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Nestled below the rugged Chilean peaks of the Andes lies the gold mining town of Andacollo. The town’s remoteness and mining economy has nurtured religious beliefs in the power of...

Photography is known in China as the “Art of Regret”. In the rapidly changing city of Kunming, people are ambivalent about whether they want photography to be a medium of...

Every day, carrying the simplest of tools, diggers across coastal Maine set out at low tide to dig for clams on the wide mud flats that stretch far into the...

The filmmaker and two historians went into the village of Banjeli in 1985 to recreate for the film the traditional iron smelting techniques (which are no longer used) of the...

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...

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...

A diya is a small terra cotta oil lamp used throughout India in Hindu ceremonies. The film follows the life history of an object through the every day experience of...

This film records the preparations for the wedding of two sisters in eastern Sumatra in December 1996. There is an emphasis on the importance of the role of women in...

Filmed in Walcheren, a region in the south-west of the Netherlands, this film tells of the lived experience of wearing regional dress. Once worn by the whole community, today this...

A classic in ethnographic filmmaking, In and Out of Africa traces the transnational trade of African Art between West Africa and the USA, providing an insight into how value, commoditization...

Fili, a 22-year-old Mixe, makes ornamental paper hot air balloons. Since this is an important tradition in his community, Fili —an expert in the art— is recognized and accepted. Yet,...

Shallalah Saghirah (‘Little Waterfall’) is a small village of about 20 households located in the Khanasser valley, in north Syria. The village has no electricity and still uses an ancient...

Kristin, Mark and Bob collect things. The film explores attachment, possession and the way that objects inhabit their lives.

Aegeri, in a remote part of Switzerland, is one of the few lakes in Central Europe where professional log rafters can still be found. This film is based on the...

Through his clothing, a young South African fashion designer of mixed race urges freedom and unity in post-apartheid South Africa. His message is reaching not only his fellow South Africans,...

Yolngu Aboriginal families offer glimpses into their lives and relationships through their choice of ringtones. From ancestral clan songs to 80s hip hop artists and local gospel tunes, these songs...

A film about mobility, human creativity, and technology in a Sudanese truck community. The English Bedford-Lorry was introduced to Sudan in the late 1960s. Since then, local craftsmen technically modify...

For generations the Patua (Chitrakara) communities of West Bengal have been painters and singers of stories depicted in scrolls. The film follows the daily lives of Muslim Patua women from...

This film documents the building of a modern road through the imposing geography of southern Colombia. It brilliantly captures some of the absurdities and contradictions of a construction project that...

The mountain of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands) is more than a mountain. It was a sacred site for the indigenous people of Fuerteventura; later, its rock was quarried and sold...