RAI Film Admin

Cae Dai - a Home From Home 1997 30'

After the closure of the North Wales psychiatric hospital in the late 1980s, Sparrow Harrison opened his family home to local people suffering from mental illness. This film explores the humour,

British-Irish Isles Health / Health care / Healing Alternative culture

[cakchiquel-maya-of-san-antonio-palopo--Film-image]

Cakchiquel Maya of San Antonio Palopó 1987 52'

Directed by Bruce MacDonald .

The documentary shows how Cakchiquel Maya of a village on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala adapted to changes that took place in the decades before the film was made, when the lake became a favoured spot

Central America Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples

Calcutta Calling 2006 16'

Directed by André Hörmann .

“Business Process Outsourcing” is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, approximately 350,000 people are currently working in call centres to maintain the contact between western

South Asia Labour

Call for Grace 2000 30'

Student Directed by Laetitia Merli .

During Mongolia's seventy years of domination by the Soviet Union, shamanism, like many aspects of Mongolian tradition, was forbidden by the Communist authorities, and went into decline. Since the

Central Asia and Far East Shamans and Shamanism Post-communism

Camels of the Pitjantjara 1969 45'

Directed by Roger Sandall .

From the 1920s onwards, when motor vehicles displaced camels as a mode of supply in central Australia, camels gradually went feral. As this film shows, however, in the 1960s, the Pitjantjara were

Australia Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples Infrastructure / Transport Animals

Campo 9 2013 25'

Directed by Carlos R. Rivero Uicab .

Carlos, the director of the documentary, worked for four years with Abraham and his family of Mennonites who have lived in the Campeche region for over a decade. Abraham mainly worked cutting down

Central America Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples Social Conflict Inter-religious relations

Cannibalism 1999 60'

Directed by André Singer Tom Sheahan .

The history of cannibalism around the world and its role in different culture, from ancient Britain to Papua New Guinea. The Forbidden Rites trilogy explores cannibalism, head hunting and human

Various Ritual Archival material / Museum displays History of Anthropology

[cantadoras-musical-memories-of-life-and-death-in-colombia--Film-image]

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--Film-image]

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.

[carnival-king-of-europe-release-20--Film-image]

Carnival King of Europe. Release 2.0 2011 38'

Directed by Michele Trentini Giovanni Kezich .

Award-winning ethnographic caleidoscope featuring over 50 different masquerades of some 13 European countries. Thanks to some careful editing, the underlying structure of European winter masked

Western Europe South-East Europe Central Europe Festivals / Carnival Folklore

[caroling-with-the-star-among-the-bersntoler--Film-image]

Caroling with the Star among the Bersntoler 2015 26'

Directed by Michele Trentini .

In the German-speaking Bersntol (Val dei Mòcheni) in the Italian Alps, the Three Wise Men have left in their stead a robust choir of young men, parading the Star from farm to farm. This film is

South-East Europe Festivals / Carnival Folklore

The Carrot and the Stick 1988 44'

Directed by Susi Arnott .

When they retired from selling insurance and teaching, John and Irene Brown volunteered to work overseas under a British Aid programme. They were sent to expand a marketing project aimed at

Melanesia Development projects Agriculture / Farming Rural

Casado's Legacy 2009 49'

Directed by Valentina Bonifacio .

For 100 years Maskoy people worked in Carlos Casado’s tannin factory. The factory, which had been founded on their land, based its production on the exploitation of local natural resources. After

South America Political Activists Labour Land Rights

Caught in Between 2016 56'

Directed by Richard Werbner .

The focus is on a leading village elder, John Lelatlhego, a retired Human Resources administrator trained in settling disputes in the South African mines. John gets entangled in the long troubled

Southern Africa Family / Kinship Gender Role and Identity Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy Love Marriage

Caught in a Magic Place 2007 28'

Directed by Niccolo Patriarca .

A story of sandwiches and generations, ambitions and regrets from the heart of the Italian kitchen.

Western Mediterranean Food Intergenerational relations Labour

[a-celebration-of-origins-wai-brama-flores-indonesia--Film-image]

A Celebration of Origins: Wai Brama, Flores, Indonesia 1992 45'

Directed by Timothy Asch Patsy Asch .

This film is a record of the gren mahe rituals of the people of the domain of Wai Brama. The gren mahe is the largest religious event of the Wai Brama ceremonial system and requires the participation

South-East Asia Ritual Religion / Belief / Faith

The Cellar 2018 84'

Directed by Anna Grimshaw .

