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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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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
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Instagram
Twitter
Films
23 Films
with a digital version available
x
Keywords
“Everyday Life”
x
films with a digital version
23
x
short films
5
films available on demand
4
Region
Central Africa
1
Central Asia and Far East
6
East Africa
2
Melanesia
2
North America
4
South America
2
South Asia
1
South-East Asia
2
West Africa
3
Country
Argentina
1
Cameroon
2
China
1
French Guiana
1
India
1
Indonesia
2
Kenya
1
Mongolia
2
Nepal
1
Nigeria
1
Papua New Guinea
2
Russian Federation
2
Sierra Leone
1
Tanzania
1
United States
4
Keywords
Agriculture/ Farming
1
Alternative culture
4
Animals
3
Art / Artists / Artisans
4
Children / Young people
1
Children/ Young people
1
Environment
1
Everyday Life
23
x
Family / Kinship
1
Family/ Kinship
1
Festivals / Carnival
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
1
Gender Role and identity
1
Herding
4
History of Anthropology
1
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
2
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
1
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Labour
1
Marriage
1
Music / Ethnomusicology
1
Nomads and Nomadism
3
Personal Narrative
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
2
Ritual
2
Rural
7
Sensory Ethnography
1
Social Change
1
Social Norms
1
Social Organisation
2
Urban
1
Directors
Blake, John
1
Curling, Chris
1
Danusiri, Aryo
1
Dyson, Jane
1
Entell, Peter
1
Grimshaw, Anna
4
Grossenbacher, Ulrich
1
Harrison, Ross
1
Holtedahl, Lisbet
1
LaPin, Deirdre
1
Lappalainen, Heimo
2
Luethi, Damaris
1
MacDonald, Bruce
1
Moser, Brian
2
Møhl, Perle
1
Powell, Harry
1
Rosell, Ulises
1
Smith, Sophia Hersi
1
Speed, Frank
1
Vávrová, Daniela
1
Wason, David
2
Woodhead, Leslie
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
6
Mr Coperthwaite: a life in the Maine Woods
4
Shorts Collection 2
2
Taiga Nomads
2
not set
9
Country of production
Argentina
1
Denmark
1
Finland
2
France
1
Indonesia
1
Norway
1
Slovenia
1
Switzerland
2
Tanzania
1
United Kingdom
9
United States
4
Year of production
1952
1
1975
2
1977
1
1984
1
1988
3
1990
1
1992
2
1997
1
2007
1
2008
1
2012
1
2013
4
2016
1
2017
1
2018
1
2019
1
Film list
Autumn’s Work
2013
47
‘
Directed by
Anna Grimshaw
.
"Autumn’s Work" follows Bill Coperthwaite as he prepares for winter. Wrestling with a large felled tree amidst its vast tangle of branches, Bill slowly and methodically breaks it down
North America
Alternative culture
Rural
Everyday Life
Art / Artists / Artisans
Confluences – Emerillon of French Guiana
2007
78
‘
Directed by
Perle Møhl
.
Like self-fulfilling prophecies, scientific reports have hitherto depicted the Emerillon of French Guiana as cultureless and doomed to disappear. With this film, an anthropologist proposes to defy
South America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Everyday Life
Depending on Heaven
1988
56
‘
Directed by
Peter Entell
.
The film is in two parts and focuses on the Mongols living in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Part One (28 minutes) follows the life of a nomadic Mongol family on their yearly journey
Central Asia and Far East
Environment
Nomads and Nomadism
Herding
Everyday Life
Enet Yapai – an Ambonwari Girl
2008
25
‘
Directed by
Daniela Vávrová
.
Enet Yapai was six years old when Vavrova met her for the first time in 2005 in Ambonwari village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Between November 2007 and April 2008 she followed Enet and
Melanesia
Children / Young people
Rural
Everyday Life
The Ethnographer
2012
86
‘
Directed by
Ulises Rosell
.
John Palmer arrived in a Wichí community, located in Argentina, thirty years ago as an anthropologist – today he has married a Wichí woman with whom he has five sons in the last 5 years, who babble
South America
History of Anthropology
Everyday Life
Informant-researcher relationship
House No. 15
2018
7
‘
Directed by
Aryo Danusiri
.
