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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
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Instagram
Twitter
Films
20 Films
Keywords
“Dance Theatre Performance”
x
Series
“0”
x
films with a digital version
12
short films
6
films available on demand
4
Region
Central Asia and Far East
2
East Africa
1
Latin America
1
Middle and Near East
1
North America
1
South America
4
South Asia
2
South-East Asia
3
Southern Africa
1
West Africa
4
Western Mediterranean
1
Country
Afghanistan
1
Angola
1
Brazil
4
Burkina Faso
1
Canada
1
India
2
Indonesia
3
Italy
1
Ivory Coast
1
Japan
2
Kenya
1
Nigeria
2
Peru
1
Keywords
Alternative culture
1
Animation
1
Archival material / Museum displays
1
Art / Artists / Artisans
4
Children / Young people
4
Dance / Theatre / Performance
20
x
Ethnofiction
2
Everyday Life
1
Festivals / Carnival
2
Film / Photography / Mass media
2
Gender Role and Identity
4
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Health / Healthcare / Healing
1
History
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
3
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Life Story / Life History
1
Memory
1
Migration
1
Music / Ethnomusicology
5
Participatory / Collaborative methods
2
Popular Culture
1
Possession
1
Public Figure
2
Religion / Belief / Faith
3
Reproduction (biology)
1
Research methods
1
Ritual
6
Rural
1
Sex / Sexuality
2
Social participation
1
Directors
Akin, Dorcas
1
Assunção, Matthias Röhrig
1
Atieno, Lavine
1
Awino, Effie
1
Baily, John
1
Barreiro, Georgina
1
Bradbury, Ray
1
D’onofrio, Alexandra
1
Davidson, John Paul
1
Dettmann, Christine
1
Dietrich, Martha-Cecilia
1
Glass, Aaron
1
Harper, Peggy
1
Hellwig, Jean
1
Hinckley, Priscilla
1
Hughes-Freeland, Felicia
2
Hunt, Claire
1
Lancker, Laurent Van
1
Longinotto, Kim
2
Mansu, Marcia
1
Ndinya, June
1
Njoki, Ruth
1
Opipari, Carmen
1
Pakleppa, Richard
1
Saltman, Carlyn
1
Shuffield, Robin
1
Speed, Frank
2
Timbert, Sylvie
1
Tsering Lepcha, Dawa
1
Williams, Jano
1
Series
not set
20
x
Country of production
Argentina
1
Belgium
1
Brazil
2
Canada
1
France
1
India
1
Italy
1
Kenya
1
Nigeria
2
Peru
1
South Africa
1
United Kingdom
12
United States
1
not set
1
Year of production
1963
1
1975
1
1983
1
1988
2
1989
1
1990
2
1993
1
1996
1
1997
1
1998
1
2004
1
2007
1
2014
1
2018
3
2019
1
2022
1
Film list
Atieno
2018
64
‘
Directed by
June Ndinya
Effie Awino
Ruth Njoki
Lavine Atieno
Dorcas Akin
.
Atieno is a collaborative fiction film scripted, acted and directed by DreamGirls, a group of adolescent girls and young women from Nairobi and Kisumu. The film tells of Atieno, a 16 year old girl
East Africa
Health / Healthcare / Healing
Children / Young people
Gender Role and Identity
Ethnofiction
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Participatory / Collaborative methods
Sex / Sexuality
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
Benin Kingship Rituals
1963
20
‘
Directed by
Frank Speed
Ray Bradbury
.
Until it was conquered by the British in 1897, the city of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, was the centre of a powerful kingdom. Its rulers, the Obas of Benin, were mysterious, secluded figures who
West Africa
Ritual
Dance / Theatre / Performance
History
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
Cham in the Lepcha Village of Lingthem
2007
52
‘
Directed by
Dawa Tsering Lepcha
.
Every winter, over a period of six days, the lamas of Lingthem’s village monastery hold their annual cham. These dramatic ritual masked dances impart elementary Buddhist teachings while providing
South Asia
Ritual
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Religion / Belief / Faith
Chantal’s Choice
1990
30
‘
Directed by
Priscilla Hinckley
Carlyn Saltman
.