George Sprague lives and works in Buck's Harbor, Maine. He is widely known for his "cellar" (affectionately called the whine cellar), where people gather to talk, make lobster traps, share

North America Hunting/Gathering/Fishing Trade

Celso and Cora 2000 109'

Directed by Gary Kildea .

The film is about one family who live in the slums of Manila. Gary Kildea and a Filipino collaborator enter this family's life, filming them as they eat, as they care for their children, as they work

South-East Asia Squatter Settlements / Homelessness Family / Kinship Urban

A Chair: in six parts 2013 42'

Student Directed by Anna Grimshaw .

A poem about a chair. In 1960, Bill Coperthwaite bought 300 acres of wilderness in Machiasport, Maine. Influenced by the poetry of Emily Dickinson and by the back to the land movement of Scott and

North America Material Culture Alternative culture Art / Artists / Artisans

[the-chalice-of-sons-and-daughters--Film-image]

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

[cham-in-the-lepcha-village-of-lingthem--Film-image]

Cham in the Lepcha Village of Lingthem 2007 52'

Directed by Dawa Tsering Lepcha .

Every winter, over a period of six days, the lamas of Lingthem's village monastery hold their annual cham. These dramatic ritual masked dances impart elementary Buddhist teachings while providing

South Asia Ritual Dance / Theatre / Performance Religion / Belief / Faith

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

Changes 2010 30'

Directed by Afua Asare-Nyako .

Kwabena wants to move back to Ghana, the country he left more than 30 years ago. This film shows one of the many journeys that he has to take in preparation for his return. It explores the motives

West Africa Western Europe Migration

Chantal's Choice 1990 30'

Directed by Priscilla Hinckley Carlyn Saltman .

Adolescents in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, create a play for their peers in Europe and the USA. They enact an African folktale about a girl who faces a painful dilemma because she is determined to stay in school.

West Africa Dance / Theatre / Performance Children / Young people Reproduction (biology)

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

The Child's Eye 2018 '

Directed by David MacDougall .

This video is a series of 12 short films that are the result of ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall’s a five-year project video workshop project with Indian children. In six workshops held in

South Asia Children / Young people Informant-researcher relationship Participatory / Collaborative methods

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--Film-image]

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--Film-image]

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

Cine Rabeca 2022 55'

Directed by Marcia Mansu .

Time dimensions emerge from the relation between the visible and the imagined, between memory and the experience of the present. A unique place emerges through the entanglement of music and archive

Latin America Music / Ethnomusicology Art / Artists / Artisans Dance / Theatre / Performance

Cinema Pedregal 1994 27'

Directed by Ricardo Leizaola .

For forty years Alejandro Farfán has been making and showing films in El Pedregal. Now located in the heart of Caracas, this community was a small village when Alejandro first went to the cinema.

Central America Popular Culture Urban Film / Photography / Mass media Memory

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

The City Beautiful 2003 78'

Directed by Rahul Roy .

Sunder Nagri (Beautiful City) is a small working class colony on the margins of India’s capital city, Delhi. Most families residing here come from a community of weavers. The last ten years have

South Asia Urban Labour Socioeconomic conditions

A Clearing in the Jungle 1970 52'

Directed by Charlie Nairn .

Like that of many other Indian groups in South America, the culture of the Panare Indians of Venezuela is threatened by their almost daily contact with neighbouring creoles, Spanish-speaking

South America Hunting / Gathering / Fishing Informant-researcher relationship Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples

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

Collum Calling Canberra 1983 59'

Directed by David MacDougall Judith MacDougall .

An account of Aboriginal people steering their way through the often frustrating processes of official decision-making, as it is seen from their viewpoint far away from Canberra. Gordon Smith, head

Australia Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples

A Colombian Family 2020 80'

Main Competition Directed by Tanja Wol Sørensen .

A powerful mother-daughter drama is at the centre of this film. Rooted in disagreement—both personal and political—the film follows the consequences of a war that leaves them with an impossible

South America War / Conflict / Reconciliation Family / Kinship Gender Role and Identity Intergenerational relations Memory Migration Personal Narrative Political Activists Refugees / Displaced populations Social Conflict

Come Here Come Here 2019 28'

Directed by Julia Sterre Schmitz .

As a poetic manifesto for a more plural understanding of female sexuality, this associative film interweaves many theories, images, fantasies, memories and confusions drawn from popular culture,

Western Europe Sex / Sexuality Love Gender Role and Identity Research Methods

[coming-of-age-margaret-mead-1901-1978--Film-image]

Coming of Age - Margaret Mead (1901-1978) 1986 52'

Directed by André Singer .

