter week. Duende is an intimate, unexpected tale of an encounter with the afterlife, a series of miracles that can only

Dust 2016 44'

Material Culture Directed by Deepak Tolange .

Every winter, thousands of Nepalis and Indians migrate to various parts of Nepal to work in brick factories. Many of these labourers are children who drop out of school, engage in hard labour and

The Eagle Huntress 2016 87'

Special Interest Directed by Otto Bell .

Aishol-pan, a 13-year-old girl, trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down

Eid AI-Fitr 2015 70'

Directed by Xiangchen Liu .

Kirghiz people in western China celebrate the end of Ramadan with religious ceremonies, meals and other activities.

Elder sister 2017 96'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Zheng Long .

From the 1970s, the "family planning" policies of the Chinese state limited its citizens to having one child. These policies are well-known. Lesser known are the smaller stories of how

Elder's Corner 2020 96'

Music Docs Directed by Siji Awoyinka .

From the colourful, celebratory sounds of Juju to the politicized urgency of Afrobeat, Nigerian musicians have spearheaded some of Africa's most prominent musical movements. For over a decade,

Employment Office 2015 74'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Anne Schiltz Charlotte Grégoire .

An office interior, a row of desks, people facing each other. This is where unemployed people come to meet with their advisers. What is at stake are their benefit payments. Here everyone has to abide

The Enemy: a Partisan Hymnbook 2015 80'

Directed by Federico Spinetti .

A gunshot echoes from 1944, leading Italian post-punk musician Massimo Zamboni to uncover his family’s past. Long after the break-up of C.S.I., the historic band that he co-founded, Zamboni calls

Engaging Media Worlds [NYU] '

Talks
.

Engaging/Empowering Image-Voices '

Conference
Convened by Raminder Kaur Mariagiulia Grassilli .

How can anthropologists and filmmakers engage with and empower marginalised individuals and communities? Since the 1950s, ethnographic filmmakers and theorists have advocated for participatory

Entretejido 2015 33'

Directed by Patricia Alvarez .

Peruvian alpaca wool is a material of significance among Andean highland communities and their rich textile traditions. Within global fashion worlds, it is considered a luxurious material,

Eoha 2015 22'

Intangible Culture Directed by Vladimir Perovic .

In a timeless rocky mountain landscape evoking the time of Creation, a shepherd communicates with his goats and sheep. Twenty or so different cries, screams, chirps, babbles, mumbles, whispers,

Ernesto, gracias 2022 71'

Main Competition Directed by Laura Ángel .

From her intimate gaze, Laura portrays her brother Ernesto and the dilemmas surrounding autism. Liliana, their mother, has carried the burden of a complex motherhood. Laura is afraid to repeat her mother’s story.

Ethnographic Film and Mental Health: Transformations and Impact '

Workshop
Convened by Mike Poltorak .

This interactive workshop explores the challenges and possibilities that emerge when visual anthropologists engage with ideas and experiences associated with mental health – and, in particular,

Ethnographic Film in the Marketplace '

Forum
Convened by André Singer .

This Forum will consider the distribution of films of an anthropological nature to broad general and international audiences as well as within the academic sphere. Chaired by André Singer, President

Even When I Fall 2017 95'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Kate McLarnon Sky Neal .

Sheetal and Saraswoti met as teenagers in a Kathmandu refuge, both survivors of child trafficking to Indian circuses. They had been rescued and brought back across the border to Nepal- but what does

An Extraordinary Wedding: Marriage and Modernity in Highlands, Papua New Guinea 2018 55'

Directed by Rosita Henry Daniela Vavrova .

An Extraordinary Wedding is a film about contemporary marital exchanges in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The film presents the complex relationships entangled in a web of bridewealth

The Eye Begins in The Hand 2022 16'

Shorts Directed by Yehuda Sharim .

El Ojo Comienza En La Mano is a tribute to campesino histories in rural California through the artwork of an artist largely absent from critical conversations on Chicanx art, Ruben A. Sanchez, as

The Face Behind the Mask 2015 54'

Intangible Culture Directed by Nirmal Chander Dandriyal .

Weaving between past and present, performances and daily routine, this film focuses on the life and struggle of Shashadhar Acharya, a member of the fifth generation of a family of traditional Chhau

Fad'jal (Safi Faye Special Focus) 1979 112'

Special Interest Directed by Safi Faye .

The work of pioneering Senegalese filmmaker and ethnologist Safi Faye is the subject of our Special Focus at the 16th RAI Film Festival. In Fad'jal, Faye tells the story of a Serer village in the

A Family Portrait 2022 5'

Student Directed by Shubham Sharma .

“After finding a family portrait on my phone one evening in Germany, I felt a longing for my hometown. I wanted to make a film about it. But how can you talk about your family portrait without

The Family and the Animals 2015 15'

Directed by Jacob Hesmondhalgh Marie-Josephine Hobson .

Sunrise to set. An ethnographic film, using no subtitles or narration to depict and illustrate the co-existence of a rural Zimbabwean family and their animals.

Father's Prescription 2017 11'

Shorts Directed by Enke Huang .

A personal exploration of traditional Chinese medicine that considers the importance of its sensory qualities. Huang vividly recalls the extreme bitter taste and smell of the teas consumed by her

The Feel of History 2017 29'

Directed by Lise Zurné .

Each year, on the 1st of March, a historical society called the Komunitas Djokjakarta 1945 re-enacts one of the last battles with the Dutch colonizers of 1949 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Following

A Feeling Greater Than Love 2017 93'

Directed by Mary Jirmanus .

In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba deals with a forgotten revolution, saving from oblivion bloodily suppressed strikes at Lebanese tobacco and Gandour chocolate factories. These events from

Film, Identity and Nation-Building '

Workshop
Convened by Jeremy MacClancy .

This workshop will consist of two presentations that query the relations between film, identity, and nation-building. They will interrogate the connections between an ever-developing technology, a

Filmmaking for Fieldwork '

Talks
.

Fire Mouth 2017 9'

Shorts Directed by Luciano Pérez Fernández .

A film about a football match in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil, in which we see none of the action, or even a single player. We only catch glimpses of the fans as they bake, rather sluggishly,

Fireball '

Lifetime Achievement .

The Five Breakfasts of Mr Podgoretsky 2016 21'

Directed by Carl Rowlinson .

In the shadow of Brexit an expat is deported from a country that he has made his home over the last 50 years. This documentary asks what it means to make a country a home.

Five Faces of Shiva 2018 60'

Directed by R.A. Fedde .

Five Faces of Shiva follows the rise and fall of the popularity of Hindu god lithographs, arguably India’s first mass media. Lithography — a printing technique which allowed for highly detailed

Floating Raft 2018 29'

Directed by Zhang Chong .

Floating Raft takes an observational look at the life of a vibrant Chinese Buddhist monk Shi Yanyi and his Buddhist brothers, in Los Angeles. The Shaolin Temple is famous for its 1500-year Buddhist

Flores, little Jamaica 2017 49'

Directed by Maude Katz .

The fact that a type of music specific to one place could touch a distant listener has always intrigued me. When I met young people of my generation who were fans of reggae music at Flores, a small

The Forgotten Generation 2015 40'

Directed by Deepa Dhanraj .

In the Forgotten Generation older people aged over 60 in urban Tamil Nadu, rural Rajasthan and tribal Maharashtra reveal the realities of their lives, relationships and work as well as their

Forms of Care 2022 7'

Animation Directed by Charlotte Kühlbrandt Maayan L. Matz .

A stop-motion animation following the story of a mundane death, and the forms of care that accompany it. The script is taken verbatim from an interview conducted as part of an ethnographic research

From Ikpeng children to the world 2001 35'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Kumaré Ikpeng Karané Ikpeng Natuyu Yuwipo Txicão .

A video letter from four Ikpeng children introducing their village, in response to the children of the Sierra Maestra in Cuba. With grace and lightness they show their families, their games, their

The Future of Work? 2022 21'

Student Directed by Yihao Yan .

Digital nomads are a highly mobile group of people who travel while working. Digital nomadism is considered a utopian life and a liberation from sedentary society, but it can also become a privilege.

Gali (Street) 2017 52'

Directed by Shabani Hassanwalia Samreen Farooqui .

Gali, delves into a world of hip-hop in Delhi, a community that role-plays participation, as well as, dissent, against a mainstream that continues to exclude them. The documentary catches them in

Gambote 2022 24'

Shorts Directed by Sofia Bensadon .

The clay mountains of the Chuquiago Valley are transformed into brick every day on the outskirts of La Paz City, Bolivia. Irineo and Rosa grind the clay, mould, dry, and burn the bricks every day, in

The George Brandt Lecture - An Open Conversation with Hugh Brody '

Gala event
Convened by Jacqueline Maingard Angela Piccini .

The RAI Life Achievement Award, which has been given at a number of RAI Film Festivals since 1990, has been awarded in 2017 to anthropologist, filmmaker and writer Hugh Brody. In collaboration with

Global Racialisations shorts 57'

Shorts Programme
Shorts Convened by Mahdi Fleifel .

Global racialisations - Q&A with directors '

Talks
.

Got High With Only One Day Singing 2015 33'

Directed by Meng Ziwei .

Huaer sing the oldest and most renowned folk songs in Gansu Province, China.

The Granary of Salcete 2017 37'

Directed by Vince Costa .

