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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
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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
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
147 Films
with a digital version available
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Colour / Black and white
“Colour”
x
Showing 15
Title initial
“S”
x
films with a digital version
147
x
short films
38
films available on demand
11
Title initial
A
5
B
9
C
11
D
5
E
4
F
2
G
5
H
11
I
5
J
1
K
14
L
8
M
15
N
4
O
2
P
2
Q
1
R
5
S
15
x
T
11
U
5
V
1
W
6
Region
Australia
1
British-Irish Isles
12
Caribbean Islands
2
Central Africa
1
Central America
1
Central Asia and Far East
7
Central Europe
1
East Africa
7
London
1
Melanesia
6
Micronesia
1
Middle and Near East
10
New Zealand and Polynesia
1
North America
9
North and Northeast Africa
12
Scandinavia
1
South America
21
South Asia
15
South-East Asia
11
South-East Europe
5
Southern Africa
2
Various
6
West Africa
11
Western Europe
5
Western Mediterranean
3
Country
Afghanistan
8
Albania
1
Algeria
1
Angola
1
Anguilla
1
Australia
1
Bangladesh
1
Bolivia
1
Bosnia and Herzegovina
2
Brazil
7
Cameroon
1
Canada
2
China
4
Colombia
3
Cyprus
1
Denmark
1
Ethiopia
6
Federated States of Micronesia
1
France
1
Ghana
2
Guatemala
1
Haiti
1
Hungary
1
India
6
Indonesia
8
Iran
1
Italy
1
Jordan
1
Kenya
5
Madagascar
1
Mongolia
2
Morocco
1
Myanmar
2
Nepal
3
Nigeria
7
Pakistan
4
Palestine
1
Papua New Guinea
5
Paraguay
1
Peru
4
Romania
1
Russian Federation
1
Samoa
1
Senegal
1
Sierra Leone
1
Solomon Islands
1
South Africa
1
Spain
2
Sri Lanka
1
Sudan
5
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
The Netherlands
1
Turkey
1
Uganda
1
United Kingdom
15
United States
6
Various
6
Venezuela
3
not set
2
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
6
Agriculture/ Farming
1
Animals
11
Archaeology
2
Archival material / Museum displays
7
Art / Artists / Artisans
3
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
2
Children / Young people
6
Collective / Community identity
16
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
2
Dance / Theatre / Performance
9
Death
3
Development projects
5
Education / Knowledge Transmission
4
Education / Knowledge transmission
2
Elderly people
1
Environment
3
Ethnofiction
2
Everyday Life
9
Family / Kinship
9
Family/ Kinship
1
Festivals / Carnival
9
Film / Photography / Mass media
9
Food
1
Gender Role and Identity
16
Gender Role and identity
1
Health / Health care / Healing
10
Health/ Health care/ Healing
1
Herding
9
History
4
History of Anthropology
8
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
9
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
13
Informant-researcher relationship
3
Infrastructure / Transport
2
Inter-religious relations
3
Intergenerational relations
1
LGBTQI*
4
Labour
7
Land Rights
9
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
2
Life Story / Life History
1
Life Story/ Life History
1
Linguistics / Language
1
Marriage
6
Material Culture
3
Memory
4
Migration
5
Music / Ethnomusicology
13
Nationalism
1
Nomads and Nomadism
6
Personal Narrative
2
Political Activists
4
Popular Culture
1
Possession
3
Post-communism
2
Prison
1
Public Figure
3
Race / Racism / Antiracism
2
Reflexivity
2
Refugees / Displaced populations
11
Religion / Belief / Faith
23
Reproduction (biology)
1
Resistance
2
Ritual
33
Rural
8
Sex / Sexuality
5
Shamans and Shamanism
2
Social Change
22
Social Conflict
10
Social Norms
2
Social Organisation
14
Socioeconomic conditions
3
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
7
Trade
3
Travellers / Roma
1
Urban
5
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
15
Directors
Al Akash, Ruba
1
Arnott, Susi
1
Ash, David
1
Assunção, Matthias Röhrig
1
Baily, John
10
Banks, Marcus
1
Beckham, Michael
2
Beier, Ulli
1
Blake, John
2
Bonifacio, Valentina
1
Boswall, Karen
1
Bradbury, Ray
1
Brewer, Teri F.
