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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
Instagram
Twitter
Films
15 Films
Keywords
“Archival material Museum displays”
x
films with a digital version
7
films hosted on Kanopy
1
short films
11
films available on demand
4
Region
Australia
1
British-Irish Isles
2
New Zealand and Polynesia
1
North America
4
South-East Asia
1
Various
1
West Africa
3
Western Europe
3
Western Mediterranean
1
Country
Australia
1
Belgium
1
Canada
2
Indonesia
1
Nigeria
2
Samoa
1
Sierra Leone
1
Spain
1
The Netherlands
1
Togo
1
United Kingdom
3
United States
2
Various
1
Keywords
Archaeology
2
Archival material / Museum displays
15
x
Art / Artists / Artisans
4
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
3
Dance / Theatre / Performance
1
Death
1
Education / Knowledge Transmission
1
Education / Knowledge transmission
1
Environment
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
3
Food
1
History
1
History of Anthropology
4
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nation peoples
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
2
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Marriage
1
Material Culture
2
Race / Racism / Antiracism
3
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Ritual
5
Social Organisation
1
Directors
Basu, Paul
1
Beier, Ulli
1
Brandão, Joana
1
Brewer, Teri F.
1
Curtis, Edward S.
1
De Groof, Matthias
1
Eaton, Michael
1
Forge, Anthony
1
Glass, Aaron
1
Hill, Amanda
1
Lopes, André
1
Marrero-Guillamon, Isaac
1
Milner, George
1
Rens, Maarten
1
Saltman, Carlyn
1
Sheahan, Tom
1
Singer, André
1
Speed, Frank
1
Thomas Allen, Christopher
1
Series
ANU, Indonesia Series
1
Decolonising Shorts
2
Forbidden Rites
1
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
1
National Film and Television School
1
not set
9
Country of production
Australia
1
Belgium
1
Canada
2
Nigeria
1
United Kingdom
9
United States
5
Year of production
1964
1
1972
1
1973
1
1989
1
1991
1
1997
1
1999
1
2004
1
2007
1
2010
1
2015
1
2018
2
2019
2
Film list
The Blooms of Benjeli: Technology and Gender in West African Ironmaking
1997
29
‘
Directed by
Carlyn Saltman
.
The filmmaker and two historians went into the village of Banjeli in 1985 to recreate for the film the traditional iron smelting techniques (which are no longer used) of the area. By focusing on the
West Africa
Art / Artists / Artisans
Archival material / Museum displays
History
Material Culture
Cannibalism
1999
60
‘
Directed by
André Singer
Tom Sheahan
.
The history of cannibalism around the world and its role in different culture, from ancient Britain to Papua New Guinea. The Forbidden Rites trilogy explores cannibalism, head hunting and human
Various
Ritual
Archival material / Museum displays
History of Anthropology
A Donation to the Museum
2015
25
‘
Directed by
Teri F. Brewer
.
Human remains from the California Channel Islands were donated to an English city museum nearly a century ago. More recently research began into how they came to be there, and whose remains they
North America
Western Europe
Archaeology
Archival material / Museum displays
Faces Voices
2018
18
‘
Directed by
Paul Basu
Christopher Thomas Allen
.
The film complicates any simple reading of a colonial photographic archive from Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone that was collected between 1909 and 1915. Through a collaborative creative effort
West Africa
British-Irish Isles
Archival material / Museum displays
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
In the Land of the War Canoes
1972
47
‘
Directed by
Edward S. Curtis
.
The film was made in 1914 by Edward Curtis. The plot concerns the efforts of a young man, Motana, son of a great chief, to obtain a bride and how he is thwarted by a wicked sorcerer. Many of the
North America
Archival material / Museum displays
Marriage
Film / Photography / Mass media
In Search of the Hamat’sa: A Tale of Headhunting
2004
33
‘
Directed by
Aaron Glass
.
The Hamat’sa (or “Cannibal Dance”) is the most important—and highly represented ceremony of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) people of British Columbia. This film traces the history of
North America
Archival material / Museum displays
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Ritual
Informant-researcher relationship
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Lifelibrary
2007
22
‘
Directed by
Amanda Hill
.
Library spacescape. quiet, history, dreams, wisdom, structure, anomaly, affection, preservation, creation, galaxies, distraction and contemplation. An exploration of a changing world withinwithout
British-Irish Isles
Education / Knowledge transmission
Archival material / Museum displays
Masks of Mer
2010
37
‘
Directed by
Michael Eaton
.
The film Alfred Haddon made in 1898 in the Torres Straits, lasting for less than a minute, is the world’s first example of anthropological cinema. ‘The Masks of Mer’ tells the extraordinary story of
Australia
History of Anthropology
Film / Photography / Mass media
Archival material / Museum displays
Ritual
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
New Images
1964
27
‘
Directed by
Ulli Beier
Frank Speed
.
The film is a brief description of life in a busy commercial centre that still depends upon and retains its ancient traditions. These are based on the history of the town which was founded on the
West Africa
Art / Artists / Artisans
Religion / Belief / Faith
Archival material / Museum displays
New York Just Another City
2019
18
‘
Directed by
André Lopes
Joana Brandão
.
Brazilian Guarani filmmaker Patrícia Ferreira reflects on New York City and Indigenous representation in dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. This film is part of the collected DVD
North America
Archival material / Museum displays
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Indigenous peoples / First Nation peoples
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Ngarap: fighting over a corpse
1973
17
‘
Directed by
Anthony Forge
.
In 1993, Anthony Forge filmed the cremation of an older woman from an affluent ‘commoner’ family. As her body was moved from her family compound to the cremation tower, men of the ward seized the
South-East Asia
Death
Ritual
Art / Artists / Artisans
Archival material / Museum displays
Palimpsest of the Africa Museum
2019
69
‘
Directed by
Matthias De Groof
.
In 2013, the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels (Belgium) closed for renovation. It is not only the building and the museum cabinets that are in need of renewal: the spirit of the museum has
Western Europe
Archival material / Museum displays
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Education / Knowledge Transmission
History of Anthropology
Smoke
1991
28
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Maarten Rens
.
The film deals with fish smoking in Monnickendam, a small town twelve miles north of Amsterdam. Using archival footage, interviewing old fishermen, and contrasting the traditional and the modern
Western Europe
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Food
Archival material / Museum displays
Tindaya Variations
2018
40
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Isaac Marrero-Guillamon
.
The mountain of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands) is more than a mountain. It was a sacred site for the indigenous people of Fuerteventura; later, its rock was quarried and sold for ornamental
Western Mediterranean
Archival material / Museum displays
Art / Artists / Artisans
Environment
Material Culture
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Archaeology