Curtorim is located on the banks of the river Zuari, in Goa, India. The people of this village have over centuries built a bond with rice, so profoundly that it earned the village the title of

Green River. The time of the Yakurunas 2017 70'

Directed by Alvaro Sarmiento Diego Sarmiento .

Guided by ayahuasca chants, GREEN RIVER. THE TIME OF THE YAKURUNAS is a poetic journey into the depths of the Amazon. The film explores the perception of time in three small villages intertwined by

Gringo Trails 2013 79'

Special Interest Directed by Pegi Vail .

For many the tourist pathway across South America, Africa and Asia known as the “gringo trail” offers life-altering adventures. For host nations, it offers financial security. But this trail

Guardians of the Night 2018 17'

Shorts Directed by Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier Eleonora Diamanti .

A survey of the happenings in Guantánamo, Cuba during nighttime. We see neighbourhood watchmen on lonely streets, bustling crowds of revellers in illuminated squares, families as they relax at home

Guru, a Hijra Family 2016 75'

Directed by Laurie Colson Axelle Le Dauphin .

Guru documents the work and daily life of a family of hijras in a small village in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. Silky, Mahima, Trisha, Durga, Kuyili, Priyanka, Vasundhara and Yamuna,

Gushegu Exile 2017 52'

Directed by Emil Nørgaard Munk .

In the shadow of a tree Salamatu separates pebbles from the beans she has found at the local market square. Nighttime is coming and her children are hungry. Gmanun is packing 14 years of life in

Gyalmu's House 2016 18'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Asmita Shrish Gavin Carver .

In 2015 an earthquake shook the mountains of the Langtang Valley, Nepal, causing landslides and avalanches taking hundreds of lives from the small community. A year later Nima Gyalmu, a woman of

H is for Harry 2018 81'

Directed by Ed Owles Jaime Taylor .

A coming of age story about Harry, a charismatic 11-year old boy, who arrives at secondary school in suburban London unable to read or write. With the help of Sophie, his extremely dedicated teacher,

Half Elf 2020 64'

Main Competition Directed by Jón Bjarki Magnússon .

A lighthouse keeper prepares his earthly funeral while trying to reconnect the elf within. Hulda and Trausti have shared a roof on Icelandic shores for over seventy years. Her love of books is

The Healer and the Psychiatrist 2019 74'

Werbner Award Directed by Mike Poltorak .

This film explores the tensions, contradictions, and resonances between traditional and psychiatric treatment in the South Pacific Island group of Vava’u. We meet two main characters: the

Heartbound 2018 90'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Janus Metz Sine Plambech .

In a small, wind-swept fishing community on the Northern coast of Denmark live 926 Thai-women. 25 years ago there were none. Heartbound is a unique study of this unprecedented network of Thai/Danish

Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair 2021 29'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

As the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Senator Murray Sinclair was a key figure in raising global awareness of the atrocities of Canada’s residential school system. With

Honouring Professor Stephen Nugent '

Conference
Convened by Renato Athias .

Professor Stephen Nugent, a major figure in the field of Visual Anthropology, passed away in November 2018. At Goldsmiths, Steve set up the pioneering MA in Visual Anthropology, and more recently

How to Save a Dead Friend 2022 103'

Main Competition Directed by Marusya Syroechkovskaya .

Muzzled by the increasingly autocratic regime of the “Depression Federation”, 16-year-old Marusya decides to join her generations’ suicide statistics by year’s end. Then she meets Kimi and a

I (heart) Jack Lalanne: A Cartoon Memoir 2022 14'

Animation Directed by LeAnn Erickson .

The filmmaker, a lesbian, feminist baby boomer, shares her coming out story with the help of exercise guru Jack LaLanne. Combining animation with the written memoir, I (heart) Jack LaLanne pushes the

I Am Belmaya 2020 80'

Main Competition Directed by Sue Carpenter .

Belmaya is desperate for independence. Born a dalit in Nepal, orphaned aged 9, barely educated, and trapped in an abusive marriage with a baby daughter, Belmaya, 21, has given up hope of finding

I Am the World 2022 9'

Shorts Directed by Che Applewhaite .

A speculative documentary that explores how an archive of networked moving images, featuring famed ballroom hosts Selvin “MC Debra” Mizrahi and Kelly Gorgeous Gucci, enables worldly ways of seeing.

I am Sheriff 2017 28'

Directed by Teboho Edkins .

“I am Sheriff” follows a young man as he travels the mountain kingdom of Lesotho showing his film in remote villages, schools and communities. Sheriff was born with a girl’s body, but as the

I've already become an image 2008 32'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Zezinho Yube .

A group of Hunikui men tell of the five ages that mark their most recent past: from ‘the time of the Indian lodge’, to first contact with the Nawá, the non-Indian people who came looking for

Imagine(ing) migration '

Talks
.

Imagine(ing) migration. The aesthetics of borders and resistance [SOAS]. What is migration? Is this the “age of migration”? What is diaspora? What challenges do diasporic communities bring to

In the Devil's Garden 2018 25'

Directed by Pavel Borecký .

The film situates the viewer within the makeshift space of an animal market in Algeria. Drifting between feeding and waiting, one attunes to the bodies of goats and camels, the oldest companions of

In Search of Bidesia 2019 65'

Music Docs Directed by Simit Bhagat .

In the Indian language of Bhojpuri the name ‘Bidesia’ refers to a person who has migrated to a foreign land. However, Bidesia is also the name of a genre of Bhojpuri folk music, which reflects

In Search... 2018 90'

Main Competition Directed by Beryl Magoko .

As a young girl growing up in a rural village in Kenya, Beryl thought that all women in the world have to be “circumcised” by going through Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) at a young

The Intelligent Hand 2015 21'

Directed by Trevor H. J. Marchand .

The Intelligent Hand introduces us to a first-year cohort of British fine woodwork trainees at the Building Crafts College in Stratford, East London. Through the narratives of the course tutor and

Interactive Documentary and Ethnographic Film '

Workshop
Convened by Judith Aston Paolo Favero .

This workshop will aim to generate a constructive dialogue between innovative or emerging non-linear (or interactive) documentary practices and the terrain of ethnographic film. It will be structured

The Intersection 2021 30'

Shorts Directed by Daniel Quintanilla Jessamine Irwin .

Cecile reconnects with the French of her childhood, thanks to recently-arrived Franco-African immigrants, like Trésor, seeking asylum in Cecile’s hometown of Lewiston, Maine. Cecile’s Franco

Istanbul Notes 2016 69'

Directed by Özlem Sariyildiz Yunus Emre Aydin .

‘Istanbul Makamı’ is a cinematographic improvisation with 5 musicians from abroad who fall in love with the Maqam Music (Classical Ottoman Music) and decide to live in Turkey believing that

J. C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer 2016 55'

Intangible Culture Directed by Steven Feld .

This film presents an exceptional fifty-year artistic career, from Accra’s streets to Ghana’s villages to international TV. In fifteen delightful puppet shows, Mr. Abbey chronicles Ghana's music

Janitzio its fishing, its pinatas 2015 31'

Directed by Jose Figueroa Paola Rodriguez David Figueroa Omar Foglio .

Since the 80s around 250 Purepecha families settled in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. They traveled more than 2,500 miles from Janitzio island, where they were fishermen and weavers of nets,

The Jerusalem Dream 2016 54'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Meni Elias .

In the late 1970s, after thousands of years of praying and longing for Jerusalem, the first Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel. Was it worth it? in this film the question is posed for the first time

The Jiama Paper of Bai With My Heart 2016 21'

Directed by He Zi Jian Li .

Traditional Jiama imprinted paper production in the Bai cultural region, southwest China, presented through the experiences of one particular family.

John Baily Masterclass - Afghan Music '

Masterclass
Convened by Barley Norton .

In this revelatory masterclass John Baily will trace his ‘career’ as an ethnomusicological film maker, starting with the films he made as a result of research in Herat, Afghanistan, in the 1970s:

Journey to the Maggot Feeder 2015 68'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Liivo Niglas Priit Tender .

This film tries to solve the mystery of a bizarre Arctic fairy tale. Priit Tender, an Estonian animator, makes a film about an old Chukchi legend – The Maggot Feeder. The unconventional narrative

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance 1993 119'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines

Kashi Labh 2018 43'

Directed by Rajat Nayyar .

This film explores the aesthetics of dying, family as a unit of care, and taking the last vital breath in Kashi, India’s sacred city. With Kashi Labh, Nayyar reflects upon his work with families

Kat Cizek 2023 90'

Special Programmes
.

This conversation is taking place online on Friday 10 March 2023 17:00 - 18:30, UK time, online. This event will be live streamed on https://www.facebook.com/raifilmfest Why co-create – and why

Keynote by Faye Ginsburg '

Talks
.

Indigenous Media and Archival Imaginaries This talk considers archives created by Indigenous mediamakers who, over the last three decades, have produced an astonishing array of work -- from

Keynote by Stephanie Spray '

Talks
.

Stephanie Spray, Director, Center for Visual Anthropology at USC Dornsife, Los Angeles, USA. She is a filmmaker, phonographer, and anthropologist whose work explores and exploits the poetics of

Khayyam in Bushehr 2021 56'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Yasin Mohammadi .

Khayyam in Bushehr highlights the life story of those who show their passion and joy for life by chanting Omar Khayyam’s poems with music and dance.

Kim Longinotto 120'

Gala event
Convened by Angela Piccini .

This year, the RAI Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded in 2019 to multi award winning filmmaker Kim Longinotto. Marking this occasion, Longinotto will give the 2019 George Brandt Lecture at a

King On, Brasil! 2018 15'

Special Interest Directed by Luiza Folegatti .