Jakarta, Indonesia. Monsoon season. Children are at play in their flooded house, located in the riverside area of Ciliwung, known for its informal housing settlements. What unfolds before the camera
South-East Asia
Everyday Life
Children/ Young people
Sensory Ethnography
The Mende
1990
52
‘
Directed by
Bruce MacDonald
.
This is a portrait of Kpuawala, Sierra Leone, a village of some 260 Mende people living in a clearing in the forest in houses of mud brick and tin. Like any village portrait it gossips, happy
West Africa
Everyday Life
Social Organisation
Rural
Mongolia, part 1: On the Edge of the Gobi
1975
52
‘
Directed by
Brian Moser
.
Mongolia is a country the size of Western Europe with under 1.5 million people but over 23 million head of livestock. This film concentrates on life in the great plains of Mongolia, at the foot of
Central Asia and Far East
Herding
Social Change
Rural
Everyday Life
Mongolia part 2: The City on the Steppes
1975
52
‘
Directed by
Brian Moser
.
The second of two films on Mongolia made by Granada Television in 1974–75 looks at life in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia and home of a quarter of the population. The city celebrates the 53rd
Central Asia and Far East
Festivals / Carnival
Urban
Everyday Life
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
The School and the Village
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
Everyday Life
Silk, Muthappar and VHS: Portraits from South India
1997
63
‘
Directed by
Ulrich Grossenbacher
Damaris Luethi
.
The documentary, filmed during ethnographic field research, shows three portraits of ‘ordinary’ personalities — Mala, a young weaver sharing a one-bedroom house with nine siblings; Santa Cruz,
South Asia
Labour
Everyday Life
Film / Photography / Mass media
The Skills You Passed On
1992
50
‘
Directed by
Heimo Lappalainen
.
The second of three films about the Evenki people of eastern Siberia. Focuses on Nikolaj Pavlovich Archemku, who experienced the very beginning of Soviet power, two World Wars, and the
Central Asia and Far East
Nomads and Nomadism
Everyday Life
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
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
Spring in Dickinson’s Reach
2013
83
‘
Directed by
Anna Grimshaw
.
"Spring in Dickinson’s Reach" provides an introduction to the unique environment that Bill Coperthwaite has crafted in the Maine forest. Beginning in early spring, the film follows
North America
Alternative culture
Rural
Everyday Life
Art / Artists / Artisans
A Summer Task
2013
47
‘
Directed by
Anna Grimshaw
.
"A Summer Task" examines the rhythm and tempo of work in the forest. The film follows Bill Coperthwaite and his cousin, Steve, as they fell and haul trees to build a bridge and begin
North America
Alternative culture
Everyday Life
Rural
Art / Artists / Artisans
The Trobriand Islanders
1952
58
‘
Directed by
Harry Powell
.
During his field work in the region of Omarakana, H.A.Powell filmed various sequences from which the film is assembled. In spite of the technical handicaps under which he was operating — shooting
Melanesia
Everyday Life
The Way We Live Now
2016
32
‘
Student
Directed by
Sophia Hersi Smith
.
‘The Way We Live Now’ is an intimate portrait of the daily routines and rituals of the Hadza; modern-day hunter-gatherers living in the acacia-baobab woodlands surrounding Lake Eyasi in North-Central
East Africa
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Everyday Life
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
Winter Days
2013
59
‘
Directed by
Anna Grimshaw
.
"Winter Days" evokes the stillness and quietness of the forest in winter. Life is lived close to the stove. It’s a time for small tasks and chores – making a wedge, sewing a pocket, the
North America
Alternative culture
Rural
Everyday Life
Art / Artists / Artisans
Wives
2017
85
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Lisbet Holtedahl
.
Alhajji Ibrahim is an Islamic scholar who has served as judge at the Sultanate of Ngaoundéré in Northern Cameroon for 46 years. The film follows Alhajji during the last years of his life, focusing
West Africa
Family / Kinship
Everyday Life
Gender Role and Identity
Marriage
Personal Narrative
Religion / Belief / Faith
Social Norms
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