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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
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About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
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Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
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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
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
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Films
16 Films
with a digital version available
x
Keywords
“Animals”
x
films with a digital version
16
x
short films
7
films available on demand
3
Region
British-Irish Isles
1
Central Africa
1
Central Asia and Far East
4
Central Europe
1
East Africa
1
Middle and Near East
1
North America
2
South America
2
South-East Asia
2
Western Europe
1
Country
Cameroon
1
Canada
1
China
1
Hungary
1
Indonesia
2
Japan
1
Kenya
1
Peru
1
Russian Federation
1
Taiwan
1
Turkey
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
1
not set
1
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Animals
16
x
Education / Knowledge transmission
1
Elderly People
1
Everyday Life
3
Festivals / Carnival
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Food / Water
1
Herding
2
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
5
Hunting/Gathering/Fishing
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nation peoples
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
2
Labour
1
Migration
1
Nomads and Nomadism
1
Ritual
4
Social Change
1
Social Organisation
1
Travellers / Roma
1
Directors
Blake, John
2
Curling, Chris
1
Day, Mike
1
Edwards, Bob
1
Gao, Ang
1
Getzels, Peter
1
Gordon, Harriet
1
Hopkins, Ben
1
Johnston, Graham
2
Kenneil, Alastair
1
Lappalainen, Heimo
1
Munro, Neil G.
1
Palmer, Lisa
1
Tsai, Futuru C.L.
1
Wason, David
2
Woodhead, Leslie
1
de Bromhead, Toni
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
4
National Film and Television School
5
Shorts Collection 2
3
Taiga Nomads
1
not set
3
Country of production
Australia
1
China
1
Finland
1
Taiwan
1
United Kingdom
12
Year of production
1931
1
1977
1
1982
1
1983
1
1985
1
1987
1
1988
3
1989
1
1992
1
2006
1
2010
1
2019
2
2020
1
Film list
37 Uses for a Dead Sheep
2006
85
‘
Directed by
Ben Hopkins
.
The Pamir Kirghiz are a tribe of some 2,000 people from the Pamir region of Central Asia. For the last 27 years they have lived in exile in Eastern Turkey. In 2005 an Anglo-Turkish film crew arrives
Middle and Near East
Film / Photography / Mass media
Animals
Migration
Across the Tracks – The Vlach Gypsies in Hungary
1988
52
‘
Directed by
John Blake
.
*’Across the Tracks’ is a gripping film for the general viewer. It is beautifully filmed in observational style (lingering scenes of muddy courtyards) with enough subtitled interview material to
Central Europe
Animals
Labour
Travellers / Roma
The Ainu Bear Ceremony
1931
27
‘
Directed by
Neil G. Munro
.
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
Central Asia and Far East
Ritual
Animals
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
The Condor and the Bull
1989
56
‘
Directed by
Peter Getzels
Harriet Gordon
.
Villagers from remote hamlets high in the Andes join together with people from the roadside village of Ocongate for the Peruvian Independence Day celebration. Festivities require that a wild condor
South America
Animals
Festivals / Carnival
Ritual
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
Hundreds of Homes
1992
50
‘
Directed by
Heimo Lappalainen
.
Taiga Nomads is a film series about the Evenki (previously the Tungus), a nomadic people scattered all over eastern Siberia, and living under harsh conditions in the taiga, an area predominated by
Central Asia and Far East
Nomads and Nomadism
Animals
Ian Gleadell: A Falkland Farmer
1987
34
‘
Directed by
Bob Edwards
Alastair Kenneil
.
The 1982 war between Britain and Argentina brought the Falkland or Malwinas Islands into the news headlines. This film is less spectacular: It shows the way of life of one inhabitant of this
South America
Animals
Agriculture / Farming
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
Lives and Deaths between Ebbs and Flows
2019
14
‘
Directed by
Futuru C.L. Tsai
.
Futuru Tsai explores the relationship between Amis people and the sea in this playful portrait of maritime culture in coastal Taiwan. The film focuses on various social and practical activities in
Central Asia and Far East
Animals
Indigenous peoples / First Nation peoples
Muktuk
1983
40
‘
Directed by
Graham Johnston
.
Shot on the mosquito-ridden shores of the Mackenzie Delta in Canada’s North-West territories, the film deals with the annual Beluga (white whale) hunt. Three families are followed who have
North America
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Animals
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Education / Knowledge transmission
The Ospreys and the Old Man
2020
9
‘
Directed by
Ang Gao
.
A 76-year-old man living in a village in the middle of China continues the traditional practice of using ospreys (鱼鹰. 鱼鹰 usually referred to as great cormorant in English) to fish while most
Central Asia and Far East
Hunting/Gathering/Fishing
Animals
Elderly People
The Rendille
1977
52
‘
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 so dry, the Rendille grow no
East Africa
Herding
Animals
Social Organisation
Everyday Life
Tuktu
1985
47
‘
Directed by
Graham Johnston
.
Tuktu is the Kuvanmiit Eskimo word for caribou. The film traces the early evolution of Ambler, founded almost 30 years ago on the Kobuk River in Alaska. Change and development mark life now in this
North America
Animals
Social Change
The Whale Hunters of Lamalera
1988
52
‘
Directed by
John Blake
David Wason
.
The Whale Hunters of Lamalera was filmed over a period of four weeks during June 1987. Lamalera is a village which is perched on the rocky slopes of an active volcano on the southern coast of the
South-East Asia
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Animals
Everyday Life
Wild Honey: Caring for bees in a divided land
2019
30
‘
Directed by
Lisa Palmer
.
For more than a century, the island of Timor has been divided by a colonial border. Timor’s migratory wild honey bees challenge this division. In community honey harvest rituals, queen bees are
South-East Asia
Animals
Food / Water
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
The Wodaabe
1988
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
David Wason
.
*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 The Wodaabe follow
Central Africa
Herding
Animals
Everyday Life
Ritual