King On, Brasil! is a short documentary featuring six Brazilian Drag Kings and their use of social media to share their work, knowledge and performances which in turn strengthen their community. The

The King of the Cockroaches 2016 70'

Student Directed by Timothy Cooper .

The degraded surfaces of mass-copied films - the glitches, scanlines, errors, and coding artifacts - rather than the filmmaker’s imprint, reveal the material culture and social life of film

Kisêdjê Manifesto 2012 11'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Kamikia P.T. Kisedje .

Kisêdjê women’s manifesto against deforestation and river pollution. Filmmaker Kamikia Kisêdjê and the Kisêdjê Cinema Collective decided to send a message from their people to the United

Kivalina 2016 64'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Gina Abatemarco .

More than a hundred miles above the Arctic Circle, an Inupiaq Eskimo community is living on an island that is fast disappearing into the ocean. With no resources to move and only a precarious sea

Kokota: The Islet of Hope 2015 29'

Directed by Craig Norris .

Mbarouk Mussa Omar is from an East African Island called Pemba. Nearly ten years ago he visited a tiny neighbouring islet called Kokota and was shocked by what he saw. Kokota was teetering towards

La Nave 2021 52'

Main Competition Directed by Carlos Maria Romero .

Colombian artist and first-time filmmaker Carlos Maria Romero (aka Atabey Mamasita), translates the meaning and spirit of Carnaval de Barranquilla during a year in which gatherings were forbidden.

La Tumba Mambi 2022 28'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier DJ Jigüe .

As a result of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), many French settlers travelled to Eastern Cuba with their slaves to escape the revolt. The Tumba Francesa Societies, known as a brotherhood and a

Lampedusa in Winter 2015 93'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Jakob Brossmann .

The Italian "refugee island" of Lampedusa is in the firm grip of winter's tristesse. The tourists have left, the remaining refugees fight to be taken to the mainland. As a fire destroys the

The Land Beneath Our Feet 2016 60'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Sarita Siegel Gregg Mitman .

The Land Beneath Our Feet weaves together rare archival footage from a 1926 Harvard expedition to Liberia with the journey of a young Liberian man, uprooted by war, seeking to understand how the past

Last Days. Last Shot 2016 52'

Directed by Sumira Roy .

In ancient Eastern thought, there are no absolute truths and even in death there is no one model. Through the film’s two characters and their simple acts of daily life we explore two contrasting

Last Round of Jaldi Five 2017 26'

Directed by Ellen Lapper .

2017 marked seventy years since the decolonisation and Partition of India, sparking one of the largest mass migrations in history. One particular community uprooted by this event were the

Legacies 2018 34'

Student Directed by Clair Maleney .

The pioneering approach of Jubilee School in West Philadelphia seeks to empower its students (mainly black, and from low-income households), via a curriculum which highlights the arts, social

Let Him Fly 2021 29'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan .

Let Him Fly draws on footage shot over eight years to lyrically document the rise and exponential growth of the Delhi hip hop scene. The film spotlights some of the most influential artists on the

La forma del mundo 2017 88'

Directed by David Delgado San Ginés .

A sound is born from the root of the earth. Those are the voices that sing for the animas of Purgatory. Every year for centuries los Cantadores de Arbejales, in the misty mountains of the island of

The Life of Others 2017 45'

Directed by Robert McNamara .

The film is a compilation of scenes from Kazakh Mongolian life outside of Bayan Olgii in Western Mongolia. It was made during a one month period where I lived with and filmed a group of families

Limpiadores 2015 39'

Directed by Fernando Mitjáns .

Migrating is seldom an easy solution. It is rather a journey that begins with a journey. After more than eight years of campaigning, the immigrant cleaners outsourced at the School of Oriental and

The Lindisfarne Causeway 2022 20'

Student Directed by Sammy-Lena Stasse .

The Lindisfarne Causeway is a road that disappears into the sea twice a day. The filmmaker uses boredom and daydreaming as a method to get to know this place. A poetic world of tarmac silence,

Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege 2021 89'

Main Competition Directed by Abdallah Al-Khatib .

During the Syrian civil war, Yarmouk, a district of Damascus where thousands of Palestinians are refugees, was the site of fierce fighting. Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege is a filmed diary that

Living Here 2017 16'

Shorts Directed by Sarah Baril Gaudet .

In Aupaluk, Northern Quebec, a small cluster of primary coloured buildings cluster amidst the blinding white tundra. We are introduced to the tiny town (population 200, mainly Inuit) by a thoughtful

MASTER FENG, TAOIST MONK IN CHINA TODAY 2018 72'

Directed by Adeline HERROU .

This ethnographical film paints the portrait of a Taoist monk in central China. Forced to return to a lay life during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he was sent to work in the fields for 15th

Maboan - notes on the construction of a dam 2015 25'

Directed by Ana Luísa Luz Joana Sousa Zaino Zauad Ansomane Dabo Braima Indjai .

The colonial military offensive and consequent population exile during the Independence Struggle in Guinea-Bissau (1963-1974) led to the destruction of many mangrove rice fields. In every corner of

MacDougall Masterclass - Turkana Conversations Revisited '

Masterclass
Convened by Michael Stewart .

Marking 40 years since its original release as well as its more recent digital remastering, David MacDougall will present the classic trilogy he made with his wife Judith on the Turkana pastoralists

Mahdi Fleifel Trilogy 103'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Affects and Imaginaries of Racialisation

Making It as Embroiderers 2022 10'

Student Directed by Rachel Schaetzel Barber .

In the Tsotsil and Tseltal communities in Chiapas, Mexico, weaving and embroidering has traditionally been women’s work, practised in the home and made to be used by the family. As global demand

Making a Living in the Dry Season 2016 35'

Directed by Ines Ponte .

Set in the highlands village of Katuwo, the film is an intimate portrait of the day-to-day life of a family living in an agro-pastoralist farm in Namibe, Angola. Through my request to my host

Masterclass: Laurent Van Lancker 105'

Masterclass
Convened by Chris Wright .

This year's RAI Film Festival Masterclass will be delivered by award-winning filmmaker Laurent Van Lancker, in conversation with Chris Wright. Van Lancker won the Basil Wright Prize at the RAI

Midnight Ramblers 2017 57'

Directed by Julian Ballester .

Night after night, Kye, Tobie, Paul, Kim and Tattoo wander through the streets and alleys of Montreal. They support each other, and they are all drug users. It is their only way of escaping a harsh

Migrants of ther Dunes 2017 28'

Directed by Erica Pomerance .

The dramatic sanding-over of arable land caused by climate change now threatens the very survival of many ancestral Dogon communities along the magestic Bandiagara Cliffs in Mali. The Dogon people

Milano Milanovaç (with Make a Silence) 2021 49'

Music Docs Directed by Elisa Piria .

The film follows the life of Kristina, an extraordinary Serbian professional violinist. Music is everything in her family, any time is good for playing and everyone plays a musical instrument. But

A Miscellany of Families 2015 36'

Directed by Eluned Zoe Aiano .

This multi-layered documentary explores the way we navigate the stories that are presented to us during childhood and how we choose to pass them on through ideological influences and shifting values.

Mobail Goroka 2018 17'

Shorts Directed by Jackie Kauli .

Glossy advertisements for telecommunications company Digicel abound in Goroka, a town in Papua New Guinea’s eastern highlands. This film takes a close look at the footsoldiers of this multinational

The Modern Jungle 2016 72'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Charles Fairbanks .

The Modern Jungle is a portrait of globalization filtered through the fever dream of its main character – a Mexican shaman, don Juan – who falls under the spell of a pyramid-scheme-marketed

Mossane (Safi Faye Special Focus) 1996 105'

Special Interest Directed by Safi Faye .

The work of pioneering Senegalese filmmaker and ethnologist Safi Faye is the subject of our Special Focus at the 16th RAI Film Festival. Mossane is one of her greatest achievements, and we present

Mother of Many Children 1977 57'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

In her first feature-length documentary Alanis Obomsawin honours the central place of women and mothers within Indigenous cultures. An album of Indigenous womanhood, the film portrays proud

Mount Currie Summer Camp 1975 5'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

In a series of playful portraits, Stl’atl’imx (Líl̓wat) children and young people go about their daily duties at the community’s summer camp outside Mount Currie, B.C. Infused with a sense of

Muir ar n-Athraichean (Our Fathers’ Sea) '

Talks
.

Filmmaker Alastair Cole and anthropologist Magnus Course in conversation around the questions posed by their award-winning short film Muir ar n-Athreaichean (Our Fathers’ Sea). The film’s

My Name is Eeooow 2016 52'

Intangible Culture Directed by Oinam Doren .

Imagine a village where you sing every time you call someone's name. In the village of Kongthong, everybody has a song tune as a name - the 'Jingrwai Iawbei'. The name comes from a mother as an

NEW RISE, OLD EBB 2018 28'

Directed by Carlo Cubero Enrico Barone Kristiina Pilvet .

In 2016 from May to September, on the island of Piirissaare, a series of fires destroyed several houses and the prayer house, causing insecurities and disagreements in the community.

NHENHA 2018 26'

Student Directed by Andre Bahule Karen Boswall .

“We work the land and we dance. That’s what we know how to do” explains Maria in this portrait of the lives of three generations of women in southern Mozambique. The dance they dance is the

Naach Bhikhari Naach 2018 72'

Directed by Shilpi Gulati Jainendra Dost .