Adolescents in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, create a play for their peers in Europe and the USA. They enact an African folktale about a girl who faces a painful dilemma because she is determined to stay in school.
West Africa
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Children / Young people
Reproduction (biology)
Cine Rabeca
2022
55
‘
Directed by
Marcia Mansu
.
Time dimensions emerge from the relation between the visible and the imagined, between memory and the experience of the present. A unique place emerges through the entanglement of music and archive
Latin America
Music / Ethnomusicology
Art / Artists / Artisans
Dance / Theatre / Performance
The Dancer and the Dance
1988
44
‘
Directed by
Felicia Hughes-Freeland
.
This film is an invitation to see Javanese palace dancing as performed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and to go beyond appearances to discover what the dance means to those who continue the tradition. In
South-East Asia
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Dream Girls
1993
50
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
Jano Williams
.
This award-winning film opens a door into the amazing world of the Takarazuka Revue, the all-female theatre troupe in Japan. Thousands of young women aspire to perform in the Revue’s glitzy musical
Central Asia and Far East
Public Figure
Popular Culture
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Gender Role and Identity
Eat the Kimono
1989
60
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
Claire Hunt
.
A compelling biography of Hanayagi Genshu, a feminist and dancer who spent her lifetime defying the conservative traditions of Japanese society with her radical politics and unconventional
Central Asia and Far East
Public Figure
Gender Role and Identity
Art / Artists / Artisans
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Alternative culture
Herat Films: The Annual Cycle of Music in Herat
1983
54
‘
Directed by
John Baily
.
These videos were edited from seven hours of Super 8 film shot by John Baily during two years of ethnomusicological fieldwork carried out in the Herat region of western Afghanistan between 1973 and
Middle and Near East
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Music / Ethnomusicology
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
IT WAS TOMORROW
2018
53
‘
Student
Directed by
Alexandra D’onofrio
.
After living in Italy for almost ten years without documents, three Egyptian men – Ali, Mahmoud and Mohamed – are suddenly awarded legal residence. As a whole new world of opportunities opens up to
Western Mediterranean
Animation
Art / Artists / Artisans
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Film / Photography / Mass media
Life Story / Life History
Memory
Migration
Research methods
Participatory / Collaborative methods
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
Kwagh Hir
1975
30
‘
Directed by
Frank Speed
Peggy Harper
.
Four million Tiv people form the major culture of the Benue state of southern Nigeria. They are popularly known as the greatest democrats in Africa as their society is based on fraternal cooperation
West Africa
Festivals / Carnival
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Ritual
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
Sundanese Culture Alive
1988
46
‘
Directed by
Jean Hellwig
.
Jaipongan is a new style of music and dancing which was ‘invented’ about a decade ago on Western Java, Indonesia. Drawing on more classical Javanese music and taking elements from Japanese and
South-East Asia
Music / Ethnomusicology
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Tara’s footprint
2018
70
‘
Intangible Culture
Directed by
Georgina Barreiro
.
Tara’s Footprint skilfully conjures the atmosphere of Khechuperi, a village in the Himalayas in north eastern India. Eschewing standard exposition the film follows four young siblings as they go
South Asia
Children / Young people
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Everyday Life
Music / Ethnomusicology
Religion / Belief / Faith
Rural
Tayuban: Dancing the Spirit in Java
1996
30
‘
Directed by
Felicia Hughes-Freeland
.
Once a year a ritual is held in a Javanese village. After a distribution of food, men dance with professional female dancers. Their allegedly sexual ethos makes these ‘tayuban’ unacceptable as
South-East Asia
Ritual
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Sex / Sexuality
Gender Role and Identity
Ymako
1998
52
‘
Directed by
Laurent Van Lancker
Robin Shuffield
.
Ymako Teatri, a theatre company based in the Ivory Coast, uses street theatre to question some contemporary West African problems. Their originality consists in using the ‘invisible theatre’
West Africa
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Health / Health care / Healing
Social participation