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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
Login
Facebook
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Films
14 Films
with a digital version available
x
Region
“South Asia”
x
Country
“India”
x
Series
“0”
x
films with a digital version
14
x
short films
3
films available on demand
1
Region
South Asia
14
x
Country
India
14
x
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Children / Young people
2
Collective / Community identity
2
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
1
Education / Knowledge Transmission
1
Everyday Life
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
1
Health / Health care / Healing
3
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Inter-religious relations
2
Intergenerational relations
1
Labour
3
Life Story / Life History
1
Material Culture
1
Possession
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
5
Ritual
2
Rural
1
Shamans and Shamanism
1
Social Change
2
Socioeconomic conditions
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
3
Urban
2
Directors
Aaltonen, Jouko
1
Balikci, Anna
1
Balikci, Asen
1
Balikci-Denjongpa, Anna
1
Banks, Marcus
1
Basu, Helene
1
Bhattachary, Nilanjan
1
Diengdoh, Wanphrang
1
Grossenbacher, Ulrich
1
Gupta, Meghna
1
Hajee, Amin
1
Hörmann, André
1
Lepcha, Dawa
1
Lepcha, Dawa T
1
Luethi, Damaris
1
Mukhopadhayay, Kanchan
1
Pakaslahti, Antti
1
Vohra, Paromita
1
Wester, Hasse
1
Whitby-Coles, Charlotte
1
Yorke, Michael
1
Series
not set
14
x
Country of production
Finland
1
Germany
2
India
7
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
4
Year of production
1988
1
1997
1
2000
1
2005
2
2006
2
2008
2
2009
1
2011
1
2012
2
2014
1
Film list
Black Mountain
2008
84
‘
Directed by
Charlotte Whitby-Coles
Amin Hajee
.
A once unremarkable site of multi-faith pilgrimage to a Sufi Saint has been transformed and its local history rewritten – the film documents the journey of Charlotte, a student undertaking her PhD
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Inter-religious relations
Calcutta Calling
2006
16
‘
Directed by
André Hörmann
.
“Business Process Outsourcing” is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, approximately 350,000 people are currently working in call centres to maintain the contact between western
South Asia
Labour
Drugs & Prayers
2009
55
‘
Directed by
Helene Basu
.
The Sufi shrine of Mira Datar in North Gujarat is a large pilgrimage centre specialising in healing possession and mental illness. It has become a site of experimenting with new forms of community
South Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Ritual
Religion / Belief / Faith
The Golden Beach
2008
58
‘
Directed by
Hasse Wester
.
A small group of farmers belonging to the Halakki Gowda tribe live near a small beach in a valley in southern India. When the Swedish film maker Hasse Wester was first there twenty years ago the
South Asia
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Rural
Social Change
Holy Men and Fools
2005
61
‘
Directed by
Michael Yorke
.
The film narrates the story of Uma Giri, a Swedish woman who has become a Hindu nun, called Uma Giri. She is one of the few western women to be accepted into the most radical order of wandering
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Inter-religious relations
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Kusum
2000
69
‘
Directed by
Jouko Aaltonen
Antti Pakaslahti
.
Kusum is a 14-year-old Indian girl. She lives and attends school in Delhi. Kaushal, her father, drives a motorised rickshaw and works his fingers to the bone to support his family. Sumitra, Kusum’s
South Asia
Children / Young people
Health / Health care / Healing
Possession
Q2P
2006
55
‘
Directed by
Paromita Vohra
.
Q2P is a film about toilets and the city. It sifts through the dream of Mumbai as a future Shanghai and searches for public toilets, watching who has to queue to pee. As the film observes who has
South Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Urban
Socioeconomic conditions
Rain in the Mirror
2012
48
‘
Directed by
Nilanjan Bhattachary
Kanchan Mukhopadhayay
.
Dorji Bhutia, a Buddhist monk and a reputed mask-maker with supernatural powers of bringing or stopping rain chose a self-determined death at the age of eighty-six. Dorji leaves his mystic image
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Children / Young people
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Intergenerational relations
Raju and His Friends
1988
40
‘
Directed by
Marcus Banks
.
This film is set in the city of Jamnagar, western India. The film focuses on the emotions, quality of life, and on duty. Raju’s friendship with different people, including the director, provide a
South Asia
Urban
Informant-researcher relationship
Life Story / Life History
Ritual Journeys
2011
75
‘
Directed by
Dawa Lepcha
Anna Balikci
.
The film is an intimate portrait of Merayk, an 80 years old Lepcha shaman or Padim. Merayk lives with his family in Dzongu, a Lepcha reserve in North Sikkim. He performs healing rituals for
South Asia
Ritual
Shamans and Shamanism
Health / Health care / Healing
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
Tingvong: A Lepcha Village in Sikkim
2005
60
‘
Directed by
Dawa T Lepcha
Anna Balikci-Denjongpa
Asen Balikci
.
The film illustrates the changes the Lepcha of the Dzongu reserve, North Sikkim, have been through in the last 60 years. From the 1940s, the Lepcha of Tingvong village gradually abandoned hunting,
South Asia
Social Change
Religion / Belief / Faith
Agriculture / Farming
Unravel
2012
14
‘
Directed by
Meghna Gupta
.
‘Unravel’ follows the Western worlds least wanted clothes, on a journey across Northern India, from sea to industrial interior. They get sent to Panipat, a sleepy town and the only place in the world
South Asia
Labour
Material Culture
Collective / Community identity
Where the Clouds End
2014
52
‘
Directed by
Wanphrang Diengdoh
.
“My late great grandfather was a Bengali who came to Shillong in the early 1900s – long before the present political border divided the lands.” After the creation of borders between India and
South Asia
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Collective / Community identity