Naach is a form of traditional folk theatre from Bihar, India. In this tradition, male artists often cross dress as women on stage and are referred to as ‘laundas’. The most legendary name in

Negotiating Amnesia 2015 30'

Directed by Alessandra Ferrini .

Negotiating Amnesia takes as its starting point two collections of photographs found within the Alinari's photographic Archive in Florence (Italy): a series of black and white images of the Ethiopian

Never Hold Your Breath 2016 34'

Directed by Gil Orr Urtreger .

Utila is a tiny island in the Western Caribbean, part of the Republic of Honduras. It is a mixed community established in the 1800s by Caymans, outlaws and former slaves. We arrive as travelers and

New Moon 2018 70'

Directed by Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann .

.See less NICHE African, Islamic, Developing Nations, Women

Nhanderu Bicycles 2011 48'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Ariel Duarte Ortega Patricia Ferreira .

An immersion in the everyday spirituality of the Mbya-Guarani of Koenju village, in São Miguel das Missões in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This film is part of Arandu: Listen to the Weather, a

Nicobar, a long way... 2016 60'

Directed by Richa Hushing .

Deep in the Bay of Bengal, the Nicobar archipelago, a tribal reserve protected under Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, was worst smashed by the Tsunami of 26th December

Niishii | Night Worlds 2017 22'

Student Directed by Saranya Nayak .

What happens to a town after sunset? What happens to life and light? Niishii is an evocative tour through the night time hours in the town of Dubrajpur (West Bengal, India). Here, amidst inky

Nobody Dies Here 2016 23'

Directed by Simon Panay .

Perma gold mine, Benin. Some dream to find something, others realized there was nothing to be found. Some dig relentlessly hoping to become rich, others died in the process. And a few of them say that here, nobody dies.

North Circular 2022 85'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Luke McManus .

Travelling the length of Dublin’s fabled North Circular Road, this documentary musical evokes narratives from the history of the city and nation, from colonialism, to mental health, to the struggle

Not in my Neighbourhood 2018 86'

Global Racialisations Directed by Kurt Orderson .

As cities around the world catapult themselves into ‘world-class city status’, we have to ask ourselves, “at what cost”? This film tells the intergenerational stories of spatial violence in

Nyumba Nthobu 2016 15'

Directed by Nick Lunch .

This film was made by a group of women from the Mara region, North Tanzania, who practise an old tradition called Nyumba Nthobu, by which childless (or lonely) women known as ‘Mamas’ can legally

OTHER FIRE 2017 21'

Directed by Guilherme Moura Fagundes .

A sensorial record of affinity and enmity relationships with fire in the conservation of the Cerrado biome. In the company is locals, hired to act as brigadiers and, more recently, as management

Of Love & Law 2017 94'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Hikaru Toda .

Fumi and Kazu are partners in love and law; they run the first law firm in Japan set up by an openly gay couple. As lawyers driven by their own experience of being outsiders, they attract a

Ojò Igbì (with Gũlā) 2020 60'

Music Docs Directed by Daniele Ferreira João Carlos Couto .

The ritual cycle of the Waters of Oxalá is one of the most important ceremonies of candomblé in Brazil. After days of preparation, the sons and daughters of the saint gather to cultivate and relive

The Olive Pickers 2020 51'

Werbner Award Directed by Toni de Bromhead .

Once Upon a Village 2021 60'

Main Competition Directed by Srishti Lakhera .

Semla is a ghost village in the Himalayan foothills. The fifty families that once lived there have migrated to the city, leaving behind seven people. With this migration, livelihood connected to the

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk 2019 113'

Main Competition Directed by Zacharias Kunuk .

In April 1961, John Kennedy is America’s new President, the Cold War heats up in Berlin and nuclear bombers are deployed from bases in arctic Canada. In Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, Noah

Opening Night Screening: Edge of the Knife 2018 100'

Special Interest Directed by Gwaai Edenshaw Helen Haig-Brown .

We are delighted to open the 16th RAI Film Festival with Edge of the Knife, the recipient of this year's President's Medal. Edge of the Knife is the first feature film in the endangered Haida

Ophir 2020 97'

Main Competition Directed by Alexandre Berman Olivier Pollet .

This is a collaborative story of the civil war and ongoing struggle for sovereignty in Bougainville Island in the face of an all-too-familiar pattern of colonial rule and corporate mining interests.

The Order of Things 2022 72'

Werbner Award Directed by Ramona Badescu Jeff Silva .

At the ripe age of 90 years old, Alexandru gardens, jokes, and continues to repair watches in the workshop opened by his father in 1909 in southern Romania. But what is invisible to everyone, and

Our Freedom 2017 52'

Material Culture Directed by Laura Kuen Yury Snigirev .

The inhabitants of the village of Pungino live mostly beyond the reach of the Russian state. Here, in this remote rural location, they create their own sphere of personal freedom. This film explores

Our People Will Be Healed 2017 97'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

The landmark 50th film for Alanis Obomsawin reveals how a Cree community in Manitoba has turned to education as part of their efforts of community healing cultural revival. The Helen Betty Osborne

Our spirits keep coming 2021 15'

Shorts Directed by Ariel Ortega Bruno Huyer .

In Tekoa Ko’ẽju, Pará Yxapy, a Mbya Guarani indigenous woman is dedicated to the first moments of care towards her child, who lies in her womb, and, along with her relatives, ponders about the

Out Swing 2021 26'

Shorts Directed by Samar Minallah Khan .

On the outskirts of Islamabad, a committed coach teaches a team of unlikely players, their families, and a community, how playing cricket can change lives.

Oyate 2019 72'

Main Competition Directed by Dan Girmus .

This carefully observed film is composed of a series of moments, feelings, gestures, and events that took place on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota during the summer of 2015. The narrative,

P01: Rethinking fieldwork '

Conference
Convened by Maruska Svasek .

P02a: Crisis, creativity and ethics '

Conference
Convened by Timothy Cooper Till J F Trojer .

P02b: Crisis, creativity and ethics '

Conference
Convened by Timothy Cooper Till J F Trojer .

P03: Existential crisis, exceptional fields '

Conference
.

P04: Rethinking anthropological film distribution '

Conference
Convened by Christos Varvantakis Sanderien Verstappen .

P05a: The crisis of communication '

Conference
Convened by Federica Manfredi Lucia Portis .

P05b: The crisis of communication '

Conference
Convened by Federica Manfredi Lucia Portis .

P06a: Worker’s precarity: audio-visual representations of resistance '

Conference
Convened by Lana Askari Paloma Yáñez Serrano Jose Luis Fajardo-Escoffie .

P06b: Worker’s precarity: audio-visual representations of resistance '

Conference
Convened by Lana Askari Paloma Serrano Jose Luis Fajardo-Escoffie .

P07: Critical play: Smartphones as a mode of creative engagement with crisis '

Conference
Convened by Sanderien Verstappen Mark Westmoreland .

P08a: Mask: the Face of Covid-19 '

Conference
Convened by Felicia Hughes-Freeland Cathy Greenhalgh .

P08b: Mask: the Face of Covid-19 '

Conference
Convened by Felicia Hughes-Freeland Cathy Greenhalgh .

P08c: Mask: the Face of Covid-19 '

Conference
Convened by Felicia Hughes-Freeland Cathy Greenhalgh .

P09: Together for Mental Health '

Conference
Convened by Erminia Colucci .

P10: Housing loss and insecurity '

Conference
Convened by Caterina Sartori .

P11: Social movements, protest, social justice & creativity '

Conference
Convened by José Sherwood .

P12a: Immersive Ethnography '

Conference
Convened by Rossella Schillaci Mark Westmoreland .

P12b: Immersive Ethnography '

Conference
Convened by Rossella Schillaci Mark Westmoreland .

P13: Our pandemic lives: photographing the pandemic '

Conference
Convened by Caroline Bennett .

P14: Co-agitō ergo sum '

Conference
Convened by César Enrique Giraldo Herrera .

P15: Quality and equality in collaborative projects '

Conference
Convened by Arjang Omrani Kris Rutten .

P16a: Global Black Lives Matter '

Conference
Convened by Raminder Kaur Mariagiulia Grassilli .

P16b: Global Black Lives Matter '

Conference
Convened by Raminder Kaur Mariagiulia Grassilli .

P16c: Global Black Lives Matter '

Conference
Convened by Raminder Kaur Mariagiulia Grassilli .

P17: Workshop: Radical inclusivity and visual ethnography '

Conference
Convened by Mike Poltorak .

P18: Chronotopes during crisis '

Conference
Convened by Alastair Lomas Charlotte Hoskins Andrea Bordoli .

P19: The future of Visual Anthropology in the wake of Black Lives Matter '

Conference
Convened by Judith Aston Shawn Sobers .

P20: Big mouth '

Conference
Convened by Nomi Dave Bremen Donovan .

P21: Crisis through comics: a roundtable discussion on graphic anthropology '

Conference
Convened by Letizia Bonanno José Sherwood .

P22: Rhythm, sight and sound: work in times of uncertainty '

Conference
Convened by Sandro Simon Valerie Haensch Ian M. Cook .

P23a: Disappearing world reloaded '

Conference
Convened by Blake P Kendall Pavel Borecký .

P23b: Disappearing world reloaded '

Conference
Convened by Blake P Kendall Pavel Borecký .

P23c: Disappearing world reloaded '

Conference
Convened by Blake P Kendall Pavel Borecký .