1
Brice, Mark
1
Bringa, Tone
1
Bringas, Sylvie
1
Carr, Peter
1
Chambers, Simon
1
Christie, Debbie
1
Colucci, Erminia
3
Cross, Stephen
1
Curling, Chris
5
Davidson, John Paul
1
Day, Mike
1
Demiralay, Hakan
1
Dettmann, Christine
1
Dietrich, Martha-Cecilia
2
Dineen, Molly
1
Drion, Georges
1
Dyson, Jane
1
Eaton, Michael
1
Edwards, Bob
1
Fales, Ludovica
1
Getzels, Peter
1
Gordon, Harriet
1
Grigsby, Michael
1
Grossman, Alyssa
1
Gruber, Martin
1
Gupta, Meghna
1
Hajee, Amin
1
Hardie, Amy
1
Harper, Peggy
2
Harries, Andy
3
Harrison, Ross
1
Hawkins, Richard
1
Heald, Suzette
1
Hellwig, Jean
1
Henley, Paul
3
Hopkins, Ben
1
Horton, Robin
1
Howes, Arthur
3
Hughes-Freeland, Felicia
1
Jeppesen, Kira de Hemmer
1
Jerstad, Jon
2
Johnson, Dul
1
Johnston, Graham
2
Kawanami, Hiroko
1
Kaymak, Vedide
1
Kenneil, Alastair
1
Kerlogue, Fiona
1
Kurutuac, Judith
1
LaPin, Deirdre
1
Lansing, Steven
1
Lasko, Claire
2
Lawrence, Andy
1
Lewis, Ariane
1
Llewelyn-Davies, Melissa
1
Lloyd, Ravi Hart
1
Loizos, Peter
1
Loïzos, Peter
1
MacDonald, Bruce
3
Marrero-Guillamon, Isaac
1
Milne, Claudia
1
Milner, George
1
Moffat, Zemirah
1
Mollona, Massimiliano
1
Moser, Brian
7
Nairn, Charlie
5
Owles, Ed
1
Owles, Edward
1
Pakleppa, Richard
1
Pasini, Carlos
2
Picard, David
1
Powell, Harry
1
Rens, Maarten
1
Robinson, Paul
1
Ross, Nina
1
Schlenker, Juana
1
Shakerifar, Elhum
1
Sheahan, Tom
1
Sheppard, John
4
Singer, André
14
Sjøberg, Johannes
1
Solomons, Natasha
1
Sonderegger, Ramona
1
Sowa, Remigiusz
1
Sowa, Remigiusz (aka Remi)
1
Speed, Frank
6
Taylor, Jamie
1
Wason, David
5
Werbner, Richard
1
Whitby-Coles, Charlotte
1
Winter, Pattie
1
Woodhead, Leslie
12
Yorke, Michael
1
de Bromhead, Toni
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
54
Forbidden Rites
3
In Search of Cool Ground: The Mursi Trilogy
3
National Film and Television School
10
Shorts Collection 2
3
Shorts collection 2
1
Strangers Abroad
3
Sudan Trilogy
3
The Well-Being Quest in Botswana
1
not set
69
Country of production
Australia
1
Brazil
1
India
1
Indonesia
2
Italy
1
Jordan
1
Nigeria
6
Peru
1
Senegal
1
South Africa
1
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
147
x
United States
5
Year of production
1952
1
1963
1
1964
1
1966
1
1970
2
1971
3
1972
2
1973
2
1974
7
1975
5
1976
1
1977
5
1979
3
1980
2
1982
4
1983
7
1984
3
1985
3
1986
4
1987
9
1988
8
1989
9
1990
4
1991
4
1993
3
1996
2
1998
1
1999
4
2001
2
2003
2
2004
1
2005
2
2006
3
2007
4
2008
4
2009
2
2010
4
2011
2
2012
3
2013
1
2014
2
2015
4
2016
2
2018
1
2019
3
2020
2
2021
2
Colour / Black and white
Film list
Sacred Harp Singers
1984
85
‘
Directed by
Mark Brice
.
