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
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
14 Films
with a digital version available
x
Keywords
“Social Organisation”
x
films with a digital version
14
x
short films
1
films available on demand
1
Region
Caribbean Islands
1
East Africa
3
Middle and Near East
1
New Zealand and Polynesia
1
North and Northeast Africa
4
South America
1
South Asia
1
South-East Asia
1
West Africa
1
Country
Afghanistan
1
Algeria
1
Brazil
1
China
1
Ethiopia
2
Haiti
1
Kenya
3
Pakistan
1
Samoa
1
Sierra Leone
1
Sudan
1
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Animals
1
Archival material / Museum displays
1
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
1
Collective / Community identity
3
Everyday Life
2
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
3
Herding
4
History of Anthropology
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
1
Marriage
1
Nationalism
1
Nomads and Nomadism
4
Ritual
5
Rural
2
Shamans and Shamanism
1
Social Change
3
Social Organisation
14
x
Socioeconomic conditions
1
Trade
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
3
Directors
Curling, Chris
5
Harries, Andy
2
MacDonald, Bruce
1
Milner, George
1
Moser, Brian
1
Nairn, Charlie
2
Owles, Edward
1
Pasini, Carlos
1
Singer, André
2
Woodhead, Leslie
2
Series
Disappearing World Series
12
In Search of Cool Ground: The Mursi Trilogy
2
Shorts Collection 2
1
not set
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
14
Year of production
1972
2
1974
3
1975
2
1976
1
1977
1
1979
1
1980
1
1989
1
1990
1
2019
1
Film list
IntranQu’îllités
2019
20
‘
Directed by
Edward Owles
.
Lyrically narrated by award-winning Haitian poet James Noël, the short film interweaves the work of several Haitian artists who want to redefine how their nation is perceived. The film explores the
Caribbean Islands
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
Nationalism
Social Organisation
The Kirghiz of Afghanistan
1975
51
‘
Directed by
Charlie Nairn
André Singer
.
The Kirghiz of Afghanistan are a group of some 2,000 pastoralists living on a bleak mountain plateau in a narrow isthmus of land between the borders of the Soviet Union and China. For nine months of
Middle and Near East
Herding
Nomads and Nomadism
Social Organisation
The Kwegu
1979
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
Andy Harries
.
*’The Kwegu’ is an entirely tasteful and dignified presentation of the harsh realities of subsistence living, and it may help us understand how, even in stateless societies, dominated groups come to
North and Northeast Africa
Collective / Community identity
Agriculture / Farming
Social Organisation
Marriage
Trade
Masai Manhood
1975
52
‘
Directed by
Chris Curling
.
This film was made after ‘Masai Women’ and in the same area. Together the two films provide a vivid view of Masai men and women and their place in Masai society. The Masai are pastoral nomads in
East Africa
Gender Role and Identity
Social Change
Ritual
Social Organisation
Nomads and Nomadism
Herding
Masai Women
1974
52
‘
Directed by
Chris Curling
.
The Masai are cattle herders living in the East African rift valley: they grow no crops and are proud of being a non-agricultural people. Cattle are the all-important source of wealth and social
East Africa
Gender Role and Identity
Social Change
Ritual
Social Organisation
Nomads and Nomadism
Herding
Matai Samoa
1989
65
‘
Directed by
George Milner
.
The film is a valuable treatment of archival footage that George Milner shot while conducting fieldwork in 1955 and 1959. The footage (18 minutes of the total film) focuses on the traditional Samoan
New Zealand and Polynesia
History of Anthropology
Film / Photography / Mass media
Social Organisation
Archival material / Museum displays
Ritual
The Mehinacu
1974
52
‘
Directed by
Carlos Pasini
.
The Mehinacu live near the head-waters of the River Xingu in Central Brazil, in a single village within the protective confines of the Xingu National Park. Although the film concentrates upon the
South America
Social Organisation
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Collective / Community identity
Ritual
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
The Meo
1972
52
‘
Directed by
Brian Moser
Chris Curling
.
Over the last three thousand years the Meo (Miao or Hmong) have migrated south from north and central China to avoid oppression and protect their way of life. Today they live in scattered mountain
South-East Asia
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Shamans and Shamanism
Ritual
Social Organisation
Rural
The Mursi
1974
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
The Mursi are a cattle-keeping and agricultural group without chiefs or leaders from south-west Ethiopia. This film, made under extremely difficult conditions, focuses on the way decisions are made
North and Northeast Africa
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Social Organisation
The Pathans
1980
52
‘
Directed by
André Singer
Andy Harries
.
There are twelve million Pathans. Bound by a common language, a common heritage and the unifying force of Islam, these proud and independent people do not acknowledge the geographical boundary which
South Asia
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Social Organisation
Gender Role and Identity
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 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
The Tuareg
1972
52
‘
Directed by
Charlie Nairn
.
This film is about a group of nomadic Tuareg living high up in the Hoggar Mountains near Tamanrasset in Algeria. The main focus of the film is the collapse of the former economic basis of their
North and Northeast Africa
Social Organisation
Social Change
Socioeconomic conditions
Nomads and Nomadism