P24: Encountering reality as crisis '

Conference
Convened by Toma Peiu Luiza Parvu .

P25: Between academic theory-building and social engagement '

Conference
Convened by Henrike Neuhaus Yanina Carpentieri .

P26a: Empirical art '

Conference
Convened by Andy Lawrence Martha-Cecilia Dietrich Angélica Cabezas Pino .

P26b: Empirical art '

Conference
Convened by Andy Lawrence Martha-Cecilia Dietrich Angélica Cabezas Pino .

P26c: Empirical art '

Conference
Convened by Andy Lawrence Martha-Cecilia Dietrich Angélica Cabezas Pino .

P26d: Empirical art '

Conference
Convened by Andy Lawrence Martha-Cecilia Dietrich Angélica Cabezas Pino .

P27a: Colonial Film Archives '

Conference
Convened by Jacqueline Maingard Emma Sandon .

P27b: Colonial Film Archives '

Conference
Convened by Jacqueline Maingard Emma Sandon .

P27c: Colonial Film Archives '

Conference
Convened by Jacqueline Maingard Emma Sandon .

Paltik Families 2016 60'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Jason Fox Roel Arcilla .

Set in the ten days leading up to mayoral elections in Danao, Philippines, Paltik Families follows the Arcillas, a family engaged in an illegal network of counterfeit American gun manufacturers, an

Panel 01: Indigenous Cinema: past, present and future 90'

Conference
Convened by Renato Athias Rodrigo Lacerda .

Full title - Indigenous Cinema: past, present and future Indigenous cinema is a very diverse and global category with more than fifty years of history. The panel seeks submissions to analyze the

Panel 02: How to frame a poem in a film with others? 90'

Conference
Convened by Roseline Lambert Rachel McCrum .

Full title - How to frame a poem in a film with others? Experiences of translation between different langages, poems, pictures and borders This panel aims to discuss the realisation of film-poems

Panel 03: Precarious landscapes (Part I) 90'

Conference
Convened by Toma Peiu .

Full title: Precarious landscapes: forensics and decolonial futures This panel will be discussing the practicalities and ethics of producing images and sound in vulnerable landscapes. Work coming

Panel 03: Precarious landscapes (Part II) 90'

Conference
Convened by Toma Peiu .

Full title- Precarious landscapes: forensics and decolonial futures This panel will be discussing the practicalities and ethics of producing images and sound in vulnerable landscapes. Work coming

Panel 04: Indigenous California 90'

Conference
Convened by Teri Brewer Sue Giles Wendy Teeter .

Full title- Indigenous California: A Forum on Collaborative Archaeological and Ethnographic Visual Media Projects In recent years there have been an increasing number of productive visual media

Panel 05: Haptics and Visual Anthropology 90'

Conference
Convened by Aparna Sharma Arine Kirstein Høgel .

Full title - Haptics and Visual Anthropology: Audio-Visual Dialogues and Non-Verbal Forms of Knowledge Construction In this workshop, filmmakers and researchers Sharma and Høgel explore how

Panel 06: Expanding Ethnographic Film: Multimodality? 90'

Conference
Convened by Mark Westmoreland Janine Prins .

This panel seeks to investigate the expansion of ethnographic film practices in cases where a combination of different practice-based methodologies led to a multimodal approach. To what extent does

Panel 07: From the Field to the Screen (Part I) 90'

Conference
Convened by Angélica Cabezas Pino Mattia Fumanti .

Full title - From the Field to the Screen: Reflexive Practices and Collaborative Methods in Ethnographic Film. This panel includes contributions from visual anthropologists and filmmakers of

Panel 07: From the Field to the Screen (Part II) 90'

Conference
Convened by Angélica Cabezas Pino Mattia Fumanti .

Full title - From the Field to the Screen: Reflexive Practices and Collaborative Methods in Ethnographic Film This panel includes contributions from visual anthropologists and filmmakers of

Panel 08: Golden Wing, Silver Wings 90'

Conference
Convened by Gary Seaman Zhuang Kongshao .

Full title - Golden Wing, Silver Wings: Filmic representations of the autobiographical ethnography of Lin Yueh-hwa This panel will focus on the legacy of the famous Chinese anthropologist Lin

Panel 09: We Three: Apparatus, Subject, Society (Part I) 90'

Conference
Convened by Timothy P. A. Cooper Vindhya Buthpitiya .

Departing from the tripartite relationship between apparatus, subject, and society this panel invites reflection on issues of exclusion, consent, cinephobia, cinephilia, censorship, archival

Panel 09: We Three: Apparatus, Subject, Society (Part II) 90'

Conference
Convened by Timothy P. A. Cooper Vindhya Buthpitiya .

Departing from the tripartite relationship between apparatus, subject, and society this panel invites reflection on issues of exclusion, consent, cinephobia, cinephilia, censorship, archival

Panel 10: Youth-centred frames (Part I) 90'

Conference
Convened by Camilla Morelli Flavia Kremer .

Full title - Youth-centred frames: visual collaborations and participatory techniques in the research with young people This panel explores the use of participatory visual methods (film-making

Panel 10: Youth-centred frames (Part II) 90'

Conference
Convened by Camilla Morelli Flavia Kremer .

Full title - Youth-centred frames: visual collaborations and participatory techniques in the research with young people This panel explores the use of participatory visual methods (film-making and

Panel 11: The material mediation of the ‘non-normative’ body 90'

Conference
Convened by Cathy Greenhalgh Catalin Brylla .

This panel considers filmmakers who seek to work with and represent ‘non-normative’ bodies that are traditionally stereotyped and portrayed as “the other”. The aim is to explore innovative or

Panel 12: Transforming theory in and through film (Part I) 90'

Conference
Convened by Mattijs van de Port Janine Prins .

This panel seeks to expand theoretical ambitions in visual anthropology. We explore audio-visual modes of report that speak about existential issues via the minutiae of life-as-lived. We invite

Panel 12: Transforming theory in and through film (Part II) 90'

Conference
Convened by Mattijs van de Port Janine Prins .

This panel seeks to expand theoretical ambitions in visual anthropology. We explore audio-visual modes of report that speak about existential issues via the minutiae of life-as-lived. We invite

Pang Lhabsol: Sikkim's National Ritual of the Land and its Guardian Deities 2015 63'

Directed by Anna Balikci .

Pang Lhabsol, Sikkim’s most important indigenous celebration, consists of a series of rituals and monastic dances held in honour of Dzonga, a mountain deity residing on Mt. Khangchendzonga, the

Parizad 2021 24'

Shorts Directed by Mehdi Imani Shahmiri .

Keshvar is a lonely, old woman crafting an ancient, unknown woven textile, telling a strange story of a fairy and a shepherd who came to their village one day.

Pasajuego 2018 75'

Material Culture Directed by Daniel Oliveras de Ita .

“Pasajuego” is the name of the court where Oaxacans play the ancient indigenous ball game of Pelota Mixteca. Today more than two million people from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca live in

Pedagogy & Public Anthropology: Legacies of Marshall's and Asch's Ethnographic Films 90'

Seminar
Convened by Nancy Lutkehaus .

This panel reflects on the role of ethnographic film in pedagogy and public anthropology past, present, and future. It explores the introduction of ethnographic film into school curricula in the

People of Earth and Clouds 2016 65'

Directed by Matteo Robert Morales Louise Hantson .

People of Earth and Clouds is a documentary film that explores the role of music bands in indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Mexico and shows why "a village with no band, is a village with no

The People of the Wind 2015 59'

Directed by Abtin Sarabi .

On the coast of the Persian Gulf, in the south of Iran, a ritual called Zâr is still practised today. This musical exorcism is said to heal all ‘victims of the wind.’ According to this popular,

Positive Women: Heartache, Hope & Living with HIV 2017 30'

Directed by Rebecca Devaraj .

In 2016, filmmaker Bex Devaraj and anthropologist Anne Lotter were given unique access to one of the biggest slums in Kampala, Uganda, where every day is a struggle for survival. In this intimate

Positive Youtubers – A Machinima Documentary 2017 15'

Special Interest Directed by Leandro Goddinho .

An experimental documentary made with footage material recorded from the computer desktop screen, about four Brazilians who have created Youtube Channels to talk openly about their HIV status. They

Poundmaker’s Lodge 1987 29'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

Just north of the City of Edmonton lies Poundmaker’s Lodge, an addiction and mental-health facility specialising in treatment for Indigenous people. Founded in 1973 and still operational today, the

President's Award - Trinh T. Minh-ha 2023 '

Special Programmes
.

She will receive the award in person on Thursday 23 March, at the screening of What About China? at Arnolfini (Bristol). On that occasion Trinh T. Minh-ha will be in conversation with May Adadol Ingawanij.

Prism 2021 78'

Werbner Award Directed by Rosine Mbakam Eléonore Yaméogo An van Dienderen .

Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Brussels-based Rosine Mbakam from Cameroon, and Paris-based Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Faso to make a film in which their different skin colour serves

The Prison Promise 2022 55'

Main Competition Directed by Joseph Dégramon Ndjom .

While still prisoners, director Joseph Dégramon Ndjom’s uncle, Detyr and his companion, Adèle, made a promise to each other: to start a new life together once they were free. Today, they live in

Prohibition of Grazing 2016 43'

Directed by Wenfei Li .

Zhang Yuansheng is 64-year-old who was originally a camel herder. Having been born in poverty, as the age of 17 he began studying camel herding in the desert and acquiring the the life skills

Promenade 2016 31'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Philip Cartelli .

