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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
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
16 Films
with a digital version available
x
Keywords
“Family Kinship”
x
films with a digital version
16
x
short films
8
films available on demand
3
Region
British-Irish Isles
1
Caribbean Islands
1
Central Asia and Far East
5
East Africa
1
London
1
North America
2
Scandinavia
1
South America
1
South-East Asia
1
South-East Europe
2
West Africa
1
Western Europe
1
Country
Anguilla
1
Bangladesh
1
Cameroon
1
China
5
Cyprus
1
Denmark
1
Greece
1
Guyana
1
Kenya
1
Nepal
1
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
2
Keywords
Agriculture/ Farming
1
Children / Young people
2
Collective / Community identity
3
Elderly people
1
Everyday Life
2
Family / Kinship
15
Family/ Kinship
1
x
Festivals / Carnival
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
4
Gender Role and identity
1
Health / Health care / Healing
1
History
1
Intergenerational relations
2
LGBTQI*
2
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
1
Life Story / Life History
1
Marriage
3
Personal Narrative
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
1
Refugees / Displaced populations
2
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Reproduction (biology)
1
Ritual
1
Rural
1
Sex / Sexuality
3
Social Change
5
Social Norms
2
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Cai, Hua
1
Chambers, Simon
1
Dyson, Jane
1
Garland, Christy
1
Harrison, Ross
1
Holtedahl, Lisbet
1
Howes, Arthur
1
Jeppesen, Kira de Hemmer
1
Kurutuac, Judith
1
Lasko, Claire
2
Lawrence, Andy
1
Lloyd, Ravi Hart
1
Loizos, Peter
1
Loïzos, Peter
1
Rousso-Schindler, Steven
2
Seaman, Gary
2
Sonderegger, Ramona
1
Song, Zhifang
2
Woodhead, Leslie
2
Series
Disappearing World Series
2
Shorts Collection 2
1
Song Family Village
2
Sudan Trilogy
1
not set
10
Country of production
Canada
1
China
3
Denmark
1
Norway
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
11
United States
2
Year of production
1974
1
1983
2
1985
1
1995
1
1999
1
2007
1
2008
1
2009
2
2012
2
2016
2
2017
1
2019
1
Film list
The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song
2012
71
‘
Directed by
Christy Garland
.
‘The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song’, using direct cinema style, introduces us to the Smith family in Georgetown, Guyana, where both Muscle, and his mother Mary, each struggle to fight the family
South America
Elderly people
Family / Kinship
Intergenerational relations
Benjamin and His Brother
1999
87
‘
Directed by
Arthur Howes
.
Years of war and ethnic conflict in the Sudan have created a generation of young men, known as the "Lost Boys", who have spent more years in refugee camps than in their home communities.
North America
East Africa
Refugees / Displaced populations
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Children / Young people
Family / Kinship
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
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
Extended Family
2016
31
‘
Student
Directed by
Ramona Sonderegger
.
This films offers an intimate insight into the lives of two same-sex families who found a way to create themselves within a legal grey area in Switzerland. Swiss law bans adoption and access to
Western Europe
LGBTQI*
Family / Kinship
Sex / Sexuality
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
The Guest
2012
20
‘
Student
Directed by
Kira de Hemmer Jeppesen
.
Following the personal story of a Danish first-time surrogate mother, ‘The Guest’ explores issues of maternal bonding, modern families, relatedness, and desired control over body and mind. We follow
Scandinavia
LGBTQI*
Sex / Sexuality
Reproduction (biology)
Family / Kinship
Life Chances: Four Families in a Greek Cypriot Village
1974
43
‘
Directed by
Peter Loizos
.
A careful account of social change in a prosperous Greek Cypriot village, which follows four closely related families before the Turkish made them all refugees. Their lives reflect the possibilities
South-East Europe
Social Change
Life Story / Life History
Rural
Family / Kinship
Living with the Revolution
1983
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
Claire Lasko
.
*These three films (‘Inside China: Living with the Revolution’; ‘The Newest Revolution’; ‘The Kazakhs of China’) present a valuable record of aspects of most recent developments in China.* (A.
Central Asia and Far East
Social Change
History
Family / Kinship
The Newest Revolution
1983
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
Claire Lasko
.
This film is a continuation of ‘Living with the Revolution’, set in the same communes near Wuxi and focusing on the same families. This film concentrates, however, on the new social and economic
Central Asia and Far East
Family / Kinship
Social Change
The Secret of the Stone
2009
39
‘
Directed by
Zhifang Song
Gary Seaman
Steven Rousso-Schindler
.
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.
Central Asia and Far East
Family / Kinship
Collective / Community identity
Ritual
Festivals / Carnival
Song Family Village Takes a Bride
2009
27
‘
Directed by
Zhifang Song
Gary Seaman
Steven Rousso-Schindler
.
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
Central Asia and Far East
Marriage
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Social Change
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
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
Treasured Moments
2016
33
‘
Student
Directed by
Ravi Hart Lloyd
.
This is the personal story of a boy who grew up mixed in every aspect of his life, his parents, where he was from, his race. The black kid who thought that he was white. The white kid who thought
Caribbean Islands
North America
Family / Kinship
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Collective / Community identity
Film / Photography / Mass media
Without Fathers or Husbands
1995
26
‘
Directed by
Hua Cai
.
The Na are an ethnic group in south-east China. Their particularity is that all the members of each household are consanguineous relatives; their social organisation is absolutely matrilineal and as
South-East Asia
Family / Kinship
Collective / Community identity
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
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