A moving portrait of harp singers Leonard and Mazine Lacy. Sacred harp music is a kind of harmonised plainsong practised in rural America. This film was shot in Sand Mountain, Alabama, and is
North America
Music / Ethnomusicology
Rural
The Sakuddei
1974
52
‘
Directed by
John Sheppard
.
The Sakuddei are a small and ethnically separate community living on the island of Siberut off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Their distinctive way of life and elaborate religious
South-East Asia
Collective / Community identity
Social Change
Land Rights
Scenes of Afghan Music: London, Kabul, Hamburg, Dublin
2007
97
‘
Directed by
John Baily
.
Scenes of Afghan Music is Part IV of ‘A Quartet of Afghan Music Films’, made in the author’s personal “fieldwork movie” style. It reveals the diversity of music and dance practices in the
Middle and Near East
Music / Ethnomusicology
Migration
Collective / Community identity
Sherpas of Nepal
1977
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
Pattie Winter
.
Thami is a village 12,000 feet up in the Himalayas in the Kingdom of Nepal. As the film’s opening shots illustrate, in a type of filmic short-hand, Thami is composed of a patchwork of individual
South Asia
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Labour
Marriage
Social Change
The Shilluk of Southern Sudan
1976
52
‘
Directed by
Chris Curling
.
This film presents a compelling visual and aural analysis of Shilluk kingship in 1975, and provides a very useful complement to Evans-Pritchard’s 1948 text, The Divine Kingship of the Shilluk.
North and Northeast Africa
Collective / Community identity
Social Organisation
Smoke
1991
28
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Maarten Rens
.
The film deals with fish smoking in Monnickendam, a small town twelve miles north of Amsterdam. Using archival footage, interviewing old fishermen, and contrasting the traditional and the modern
Western Europe
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Food
Archival material / Museum displays
Some Women of Marrakech
1977
52
‘
Directed by
Melissa Llewelyn-Davies
.
In Marrakech, traditional attitudes to women prevail perhaps more strongly than in other Moroccan cities. This is especially true for those women who live by the standards of traditional ideals in
North and Northeast Africa
Gender Role and Identity
Labour
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Social Norms
Sons of the Moon
1984
25
‘
Directed by
Frank Speed
Deirdre LaPin
.
In isolated mountain hamlets in Nigeria’s Jos Plateau the Ngas have traditionally observed the movements of the moon in the night sky. The moon is a key symbol in Ngas cosmology, believed to
West Africa
Religion / Belief / Faith
Music / Ethnomusicology
Everyday Life
Ritual
Sophia and Her People
1985
35
‘
Directed by
Peter Loïzos
.
Sofia and her family lost their village home in 1975 when Turkey invaded Cyprus. The film, mainly set in Nicosia in 1983, shows the pressures of refugee economic recovery through shift work in a
South-East Europe
Refugees / Displaced populations
Social Change
Family / Kinship
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
Spirit
2019
19
‘
Directed by
Jane Dyson
Ross Harrison
.
Saraswati is a new arrival in an Indian Himalayan village. She wonders how she will ever feel at home in the new setting. “Spirit” by Jane Dyson and Ross Harrison is a story of longing and
Central Asia and Far East
Gender Role and identity
Agriculture/ Farming
Everyday Life
Family/ Kinship
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
The Storyteller
1990
50
‘
Student
Directed by
John Paul Davidson
.
Unaware of the written word until the 1950s, the Waura tribe who live in the headwaters of the Xingu river in Brazil still practise the art of storytelling. Tribal storyteller Aruta recounts one of
South America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Religion / Belief / Faith
Strange Beliefs – Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973)
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
Sundanese Culture Alive
1988
46
‘
Directed by
Jean Hellwig
.
Jaipongan is a new style of music and dancing which was ‘invented’ about a decade ago on Western Java, Indonesia. Drawing on more classical Javanese music and taking elements from Japanese and
South-East Asia
Music / Ethnomusicology
Dance / Theatre / Performance