Recorded during two years but organized around a single day, “Promenade” observes a series of movements and interactions on a renovated section of the Marseille waterfront. During the day a cast

Pulse 2015 26'

Student Directed by Robin Petré .

This poetic, highly sensorial film takes place on one of Europe’s largest deer farms, which is home to 1,500 red deer and their caretakers. The animals are essentially still wild. They were first

Pushing Boundaries 2021 102'

Disability Futures Directed by Lesia Kordonets .

Athletes from the Ukrainian Paralympic National Team have lost their training base in Crimea due to the Russian annexation in 2014. They try to adapt to the new historic conditions in their private,

A Radio of One’s Own 2016 34'

Directed by Shweta Radhakrishnan .

In the heart of the hills, in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, a frequency crackled and came to life on the 21st of September, 2013. Community radio, Mandakini ki Aawaz is Rudraprayag District’s first and

The Raven and the Seagull 2018 70'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Lasse Lau .

Denmark and Greenland have been tied together by a complex colonial relationship for centuries. Today, Greenlanders fight for autonomy, whilst acutely aware of their economic dependence on the

The Realm of Forgotten Existence 2015 28'

Directed by Piotr Piasta .

While the images in the film reveal a landscape that often seems unchanged, the narrative reveals fragments of forgotten stories and traditions, skills and working lives no longer of value in

Reclaiming Fiction '

Workshop
Convened by Isaac Marrero-Guillamón .

This roundtable discussion will consider the politics and aesthetics of ethnofiction in relation to current debates in ethnographic film around collaboration and self-representation. Participating

Remake of a summer 2017 96'

Directed by Magali Bragard Séverine Enjolras .

During a summer in Paris and it’s suburbs, two young directors attempt a remake of "Chroniques d’un été", fifty years after the cult film of Rouch and Morin. An offbeat portrait of

Researching marriage, filming Family Time '

Talks
.

Resonating Burra - The Story of Burrakatha 2018 42'

Intangible Culture Directed by Arjun Chavah .

Burrakatha is a storytelling art form in the Telangana and Andhra regions of India. Emerging in the 1940s, amidst the struggle against feudal oppression and the Indian freedom movement, Burrakatha

Rituals on TV 90'

Seminar
Convened by RAI / BBC / Swan Films .

Several recent television productions have embraced ritual - a classic topic for anthropologists! These shows have sought to document, explore, and interrogate ritual as both spectacle and concept

River Nomads 2016 40'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Eric Komlavi Hahonou .

http://www.rivernomads.dk/river-nomads-english/ password: ddc River Nomads addresses the complex relationship between migration, mobility and citizenship. This first part of a forthcoming trilogy

Roza's Song 2016 45'

Directed by Lowri Rees .

Roza's song gives a unique insight into the Norwegian Roma community. The film follows Roza and her dream of making the Norwegian Roma’s first CD. The congregation and the music means a lot for

SOLITARY LAND 2017 107'

Directed by Tiziana Panizza .

A researcher found 32 documentaries filmed on Easter Island almost a century ago. They contain images of the island’s rock sculptures, the Moai, but they barely show the island’s inhabitants,

Sacred Water 2016 54'

Directed by Olivier Jourdain .

Guided by Vestine, an extravagant star of radio nights, the film discovers Rwandan sexuality in search of the water that gushes out of the female body. Sacred Water reveals with humor and spontaneity

Sailing a Sinking Sea 2015 65'

Directed by Olivia Wyatt .

Sailing A Sinking Sea explores the culture of the Moken people of Myanmar and Thailand. The Moken are a nomadic seafaring community and one of the smallest ethnic groups in Asia. Spending eight

Sakhisona 2017 27'

Intangible Culture Directed by Prantik Basu .

Near Mogulmari in West Bengal lies a mound known locally as Sakhisona. Stories about it are interwoven with myth and still sung by local musicians. A dig nearby recently uncovered the remains of a

Sangharsh. Strife. 2018 105'

Directed by Nicolas Jaoul .

Shot between 1997 and 2001, Sangharsh takes us deep into the lifeworld of Dalit Panther activists in the late 1990s Uttar Pradesh. By following three activists, one is taken on a rough trip in the

Sarah Pink 2023 90'

Special Programmes
.

This talk will be live streamed online on Tuesday 7 March 2023 10:00 - 11:30, UK time. There is a mounting ethical onus on anthropological filmmakers to go further in their engagements with futures;

The Scorpion is me - A centennial family dance group 2017 95'

Directed by Juan Sebastián Alvarez .

Santos Ramírez “Santico”, the current 40 year old artistic director, hides behind the Carnival’s atmosphere, as he is fighting against all odds to keep El Alacrán's poison alive. "El

Scratches on Celluloid 2018 53'

Directed by Vindhya Buthpitiya Timothy Cooper .

In the rapidly changing urban landscapes of Jaffna and Lahore, the social and public space of cinema halls are recognisable for their longevity and resilience amid insurgency, war, and

The Season of Vodoun 2016 45'

Directed by Ran Muratsu .

This film depicts ceremonies of Vodoun, deities of ancestors and natures spread in the Gulf of Guinea, and its relationship with national politics. The shooting was held in the period of Vodoun in

The Secret of the Caminanti 2016 63'

Directed by Rita Mirabella Giuseppe Tumino .

The history of the Caminanti is an unwritten story of an autochthonous community living 'in hiding'. We know barely anything about their history, which has only been transmitted orally throughout

Sent Away Boys 2016 43'

Directed by Harjant Gill .

What happens to families in the absence of sons? What happens to land in the absence of farmers? What happens to communities in the absence of men? Sent Away Boys weaves together stories of

Shomõtsi 2001 42'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Wewito Piyãko .

Chronicle of the daily life of Shomõtsi, an engaging and gregarious Ashenika man living in a village at the border between Brazil and Peru. Our guide in the film is Shomõtsi’s nephew Valdete, a

Shorts 01 - Creative lives 100'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

The power of art to make worlds come into being

Shorts 02 - Women, empowerment and religion 69'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Ritual encounters with divinity

Shorts 03 - Pleasure 76'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Ground-breaking shorts exploring the world of sex and pleasure [NSFW! Contains adult content]

Shorts 04 - Migration at the crossroads/1 62'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Questioning the representation of migrant experience

Shorts 05 - Migration at the crossroads/2 71'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Questioning the representation of migrant experience

Shorts 06 - Animals | Humans | Ritual 97'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Close encounters with bees, cockrels, fish

Shorts 07 - Sparks! 76'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Experimental short form pushing the boundaries of ethnographic film

Shorts 08 - Livelihoods 90'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Portraits of people working in rural settings

Shorts 09 - Indigenous knowledge 110'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

Teaching the next generation

Shorts 10 - Environmental crisis 69'

Shorts Programme
Shorts .

People coping with the consequeces of climate change, pollution and waste

Silas 2017 80'

Directed by Anjali Nayar .

Liberian activist Silas Siakor is a tireless crusader against illegal logging and corruption. Through this focus on one small country -- “Silas” warns of the power of politics, features the role

Sing My Sister 2022 85'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Karen Boswall Alzira Guetsa André Bahule .

Communities of women across Mozambique use song, dance and stories to present a female perspective of three gendered ideological moments in their country’s history. Three co-authored musical

Singing "Bird": Carrying on the Kumeyaay Tradition 2018 30'

Directed by Teri Brewer .

The Kumeyaay, an indigenous people of Southern California and Northern Mexico still perform more than a dozen ancient song cycles kept alive through a process of apprenticeship and study which can

The Sky Wept for Forty Days 2022 62'

Werbner Award Directed by Sabrina Mervin .

The Sky Wept for Forty Days is an immersion in a Shi’a pilgrimage, which once a year attracts millions of faithful to Karbala, in Iraq. Their journey, on foot, lasts at least three days. They reach

Slow Return 2021 80'

Main Competition Directed by Philip Cartelli .

A river flows out to sea through a network of wetlands, salt marshes, and petrochemical plants. A melting glacier, its surface covered in protective cloth, still attracts tourists. Slow Return

So'o: Life and death of a cow in Puerto Casado 2016 24'

Directed by Valentina Bonifacio .

In the golden age of Puerto Casado, in Paraguay, at least eight cows were slaughtered every day to feed its population of 6,000 people. Eating "asado" (roasted meat) is still at the core of

The Soil 2022 71'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Zuzanna Solakiewicz .

A contemporary village and its unconventional dwellers of different ages have one thing in common; their strong attachment to folk culture. In this film, music is as important as images, accompanying

The Song Collector 2016 54'

Directed by Erik Koto .

In the 1960s Morup Namgyal sparked a social movement to preserve the traditional Himalayan culture of his homeland. What Morup could not imagine at that time was that he would ultimately embrace

Specialised Technique 2018 6'

Directed by Onyeka Igwe .

William Sellers and the Colonial Film Unit developed a framework for colonial cinema, this included slow edits, no camera tricks and minimal camera movement. Hundreds of films were created in

Still Birth of the Commune-head 2015 80'

Directed by Qiao Wu .

Each Floral-belt Dai village has a “Commune-head” who takes charge of annual collective ceremonies. The Commune-head is picked out through a God election ritual. All candidates’ clothes should

The Storehouses of the World 2018 27'

Directed by Timothy Cooper Abeera Arif-Bashir .

In the Pakistani city of Lahore an audiocassette recorded decades ago deep among the crowd at a ritual mourning procession continues to circulate in the neighbourhood in which it was first made.

