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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
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
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Films
18 Films
with a digital version available
x
Region
“South America”
x
Series
“0”
x
Colour / Black and white
“Colour”
x
films with a digital version
18
x
short films
3
films available on demand
2
Region
South America
18
x
Southern Africa
1
Country
Angola
1
Argentina
1
Bolivia
2
Brazil
4
Chile
1
Colombia
1
French Guiana
1
Guyana
1
Paraguay
1
Peru
2
Venezuela
3
not set
1
Keywords
Art / Artists / Artisans
2
Children / Young people
1
Dance / Theatre / Performance
4
Development projects
1
Elderly people
1
Ethnofiction
2
Everyday Life
2
Family / Kinship
1
Festivals / Carnival
2
Film / Photography / Mass media
4
Gender Role and Identity
2
Health / Health care / Healing
2
History of Anthropology
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
7
Informant-researcher relationship
2
Intergenerational relations
1
LGBTQI*
2
Labour
2
Land Rights
2
Life Story / Life History
1
Material Culture
1
Memory
2
Migration
1
Music / Ethnomusicology
1
Participatory / Collaborative methods
1
Political Activists
1
Possession
1
Reflexivity
2
Religion / Belief / Faith
3
Ritual
3
Sex / Sexuality
1
Social Change
3
Social Conflict
1
Socioeconomic conditions
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Assunção, Matthias Röhrig
1
Bonifacio, Valentina
1
Cabezas Pino, Angélica
1
Davidson, John Paul
1
Dettmann, Christine
1
Dietrich, Martha-Cecilia
2
Drion, Georges
1
Fossgard-Moser, Titus
1
Garland, Christy
1
Henley, Paul
3
Møhl, Perle
1
Opipari, Carmen
1
Pakleppa, Richard
1
Rosell, Ulises
1
Shalygin, Cliff Orloff and Olga
1
Sjøberg, Johannes
1
Solomons, Natasha
1
Sturtevant, Chuck
1
Timbert, Sylvie
1
Series
not set
18
x
Country of production
Argentina
1
Bolivia
1
Brazil
1
Canada
1
Chile
1
Denmark
2
France
2
Norway
1
Peru
1
South Africa
1
Sweden
1
United Kingdom
10
United States
2
Year of production
1987
3
1989
1
1990
1
1997
1
2007
2
2009
1
2010
1
2012
3
2014
1
2015
1
2016
1
2018
1
2019
1
Colour / Black and white
Film list
Barbara and Her Friends in Candombleland
1997
52
‘
Directed by
Sylvie Timbert
Carmen Opipari
.
In the divine Afro Brazilian cult Candomble is an initiation religion centred around possession. The filmmakers concentrate on children who introduce and guide us to this world. The children play
South America
Children / Young people
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Possession
Ritual
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
Between Memories
2015
34
‘
Directed by
Martha-Cecilia Dietrich
.
Eudosia is still searching for her husband’s remains in the highlands of Ayacucho; Lucero has been in prison for 25 years now for the crime of terrorism against the Peruvian state; since 2009 the
South America
Memory
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Body Games – Capoeira and Ancestry
2014
87
‘
Student
Directed by
Richard Pakleppa
Matthias Röhrig Assunção
Christine Dettmann
.
The film follows master Cobra Mansa and his friends in the search for the African roots of the Brazilian martial art Capoeira. A powerful myth links Capoeira to a legendary Angolan game called Engolo
South America
Southern Africa
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Music / Ethnomusicology
Festivals / Carnival
Casado’s Legacy
2009
49
‘
Directed by
Valentina Bonifacio
.
For 100 years Maskoy people worked in Carlos Casado’s tannin factory. The factory, which had been founded on their land, based its production on the exploitation of local natural resources. After
South America
Political Activists
Labour
Land Rights
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
Cuyagua – Devil Dancers
1987
52
‘
Directed by
Paul Henley
.
The men of the Afro-Caribbean population of Cuyagua enact a ritual that occurs 60 days after Easter. The film is a portrait of two men who direct the devil dancing. They tell the history of the
South America
Ritual
Religion / Belief / Faith
Cuyagua – the Saint With Two Faces
1987
56
‘
Student
Directed by
Paul Henley
.
The film centres on the predominantly female celebration of the feast of Saint John. The women sing the songs associated with the Feast, describe their beliefs and how they organise the feast.
South America
Ritual
Religion / Belief / Faith
Festivals / Carnival
Doctors of Two Worlds
1989
55
‘
Directed by
Natasha Solomons
.
In the Bolivian highlands an English doctor is setting up a network of health care for remote mountain villages. While teaching the inhabitants the essentials of Western medicine the doctor is
South America
Health / Health care / Healing
Informant-researcher relationship
Development projects
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
Habilito – Debt for Life
2010
52
‘
Directed by
Chuck Sturtevant
.
This documentary explores many of the conflicts and tensions that arise at the point of contact between highland migrants and lowland indigenous peoples, focusing particularly on the system of debt
South America
Socioeconomic conditions
Migration
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Labour
Horror in the Andes
2019
33
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Martha-Cecilia Dietrich
.
Horror in the Andes is a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the process of making a horror movie in Ayacucho, Peru. Directed by audio-visual anthropologist Martha-Cecilia Dietrich, it
South America
Art / Artists / Artisans
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Ethnofiction
Film / Photography / Mass media
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Ignacio’s Legacy
2016
52
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Titus Fossgard-Moser
.
Between 1960 and 1992, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Brian Moser made four films concerning indigenous peoples of northwest Amazonia: "Piraparana" (1960), "War of the Gods"
South America
Film / Photography / Mass media
Social Change
Reflexivity
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Reclaiming the Forest
1987
39
‘
Directed by
Paul Henley
Georges Drion
.
National governments, itinerant gold-miners, and indigenous inhabitants compete for control of an area of the South American rainforest. The film shows the potential conflict between the interests
South America
Land Rights
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Social Change
Social Conflict
The Storyteller
1990
50
‘
Student
Directed by
John Paul Davidson
.
Unaware of the written word until the 1950s, the Waura tribe who live in the headwaters of the Xingu river in Brazil still practise the art of storytelling. Tribal storyteller Aruta recounts one of
South America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Religion / Belief / Faith
This is My Face
2018
57
‘
Student
Directed by
Angélica Cabezas Pino
.
In Chile, people living with HIV fear stigma, and often conceal their condition and remain silent about what they are going through. This is My Face explores what happens when a range of men living
South America
LGBTQI*
Participatory / Collaborative methods
Health / Health care / Healing
Gender Role and Identity
Film / Photography / Mass media
Memory
Life Story / Life History
Art / Artists / Artisans
Transfiction
2007
58
‘
Directed by
Johannes Sjøberg
.
Transfiction explores ‘ethnofiction’ – an experimental ethnographic documentary film style in which the participants collaborate with the filmmaker to act out their own and others’ life experiences
South America
Reflexivity
Film / Photography / Mass media
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
LGBTQI*
Ethnofiction
Yanomami: From Machetes to Mobile Phones
2012
58
‘
Directed by
Cliff Orloff and Olga Shalygin
.
The Yanomami Indians are one of the last large relatively unacculturated indigenous groups remaining in the world. In November 2000 filmmakers Orloff and Shalygin documented the lives of a small
South America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Material Culture
Social Change