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The Basques of Santazi
Directed by Leslie Woodhead
*In her book ‘The Circle of Mountains’ Sandra Ott provided a fascinating analysis of social reciprocity (…) The film highlights the village’s contemporary dilemmas and thereby complements rather than visualises...
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Depending on Heaven
Directed by Peter Entell
The film is in two parts and focuses on the Mongols living in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Part One (28 minutes) follows the life of a nomadic...
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The Herders of Mongun-Taiga
Directed by John Sheppard
The Tuvinians live deep inside the Soviet Union, at the very centre of Asia. Tuva is geographically closer to Peking than to Moscow. It only entered the USSR in 1944...
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The Kirghiz of Afghanistan
Directed by André Singer, Charlie Nairn
The Kirghiz of Afghanistan are a group of some 2,000 pastoralists living on a bleak mountain plateau in a narrow isthmus of land between the borders of the Soviet Union...
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Leyssart
Directed by Alexander Hirl
Living among 8,000 animals in the South of France, Thérèse and Dominique live their passion as herders and breeders. Their philosophy of life makes us reflect on the nature of...
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Lorang’s Way
Directed by David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
The Turkana are a group of semi-nomadic pastoralists who inhabit a harsh environment of dry thorn country in northwestern Kenya. Lorang’s Way focuses upon a Turkana elder. Having spent time...
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Masai Manhood
Directed by Chris Curling
This film was made after ‘Masai Women’ and in the same area. Together the two films provide a vivid view of Masai men and women and their place in Masai...
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Masai Women
Directed by Chris Curling
The Masai are cattle herders living in the East African rift valley: they grow no crops and are proud of being a non-agricultural people. Cattle are the all-important source of...
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Mongolia, part 1: On the Edge of the Gobi
Directed by Brian Moser
Mongolia is a country the size of Western Europe with under 1.5 million people but over 23 million head of livestock. This film concentrates on life in the great plains...
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Nawi
Directed by David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
This classic ethnographic documentary, by the renowned filmmaking team of David and Judith MacDougall, explores the nomadic life of the Jie of Uganda. During the dry season the Jie leave...
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The Rendille
Directed by Chris Curling
The Rendille are camel herders who live in villages and camps dotted over 10,000 square miles of desert and scrub bush in Northern Kenya. As the terrain they occupy is...
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Shepherds in the Cave
Directed by Anthony Grieco
An international team of art restorers, archaeologists and volunteers begin work on the restoration of religious frescoes inside a network of ancient caves. Faced with local bureaucratic challenges and the...
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Sons of Haji Omar
Directed by Asen Balikci, David Newman, Richard Sorensen, Timothy Asch
Haji Omar and his three sons belong to the Lakenkhel, a Pashtun tribal group in northeastern Afghanistan. Concentrating within one family, the film draw sharp, colourful portraits of the protagonists...
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Tempus de Baristas
Directed by David MacDougall
This film depicts the characters, and social dilemmas of three generations of Sardinian mountain shepherds. Although born roughly 20 years apart, Franchiscu (62), his son Pietro (17) and their friend...
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Three Horsemen
Directed by David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
Bob Massey Pootchemunka has spent most of his life as a stockman and drover. Now over 75, his ambition is to see an all-Aboriginal cattle station operating at Ti-Tree on...
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The Villagers of Sierra de Gredos
Directed by Peter Carr
The 130 villagers of Navalguijo in the Sierra de Gredos of Central Spain live in a village perched high in the mountains and they face an extreme climate with very...
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The Wedding Camels
Directed by David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
Also about individuals from the Turkana in north-western Kenya (see ‘Lorang’s Way’ and ‘A Wife Among Wives’), this film chronicles a series of events which surround the marriage of Lorang’s...
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The Wodaabe
Directed by David Wason, Leslie Woodhead
*Is the Wodaabe world disappearing? How are we to place the painted male faces? The very considerable success of this film is the ways it answers these questions.* J. Picto...
RAI FILM Festival 2025
The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.