Stories about Mlimani Park Orchestra 2022 110'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Frank Gunderson .

Tanzanian rhumba band, Mlimani Park Orchestra (aka Sikinde), performs in the music genre musiki wa dansi (literally, “music for dancing”), a variation of the Cuban-based rumba idiom that has been

Stories from Cabo Corrientes 2020 77'

Main Competition Directed by Jordi Esteva .

The documentary immerses us in the fantastic and magical stories of the inhabitants of Cabo Corrientes, Chocò District (Colombia) where a community of Afro-Colombians, descended from slaves of

Strengh of Women Pataxó of the Mother Village 2019 58'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Caamini Braz Vanuzia Bonfim .

Pataxó women speak up. This film is part of Arandu: Listen to the Weather, a festival sidebar celebrating 35 years of Indigenous filmmaking from Brazil: key films and filmmakers working from the

Sunday 2018 25'

Special Interest Directed by Paulo Mendel Vitor Grunvald .

A colourful and noisy encounter with Família Stronger, a LGBTQIA+ collective in the neighbourhood of Jardim Nazaré, on São Paulo’s periphery. Across a split screen, Sunday portrays a single day

Survivors 2018 84'

Main Competition Directed by WeOwnTV .

With unflinching intimacy this film chronicles the remarkable stories of four Sierra Leoneans during the Ebola epidemic in what is regarded as the most acute public health crisis of the modern era

Swirling in the dreams 2022 78'

Main Competition Directed by Hung En Su .

In spite of the spread of Christianity and introduction of modern medicine, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have always had a need for their traditional beliefs. For the people in these tribes, when

TB in Town 2 2017 46'

Directed by Dr. Lianne (A.L.) Cremers .

This film tells the story of patients with tuberculosis living in Town 2, one of the biggest and most violent townships of South Africa. Treatment is available for free and tuberculosis patients can

TRIBAL JUSTICE 2017 87'

Directed by ANNE MAKEPEACE .

TRIBAL JUSTICE is a feature documentary about a little known, under-reported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America today: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative

Tango, Not-For-Export 2016 53'

Directed by Jennie Gubner .

This collection of 4 short films evokes everyday experiences of music making in the contemporary neighborhood tango scenes of Buenos Aires. They were made as stand alone pieces that co-exist on an

Ten by Ten 2021 29'

Student Directed by Jami L. Bennett .

There is no denying the evocative power of food to remind us of who we are and where we come from. After living in Asia for over fifteen years, Jessica was longing for the burgers and barbecue of her

Thank You For The Rain 2017 87'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Julia Dahr .

Over the last five years Kisilu, a smallholder farmer in Kenya, has used his camera to capture his family life, his village and the impacts of climate change. He has filmed floods, droughts and

These Objects, Those Memories 2015 29'

Directed by Roger Horn .

"These Objects, Those Memories" is a split-screen film focused on material culture, specifically, that of three long-term Zimbabwean female migrants currently residing in Cape Town, South

Thinking like a Mountain 2018 91'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Alexander Hick .

The Arhuacos are the guardians of the forest and the ice of Colombia’s highest mountain - the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This indigenous community draw a sustained and singular spirituality from

This Land Is Our Land! 2020 70'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Isael Maxakali Sueli Maxakali Carolina Canguçu Roberto Romero .

“In the old day, whites did not exist on our lands, and we lived hunting with our yãmưyxop spirits. But the whites came, felled the woods, dried the rivers and chased the animals away. Today, our

Those Who Come, Will Hear 2017 77'

Directed by Simon Plouffe .

Those Who Come, Will Hear proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung

Those Who Jump 2016 80'

Special Interest Directed by Estephan Wagner Moritz Siebert Abou Bakar Sidibé .

In northern Morocco, lies the Spanish enclave of Melilla: Europe on African Land. On the mountain above, live over a thousand hopeful African migrants, watching the border fence. Abou from Mali is

A Thousand Fires 2021 90'

Main Competition Directed by Saeed Taji Farouky .

Parents Htwe Tin and Thein Shwe work hard to give their children a better future, their lives governed by a web of karma and astrology. All their hopes are pinned on their youngest son – Zin Ko

Time to Look at Girls: Migrants in Bangladesh and Ethiopia 2015 31'

Directed by Marco Speroni .

More migrants move within their own country or region than migrate to Northern countries. Bangladesh and Ethiopia have been experiencing increasingly high rates of migration of adolescent girls to

To Work is to Grow 2015 32'

Directed by Léa Klaue .

Gerald, Ruben, Neysa and their friends are children and adolescents who work as wheelbarrow pusher at a market and as prayer boys in a cemetery in the region of Cochabamba in Bolivia. With their own

Toang 2022 37'

Student Directed by Rizky Maulana .

Toang is an intimate portrait of a rice paddy farmer and his family in Indramayu (Indonesia), who were in a precarious situation due to the cycle of indebtment and environmental degradation that the

Tobacco memories 2020 30'

Student Directed by Manca Filak .

The villages in southwest Bulgaria have long been known for the cultivation and production of tobacco. Muslim Pomaks, still engaged in this work, are facing a decline due to the low purchase price of

Together Apart (MA Thesis) 2018 57'

Directed by Maren Wickwire .

Carren has spent most of her adult life apart from her children. When her daughter Guil Ann arrives on the island of Cyprus to join her as domestic worker, unexpected events lead to Carren’s

Tracing Roots: A Weaver's Journey 2015 26'

Material Culture Directed by Ellen Frankenstein .

This film follows master Haida weaver Delores Churchill on a journey to replicate the spruce root hat found with Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi, also known as the Long Ago Person Found. The remains of the

The Train Driver 2021 6'

Animation Directed by Christian Wittmoser Zuniel Kim .

Trigger warning: suicide and related trauma In the five-minute animated documentary film The Train Driver, an anonymous train driver recounts his experience with suicide on the rails. Six times he

Trends in Ethnographic Film-making in China '

Workshop
Convened by Gary Seaman Paul Henley .

This workshop will assess contemporary ethnographic filmmaking in academic contexts in China and will include presentations by the following scholars. (Further presentations may be added later). All

Trends in Ethnographic Film-making in Latin America (I) '

Workshop
Convened by Carlos Flores Angela Torresan Antonio Zirion .

This workshop will offer a space for Latin American researchers to discuss methodological and theoretical issues around their own ethnographic film-making or works of other relevant film-makers. The

Trends in Ethnographic Film-making in Latin America (II) '

Workshop
Convened by Carlos Flores Angela Torresan Antonio Zirion .

This workshop will be a continuation of the workshop offered at 9:00 am on Thursday 30 March (Cinema 2, Watershed). It will offer a space for Latin American researchers to discuss methodological

True Body 2016 5'

Directed by Louise Hollerup Christensen Shannon Turner Maja Rosenlund Byriel .

What do you do to your body hair, and what does your body hair do to you? True Body is a performative documentary that draws the viewer into a debate about gender norms and cultural body practices.

Twenty Two 2016 95'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Guo Ke .

The film focuses on Chinese ‘comfort women’ during World War II. At the time of filming, only 22 of the 200,000 Chinese victims forced into sexual slavery remained alive. Quietly humanistic, this

A Two Day Fair 2009 60'

Directed by Anjali Monteiro KP Jayasankar .

Nothing in the world will last – it is but a two day fair” sings Mura Lala, drawing inspiration from the Sufi traditions of Sant Kabir and Abdul Lateef Bhitai. He is accompanied on the double

The Two Lives of Li Ermao 2019 87'

Main Competition Directed by Jia Yuchuan .

Filmed over 17 years across Southern China, this remarkable film is an intimate and heart-wrenching portrait of Li Ermao, a transgender migrant worker, who performs in clubs looking for love and

Two Poets and a River 2021 76'

Ethnomusicology Directed by Richard K. Wolf .

Using the Oxus river as a topos, this film explores themes of love and loss through the lives and musical poetry of the two most prominent and innovative Wakhi musicians in Central and South Asia:

Undercover in Underwear 2016 19'

Student Directed by Diane Agatha .

The Internet provides an infinite place of freedom where self, mind and body are dislocated. We are able to reinvent and present ourselves the way we want. It is in this world that Circle, my alter

Unearthed 2021 16'

Shorts Directed by Colin Rosemont .

The film examines the intersections of history, spirituality, colonialism, and contemporary archaeology through the experiences of archaeologists and Native Californians brought together by an excavation.

VHS Diaries 2020 72'

Decolonising the Archive Directed by Niyaz Saghari .

The filmmaker revisits the diaries she kept during the years when video was banned in Iran. Using her personal VHS archive of films as a point of reference, the film explores a very personal film

A Village with a View 2022 20'

Shorts Directed by Joseph Inman .

In wartime Britain, a Lord permitted unused land on Cornwall’s Rame Peninsula to be built on. Tiny chalets appeared, each as individual as its owner, and the community of Freathy came to life. In

Violão-Canção: Brazilian Soul 2016 30'

Directed by Chico Saraiva Rose Satiko Hikiji .

Following his artistic path, Chico Saraiva meets up with 7 master musicians who share their experiences: João Bosco, Sérgio Assad, Paulo César Pinheiro, Paulo Bellinati, Marco Pereira, Luiz Tatit

Visible Silence 2015 43'

Directed by Ruth Gumnit .

