The RAI has reedited the original film of this ceremony among the Ainu people of Japan. In the bear ceremony, now no longer performed, a specially reared bear was reverently killed and its flesh and

‘The Gaijin’ tells the story of an individual negotiating his identity in a foreign country. It follows Luke Jonathan Driscoll, an American who has been residing in Japan for nearly 3 years and

Religious life in the village is highly gendered, with female shamans dominating most religious activities. These shamanesses and their gods are organised as a “court”, which expresses a

Tokyo life as rarely seen on mainstream media. This short film takes you to the lives of men who live on the outskirts of the city and of Japanese society.

Once brutally persecuted under the Soviet regime, Buddhism is re-emerging in Siberia. But with a past where Lamas were killed in prisons and temples burnt to the ground, there are few masters left to

This film outlines the types of marriage exchange practiced in a Chinese village over the last fifty years. Dowry, brideprice and exchange marriages have dominated the marriage market in turn as

The modern Japanese woman has the world at her feet: she can pursue any career, wear whatever she likes, and spend her leisure time however she likes - even playing sumo. This film follows five young

Located on the North China Plain about 200 miles south of Beijing, 'Song Family Village' is home to about 1,300 people. Some 80% of all villagers are members of a single lineage of the Song surname.

Most weddings in the village still reflect traditional patterns of patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence. The bride leaves her natal home to marry into her husband’s village, where she is a

Held every October in the city of Matsuyama, the Dogo Autumn Festival is one of the most violent religious festivals celebrated in Japan. Eight teams of men carrying massive portable wood shrines

Since the beginning of the Mao era in 1949, populations that were once nomadic, isolated by miles of desert and mountains across the Tian Shan ranges, are now becoming highly sought after objects of

'We Don't Need a Grave' attempts to show how the people who choose Shizenso rather than the typical family grave try to accept one's death. Shizenso is a natural mortuary practice that has no

The Yukhagirs are one of the small indigenous peoples of Northern Siberia. This film, shot in the village of Nelemnoye, explores what it means to be a Yukhagir.