Central Television’s major documentary series looks at the first anthropologists to stop ‘armchair theorising’ and go out to live among the peoples who so interested them. The six part series

Various History of Anthropology Public Figure

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

The Condor and the Bull 1989 56'

Directed by Peter Getzels Harriet Gordon .

Villagers from remote hamlets high in the Andes join together with people from the roadside village of Ocongate for the Peruvian Independence Day celebration. Festivities require that a wild condor

South America Animals Festivals / Carnival Ritual

[confluences-emerillon-of-french-guiana--Film-image]

Confluences - Emerillon of French Guiana 2007 78'

Directed by Perle Møhl .

Like self-fulfilling prophecies, scientific reports have hitherto depicted the Emerillon of French Guiana as cultureless and doomed to disappear. With this film, an anthropologist proposes to defy

South America Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples Everyday Life

Consulting Embah Wali 2000 42'

Directed by Patsy Asch .

These companion films (ANU Indonesia Series, DVD $ examine the philosophy and ritual practices of the followers of a holy man popularly known as Embah Wali. The movement, centred in Blitar, East

South-East Asia Ritual Dance / Theatre / Performance

Contestations 1996 55'

Directed by Michael P. Vischer Thomas Richter .

The recording follows a journey from the island of Palu'e to the mainland to purchase water buffalo. Back at Palu'e, a series of sacrifices is held to make amends for transgressions. The events, part

South-East Asia Ritual

[conversations-with-dundiwuy-wanambi--Film-image]

Conversations with Dundiwuy Wanambi 1984 50'

Directed by Ian Dunlop Philippa Deveson .

A series of interviews with Dundiwuy Wanambi, shot over twelve years. They reveal the struggles of one man in the face of the huge changes brought about by the coming of a mining project, and

Australia Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples Health / Health care / Healing Social Change

[copperworking-in-santa-clara-del-cobra-michoacan-mexico-artisans-facing-change--Film-image]

Copperworking in Santa Clara del Cobra, Michoacán, Mexico - Artisans Facing Change 2001 52'

Directed by Beate Engelbrecht .

Santa Clara del Cobre, a village in Mexico's province Michoacán, is well-known for its copperwork, a craft originating from pre-Spanish times. In the late 1940s the people of Santa Clara tried to

Central America Material Culture Labour Art / Artists / Artisans

[coraggio-coscritti-take-heart-all-new-recruits--Film-image]

Coraggio coscritti: take heart, all new recruits! 2016 25'

Directed by Michele Trentini .

The yearly parade of the new recruits is the perfect occasion in which to vent an extraordinarily wide repertoire of traditional songs. This film is part of **Carnival King of Europe DVD 6 -

South-East Europe Festivals / Carnival Folklore

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.

Counterpoint Botswana 2011 45'

Directed by Richard Werbner .

Seeing 'Holy Hustler', the 2009 film made in Botswana, local viewers respond and discuss it with the filmmaker Richard Werbner in 2011. 'Counterpoint Botswana' captures the reception by home

British-Irish Isles Reflexivity

Counterpoint One 2011 37'

Directed by Richard Werbner .

The first in the Forum Follies series, 'Counterpoint One' pitches the ethnographic filmmaker Richard Werbner into debate with audiences for his film 'Holy Hustlers' (2009), from a rough to a final

British-Irish Isles Reflexivity

Counterpoint Two 2011 45'

Directed by Richard Werbner .

The second in the 'Forum Follies' series, 'Counterpoint Two' pitches the ethnographic filmmaker Richard Werbner into debate with audiences for his film 'Encountering Eloyi' (2008), from a rough to a

British-Irish Isles Reflexivity

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

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

Cultivating Death 2003 23'

Directed by Martin Gruber .

Cemeteries are not only places for the dead. They are also spaces in which the living interact with each other – and with the dead. “Cultivating Death” depicts the different ways in which

British-Irish Isles Death Ritual

Cuyagua - Devil Dancers 1987 52'

Directed by Paul Henley .

The men of the Afro-Caribbean population of Cuyagua enact a ritual that occurs 60 days after Easter. The film is a portrait of two men who direct the devil dancing. They tell the history of the

South America Ritual Religion / Belief / Faith

[cuyagua-the-saint-with-two-faces--Film-image]

Cuyagua - the Saint With Two Faces 1987 56'

Student Directed by Paul Henley .

The film centres on the predominantly female celebration of the feast of Saint John. The women sing the songs associated with the Feast, describe their beliefs and how they organise the feast.

South America Ritual Religion / Belief / Faith Festivals / Carnival

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

Film list