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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
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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
17 Films
with a digital version available
x
Region
“North and Northeast Africa”
x
films with a digital version
17
x
short films
2
Region
North and Northeast Africa
17
x
Country
Algeria
1
Egypt
1
Ethiopia
6
Morocco
2
Sudan
7
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
1
Art / Artists / Artisans
1
Children / Young people
2
Collective / Community identity
4
Dance / Theatre / Performance
1
Environment
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
3
Health / Health care / Healing
3
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Infrastructure / Transport
1
Labour
1
Marriage
2
Material Culture
1
Migration
1
Nomads and Nomadism
1
Possession
1
Reflexivity
1
Refugees / Displaced populations
3
Religion / Belief / Faith
2
Ritual
2
Rural
1
Social Change
3
Social Conflict
2
Social Norms
1
Social Organisation
4
Socioeconomic conditions
1
Sport
1
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
2
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
1
Trade
1
Urban
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
3
Directors
Curling, Chris
1
Dumont, Dirk
1
Dunne, Bryony
1
Haensch, Valerie
1
Hardie, Amy
1
Harries, Andy
1
Howes, Arthur
2
Husmann, Rolf
1
Kawase, Itsushi
1
Llewelyn-Davies, Melissa
1
MacDonald, Bruce
1
Nairn, Charlie
1
Singer, André
1
Sperschneider, Werner
1
Wason, David
1
Woodhead, Leslie
5
Series
Disappearing World Series
10
In Search of Cool Ground: The Mursi Trilogy
3
Sudan Trilogy
2
not set
5
Country of production
Belgium
1
Egypt
1
Germany
2
Japan
1
United Kingdom
12
Year of production
1972
1
1974
1
1976
1
1977
1
1979
2
1982
1
1985
1
1989
1
1991
3
1993
1
2003
1
2006
1
2009
1
2014
1
Film list
Kafi’s Story
1979
53
‘
Directed by
Arthur Howes
Amy Hardie
.
Shot in 1989, Kafi’s Story captures Nuba life at the moment before it was engulfed in the Sudanese civil war. Kafi narrates his own story into a portable tape record as he travels from his village,
North and Northeast Africa
Film / Photography / Mass media
Marriage
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
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
Living with the Invisibles
2003
52
‘
Directed by
Dirk Dumont
.
When they emigrated to Europe in the 60’s and 70’s, Moroccans brought with them their culture and their “diseases” ( caused by the the jinn that inhabit some of them). In Europe, most North
North and Northeast Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Possession
Migration
The Migrants
1985
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
David Wason
.
The Migrants is the third film in the trilogy ‘In Search of Cool Ground’ for Granada Television’s Disappearing World series. It is about a drought-induced migration of Mursi from their traditional
North and Northeast Africa
Social Change
Collective / Community identity
Refugees / Displaced populations
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
Mursi: The Land is Bad
1991
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
A further visit to the Mursi of Southern Ethiopia with whom contact was established 17 years ago, for an important coming of age ceremony which has had to be postponed many times. An elder of the
North and Northeast Africa
Ritual
Social Conflict
Health / Health care / Healing
Mursi: Nitha
1991
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
The proper time for a man to go through the Age Set Ceremony, the nitha, is just as he reaches physical maturity. But many years may elapse from one nitha to the next, so it is inevitable that some
North and Northeast Africa
Ritual
Social Conflict
Gender Role and Identity
Nuba Conversation
1989
53
‘
Directed by
Arthur Howes
.
Ten years after he made ‘Kafi’s Story’, director Arthur Howes returns to the Sudan to find the members of the Nuba who featured in his earlier documentary film. Soon after he had left the Sudan, the
North and Northeast Africa
Children / Young people
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Refugees / Displaced populations
Nuba Wrestling
1991
42
‘
Directed by
Rolf Husmann
Werner Sperschneider
.
The weekly wrestling tournaments of the Sudanese Nuba migrants in Khartoum usually take place between Northern and Southern Nuba men. The sport helps them strengthen their ethnic identity in a
North and Northeast Africa
Collective / Community identity
Gender Role and Identity
Urban
Sport
The Orchard Keepers
2014
24
‘
Directed by
Bryony Dunne
.
Against the backdrop of political upheaval, an ancient network of orchards thrives in the mountains of the Sinai desert. Filmmaker Bryony Dunne shadows two Bedouins as they nurture their gardens and
North and Northeast Africa
Environment
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
Rural
Orphans of Passage: The Uduk
1993
52
‘
Directed by
Bruce MacDonald
.
In 1987 Sudanese government forces attacked the Uduk of Southern Sudan, and 20-25000 Uduk fled. Since then they have criss-crossed the Sudanese/Ethiopian border 5 times. In the spring of 1992, 13000
North and Northeast Africa
Refugees / Displaced populations
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Religion / Belief / Faith
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
Room 11, Ethiopia Hotel
2006
23
‘
Directed by
Itsushi Kawase
.
The film recounts the life of children living on the street in Gondar, Ethiopia, by witnessing the interaction between two children and the filmmaker. The entire film was shot in the room of Ethiopia
North and Northeast Africa
Children / Young people
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
Informant-researcher relationship
Reflexivity
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
Sifinja – The Iron Bride
2009
70
‘
Directed by
Valerie Haensch
.
A film about mobility, human creativity, and technology in a Sudanese truck community. The English Bedford-Lorry was introduced to Sudan in the late 1960s. Since then, local craftsmen technically
North and Northeast Africa
Infrastructure / Transport
Material Culture
Art / Artists / Artisans
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
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
Witchcraft Among the Azande
1982
52
‘
Directed by
André Singer
.
*Witchcraft among the Azande’ is suitable for showing in undergraduate and graduate classes on topics of religion, philosophy, and African ethnography. It could also be stimulating to discussions of
North and Northeast Africa
Religion / Belief / Faith
Health / Health care / Healing
Social Change