Skip to content
RAI FILM
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
16 Films
with a digital version available
x
Country
“United Kingdom”
x
films with a digital version
16
x
short films
7
films available on demand
2
Region
British-Irish Isles
12
Central Europe
1
London
1
North America
1
South-East Europe
1
Western Europe
3
Country
Bangladesh
1
Bosnia-Herzegovina
1
France
1
Italy
1
Spain
1
United Kingdom
16
x
United States
1
Keywords
Animals
2
Archaeology
1
Archival material / Museum displays
1
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
1
Children / Young people
1
Collective / Community identity
2
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
1
Death
1
Education / Knowledge Transmission
1
Elderly people
1
Family / Kinship
2
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
2
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Health/ Health care/ Healing
1
History
1
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
2
Intergenerational relations
1
LGBTQI*
1
Labour
1
Life Story/ Life History
1
Marriage
1
Migration
2
Music / Ethnomusicology
1
Personal Narrative
1
Popular Culture
1
Reflexivity
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Ritual
2
Sex / Sexuality
1
Social Norms
1
Socioeconomic conditions
1
Urban
1
Directors
Ahmed, Akbar
1
Baily, John
1
Brewer, Teri F.
1
Chambers, Simon
1
Day, Mike
1
Demiralay, Hakan
1
Dineen, Molly
1
Gruber, Martin
1
Kaymak, Vedide
1
Kurutuac, Judith
1
Lawrence, Andy
1
Moffat, Zemirah
1
Mollona, Massimiliano
1
Owles, Ed
1
Ross, Nina
1
Schlenker, Juana
1
Shakerifar, Elhum
1
Taylor, Jamie
1
Werbner, Richard
1
de Bromhead, Toni
1
Series
National Film and Television School
2
Shorts Collection 2
1
The Well-Being Quest in Botswana
1
not set
12
Country of production
United Kingdom
15
United States
2
Year of production
1982
1
1984
1
1986
1
2003
1
2004
1
2005
1
2006
2
2007
2
2008
1
2010
1
2011
1
2015
2
2020
1
Film list
Born
2008
56
‘
Directed by
Andy Lawrence
Judith Kurutuac
.
*Our hope is to create a magical-real environment in which to go beyond the limits of our historical perspective on childbirth and its culturally bound rites, and to demonstrate an emotionally
British-Irish Isles
Health / Health care / Healing
Family / Kinship
Children / Young people
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
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
The Daring Young Girl on the Flying Trapeze
2020
27
‘
Directed by
Nina Ross
.
As a child, Nancy Willis dreamt of joining the circus, longing for freedom and adventure. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and told she would not live beyond her twenties, the now 65-year-old artist
British-Irish Isles
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
Personal Narrative
Health/ Health care/ Healing
Life Story/ Life History
A Donation to the Museum
2015
25
‘
Directed by
Teri F. Brewer
.
Human remains from the California Channel Islands were donated to an English city museum nearly a century ago. More recently research began into how they came to be there, and whose remains they
North America
Western Europe
Archaeology
Archival material / Museum displays
Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears
2007
63
‘
Directed by
Simon Chambers
.
East London Muslim girl Shahanara is changing form pink hot pants into a sari to meet her husband at the airport. She has only met him once before, when she was married in a union arranged by her
London
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Marriage
Intergenerational relations
Social Norms
Fragments from the Past
2006
27
‘
Directed by
Vedide Kaymak
Hakan Demiralay
.
In the days before DVD and satellite television, the cinema was important to London’s Turkish speaking population as a place to meet and as a link with home. Eight individuals recount their
British-Irish Isles
Popular Culture
Migration
Film / Photography / Mass media
The Guga Hunters of Ness
2010
59
‘
Directed by
Mike Day
.
This film follows a vanishing community’s beloved and unique tradition. The Gaelic speakers of Lewis and Scotland are the only people in the EU exempt from a ban on hunting gannets, but they are
Western Europe
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Animals
Ritual
Home from the Hill
1984
60
‘
Directed by
Molly Dineen
.
Anthropology’s relationship with colonialism has been discussed widely. Yet the ethnography of the colonial service remains largely unexplored on film. This entertaining documentary shows, not
British-Irish Isles
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
John the Eel Trapper
1982
28
‘
Directed by
Toni de Bromhead
.
The fens of East Anglia provide the scenery for this documentary. At the centre of the film is John, a solitary character, who makes his living by trapping eels in the numerous canals of the area.
British-Irish Isles
Animals
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Journey into Europe
2015
122
‘
Directed by
Akbar Ahmed
.
In Journey into Europe, Akbar Ahmed, a world-renowned anthropologist, Islamic scholar, and filmmaker who the BBC has called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” explores Islam
Central Europe
Western Europe
South-East Europe
History
Religion / Belief / Faith
Collective / Community identity
Lessons from Gulam
1986
52
‘
Directed by
John Baily
.
A detailed study of musical enculturation within the Asian community of Bradford in northern England. Gulam Musa is the principal character and he is shown as a teacher and as a musician. The film
British-Irish Isles
Music / Ethnomusicology
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Mirror Mirror
2006
58
‘
Directed by
Zemirah Moffat
.
Mirror Mirror is based on an audio-visual ethnography of London’s queer Club Wotever. Begun in the autumn of 2003, it promoted itself as a club that welcomed all genders and sexualities – a
British-Irish Isles
LGBTQI*
Sex / Sexuality
Gender Role and Identity
Pepe
2004
23
‘
Directed by
Juana Schlenker
.
Pepe is a Spanish immigrant who came to England more than forty years ago to work as a waiter. After working in several restaurants and hotels, he retired two years ago and now he fills his days with
British-Irish Isles
Migration
Elderly people
Southeast London Ethnography – Three Student Films: Anglesea Road; The Good Ol’ Days; Talk of Trade
2007
13
‘
Directed by
Elhum Shakerifar
Ed Owles
Jamie Taylor
.
These 3 films on Southeast London were made by GCC college students who took a course in anthropology & film. ANGLESEA ROAD: Situated in Woolwich, South East London, Anglesea Road is a small
British-Irish Isles
Urban
Steel Lives
2005
45
‘
Directed by
Massimiliano Mollona
.
The anthropologist spent several months working as unskilled labourer alongside Sheffield steelworkers at Morris for his PhD. This film is a look into the working lives of men who earn a living in
British-Irish Isles
Labour
Socioeconomic conditions
Collective / Community identity