Visible Silence offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Thai tomboys (toms), ladies (dees), and lesbians striving for recognition and acceptance in a traditional Buddhist society. The film highlights

Visual Anthropology Interventions and Climate Change '

Workshop
Convened by Mike Poltorak .

**Interested participants are invited to submit proposals for presentations to M.S.Poltorak@kent.ac.uk** There is a recognised disconnect between publicly available scientific information on

The Visual Scholarship Initiative '

Talks
.

This session discusses the work of the Visual Scholarship Initiative (VSI), which was started in 2006 by a small group of graduate students at Emory University. It quickly established itself on the

Visual Worlds of Difference '

Workshop
Convened by Raminder Kaur Paul Boyce .

This workshop will highlight the role of (audio-) visual and participatory arts works in the development of representations that move away from the fixity and/or Othering of identities. Our aim is to

Vivre Riche 2017 53'

RAI Basil Wright Directed by Joël Akafou .

“Rolex the Portuguese” has returned to Abidjan with one mission: to make lots of money. He seeks to emulates the hedonistic lifestyle of a new generation of West African music stars. He and his

Voices of Kula 2021 87'

Werbner Award Directed by Gina Knapp .

Voices of Kula tells a story of empowerment, of local responses to cultural and economic changes, and of the strive to revitalise cultural heritage. A group of elders from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea

Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises 2006 104'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

The filmmaker returns to the village where she was raised to craft a lyrical account of her own people. After decades of tirelessly recording others’ stories, she focuses this film on her own home

Walker's 2018 11'

Student Directed by Kyle Myers-Haugh .

In this portrait of a historic black barbershop in Wilmington, North Carolina, we witness the everyday rituals that bind the men in this community together. Tight close ups illuminate intimate

Walking is Medicine 2018 5'

Lifetime Achievement Award - Alanis Obomsawin Directed by Alanis Obomsawin .

This is the story of the Nishiyuu walkers, six young Cree men who decided to trek 1600km from Whapmagoostui, Quebec, to Ottawa, in the spirit of their ancestors, whose traditions were to travel long

Warehouse 2018 8'

Directed by Lillian Dam Bracia S. Buse Yildirim Constantinos Diamantis Malwa Grabowska .

Warehouse is a meditative ethnographic short film. Warehouse is a place where sound moves the objects. It is an intimate encounter in the cosmos of objects, sounds and textures where carpenter

The Water Goddess and the Computer 1988 58'

Lifetime Achievement Directed by J. Stephen Lansing Andre Singer .

The Water Holds Me / The Water Binds Us 2021 2'

Animation Directed by Lily Mae Kroes .

Based on the stories of women who dip, dive and swim in rivers, lakes and seas, this animated film evokes many different experiences in one swim, from the anticipation of getting in cold water to the

The Way I See Today 2016 46'

Directed by Antonia Gama Márcio Gomes .

The critically-acclaimed film City of God (2002) is a fiction film based on a novel about a real place known as Cidade de Deus (City of God), located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Through the

We Belong to the Earth 2015 30'

Directed by Ramona August .

The establishment of the first intentional communities stretches back over two millennia ago, with notable examples such as the ancient Greek commune based on vegetarianism and equality of the sexes

A Wedding 2021 15'

Shorts Directed by Emiko Stock .

At a Cham Muslim wedding in rural Cambodia, an ethnographer doubles as a wedding videographer, capturing a day-long event in constant movement. Through unstable camera movements never completely

Welcome Reception '

Gala event
Convened by RAI FILM FESTIVAL .

Join us for a reception to welcome our guests and to celebrate the start of the festival. All welcome. Sponsored by Wiley.

What about China? 2022 135'

President's Award - Trinh T. Minh-ha Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha .

Influential filmmaker, writer, composer Trinh T. Minh-ha’s latest film takes the notion of harmony in China as a site of creative manifestation. Highly valued as a virtue and a guiding criterion in

What your eyes can’t see 2018 8'

Shorts Directed by Julieta Pestarino .

An essay-documentary that explores the processes of archival research, and the limits of the kind of knowledge it can provide. Pestarino pursues photographer and traveller André Roosevelt into the

When the Sea Sends Forth a Forest 2020 21'

Shorts Directed by Guangli LIU .

The story revolves around the memory of a Chinese survivor of the Khmer Rouge. This tragedy, which took the lives of two million people, continues to reshape our present. This forgotten moment of

Where Things go 2022 75'

Werbner Award Directed by Baptiste Aubert .

In the small Belgian town of Verviers in the mid-60s, most of the textile factories that had contributed to the town’s prosperity closed down. On witnessing the end of an epoch, the town council

Who says the lepchas are vanishing (Bang the Drum) 2019 42'

Music Docs Directed by Abhyuday Khaitan .

A tribute to Sonam Tshering Lepcha, cultural leader and creator of songs, literature, dances and a museum of the Lepcha people of north-west Bengal and Sikkim (India). His life has been devoted to

A Wind of Change 2019 72'

Directed by Toni de Bromhead .

A Wind of Change 72 mins Segesta Production UK/IT Toni de Bromhead Unlike most films that one sees, this film shows what it really means to live with, and to fight the mafia in Sicily - not

A Woman's Story 2015 52'

Directed by Azra Rashid .

A look at genocide, survival, and physical and cultural continuity through the eyes of three women who have experienced three different genocides of the 20th century. Shot on location in Canada,

Women in Sink 2015 36'

Directed by Iris Zaki .

At “Fifi’s”, a hair salon owned by a Christian Arab in Haifa, Iris Zaki installs a minimalist film set over the sink, where she converses with the clients she’s shampooing. She thus paints an

Women of Freedom 2017 58'

Directed by Abeer Zeibak Haddad .

Women of Freedom follows the stories of women who were murdered in the name of ‘honor killing', in the Arab and Palestinian society. This documentary aims to unravel the social and political

Writing on the City 2015 60'

Directed by Keywan Karimi .

With Writing On The City, Keywan Karimi redraws the history of Tehran through its walls, from the Islamic Revolution in 1979 to nowadays. He was sentenced to a year of detention and 223 whiplashes

YEH FREEDOM LIFE / THIS FREEDOM LIFE 2018 70'

Directed by Priya Sen .

Yeh Freedom Life / This Freedom Life was filmed over a year in Ambedkar Nagar, a dense, largely working class area in South Delhi. It moves between the two very different worlds of its protagonists,

Yarang Mamin 2019 21'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Kamatxi Ikpeng .

Indigenous filmmaker Kamatxi Ikpeng documents the story of a group of Ikpeng women who formed a movement to collect forest seeds and restore the banks of the Xingu River. The Yarang Women’s

Yolngu Homeland 2015 58'

Directed by Natasha Fijn .

An observational film about Yolngu connections with other beings and the land. Garrthalala is a strong homeland community in Arnhem Land, Australia, where all ages venture out onto the coast and into

You can't show my face 2021 20'

Shorts Directed by Knutte Wester .

The sound of the streets of Tehran are transformed into forbidden beats, people sing and young women and men rhyme their inner feelings. They tell us about a society that rejects them, streets

Yours Truly 2018 15'

Directed by Maddi Barber Charlotte Hoskins Christopher Murray .

Yours Truly follows the trail of taxidermic pieces collected by The Manchester Museum during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Archival letters between the museums directors, explorers, and

Zahida 2018 28'

Special Interest Directed by Seemab Gul .

Zahida is a unique woman in Pakistan: she is the nation's only female taxi driver. This sensitive film provides fascinating insight into the personal and professional trials faced by this strong

Zawawa - the sound of sugar cane in the wind 2017 50'

Directed by Rupert Cox Angus Carlyle .

It is a strange and bitter irony that the US naval bombardment which launched the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 was called the ‘typhoon of steel’, invoking the turbulent winds that annually buffet

The initiation of the young Xavante 1999 56'

Arandu - Listen to the Weather Directed by Divino Tserewahú .

Documentary about the initiation of young Xavante men, held during the training workshops of the Video in the Villages project. At the invitation of director Divino Tserewahú, from the village

on-sea 2016 20'

Student Directed by Hatty Bell .

on-sea is a portrait film about the small community that lives on the Bush Estate at Eccles-on-sea, Norfolk. It is a film about landscape, and how people interact with it through day-to-day minutiae

A very Dai Girl 2018 27'

Student Directed by MengHua Zhang .

This film quietly observes her daily life of Xiao Yue, a bright 22-year-old young woman from Yunnan province in the South of China. We see Xiao Yue cook, care for her grandmother, sew, and farm - but

The world is round so that nobody can hide in the corners – Part I: Refuge 2017 10'

Student Directed by Leandro Goddinho .

The first instalment in a series of shorts that explore LGBTQ+ experiences across the globe, envisioning a queer diasporic community. In Refuge, we hear the moving account of a young man forced to

The world is round so that nobody can hide in the corners – Part II: The Kiss 2017 5'

Student Directed by Leandro Goddinho .

The second instalment in a series of shorts that explore LGBTQ+ experiences across the globe, envisioning a queer diasporic community. The Kiss stages an act of public sensuality at the Gay Holocaust

The world like a jewel in the hand: unlearning imperial plunder ii 2022 58'

Focus on: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay Directed by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay .

This film travels over open books, looted objects and postcards to look for the imperial foundations of the world in which we live. Within this wide landscape the film focuses on the destruction of

‘Making of’ Anthropology on TV '

Workshop
Convened by Evie Wright .

Filmmakers working with the BBC Natural History Unit will describe the practicalities of all the various stages of production – from the development of an idea with which to approach commissioners,

Film list