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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
21 Films
Keywords
“Family Kinship”
x
Series
“0”
x
films with a digital version
10
films hosted on Kanopy
2
short films
7
films available on demand
4
Region
Australia
1
British-Irish Isles
2
Caribbean Islands
1
Central America
1
London
1
Middle and Near East
1
North America
1
North and Northeast Africa
1
Scandinavia
1
South America
2
South Asia
1
South-East Asia
3
South-East Europe
2
Southern Africa
2
West Africa
1
Western Europe
2
Country
Anguilla
1
Australia
1
Bangladesh
2
Botswana
2
Cameroon
1
China
1
Colombia
1
Cyprus
1
Denmark
1
Ethiopia
1
Greece
1
Guyana
1
Iran
1
Ireland
1
Italy
1
Mexico
1
Philippines
2
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
1
Keywords
Children / Young people
1
Collective / Community identity
3
Elderly people
2
Everyday Life
1
Family / Kinship
21
x
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
10
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Herding
1
Indigenous Filmmaking
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
2
Intergenerational relations
4
LGBTQI*
2
Labour
1
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
4
Life Story / Life History
1
Linguistics / Language
2
Love
3
Marriage
6
Memory
2
Migration
2
Personal Narrative
2
Political Activists
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
1
Refugees / Displaced populations
2
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Reproduction (biology)
1
Resettlement
1
Rural
3
Sex / Sexuality
3
Social Change
3
Social Conflict
1
Social Norms
2
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
1
Urban
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Cai, Hua
1
Chambers, Simon
1
Fruzzetti, Lina
1
Garland, Christy
1
Grossman, Alan
1
Guzzetti, Alfred
1
Holtedahl, Lisbet
1
Jeppesen, Kira de Hemmer
1
Johnston, Ned
1
Kildea, Gary
1
Kurutuac, Judith
1
Lawrence, Andy
1
Lloyd, Ravi Hart
1
Loizos, Peter
1
Longinotto, Kim
1
Loïzos, Peter
1
Lydall, Jean
1
MacDougall, David
2
O’Brien, Áine
1
Sojob, María
1
Sonderegger, Ramona
1
Strecker, Kaira
1
Sørensen, Tanja Wol
1
Werbner, Richard
2
Östör, Ákos
1
Series
not set
21
x
Country of production
Australia
3
Canada
1
China
1
Colombia
1
Denmark
1
Germany
1
Ireland
1
Italy
1
Mexico
1
Norway
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
10
United States
1
Year of production
1974
1
1985
1
1989
2
1993
1
1995
1
1997
1
2000
1
2001
1
2007
1
2008
1
2010
1
2012
2
2016
3
2017
1
2018
1
2019
1
2020
1
Film list
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
Born
2008
56
‘
Directed by
Andy Lawrence
Judith Kurutuac
.
*Our hope is to create a magical-real environment in which to go beyond the limits of our historical perspective on childbirth and its culturally bound rites, and to demonstrate an emotionally
British-Irish Isles
Health / Health care / Healing
Family / Kinship
Children / Young people
Breaking the Yard
2018
21
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
"Breaking-the-Yard" documents the court hearings and troubled affairs of a quarrelsome young couple, a stay-at-home farmer and his police constable, town-savvy wife. They claim to be still
Southern Africa
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
Love
Marriage
Caught in Between
2016
56
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
The focus is on a leading village elder, John Lelatlhego, a retired Human Resources administrator trained in settling disputes in the South African mines. John gets entangled in the long troubled
Southern Africa
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
Love
Marriage
Celso and Cora
2000
109
‘
Directed by
Gary Kildea
.
The film is about one family who live in the slums of Manila. Gary Kildea and a Filipino collaborator enter this family’s life, filming them as they eat, as they care for their children, as they work
South-East Asia
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
Family / Kinship
Urban
A Colombian Family
2020
80
‘
Main Competition
Directed by
Tanja Wol Sørensen
.
A powerful mother-daughter drama is at the centre of this film. Rooted in disagreement—both personal and political—the film follows the consequences of a war that leaves them with an impossible
South America
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Intergenerational relations
Memory
Migration
Personal Narrative
Political Activists
Refugees / Displaced populations
Social Conflict
Divorce Iranian Style
1989
80
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
.
This film is set in the Family Law Courts in central Tehran. The three main characters are Jamileh who punishes her husband for beating her, Ziba, a 16 year old girl who is trying to get a divorce
Middle and Near East
Marriage
Gender Role and Identity
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
Family / Kinship
Duka’s Dilemma
2001
87
‘
Directed by
Jean Lydall
Kaira Strecker
.
Filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Lydall has been making films with the Hamar community of southern Ethiopia since the 1970s. In 2001 she returned with her daughter and grandson to follow the
North and Northeast Africa
Family / Kinship
Marriage
Gender Role and Identity
Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears
2007
63
‘
Directed by
Simon Chambers
.
East London Muslim girl Shahanara is changing form pink hot pants into a sari to meet her husband at the airport. She has only met him once before, when she was married in a union arranged by her
London
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Marriage
Intergenerational relations
Social Norms
Extended Family
2016
31
‘
Student
Directed by
Ramona Sonderegger
.
This films offers an intimate insight into the lives of two same-sex families who found a way to create themselves within a legal grey area in Switzerland. Swiss law bans adoption and access to
Western Europe
LGBTQI*
Family / Kinship
Sex / Sexuality
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
The Guest
2012
20
‘
Student
Directed by
Kira de Hemmer Jeppesen
.
Following the personal story of a Danish first-time surrogate mother, ‘The Guest’ explores issues of maternal bonding, modern families, relatedness, and desired control over body and mind. We follow
Scandinavia
LGBTQI*
Sex / Sexuality
Reproduction (biology)
Family / Kinship
Life Chances: Four Families in a Greek Cypriot Village
1974
43
‘
Directed by
Peter Loizos
.
A careful account of social change in a prosperous Greek Cypriot village, which follows four closely related families before the Turkish made them all refugees. Their lives reflect the possibilities
South-East Europe
Social Change
Life Story / Life History
Rural
Family / Kinship
Link-up Diary
1997
86
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
The filmmaker goes on the road with Link-Up, an organisation which re-unites Aboriginal families separated in earlier decades by the New South Wales government. As the film shows, being reunited
Australia
Resettlement
Family / Kinship
Collective / Community identity
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Promise and Unrest
2010
79
‘
Directed by
Alan Grossman
Áine O’Brien
.
Separated from her daughter Gracelle at 7 months, Noemi Barredo left the Philippines for work in Malaysia before arriving in Ireland in 2000. Filmed over a five-year period, ‘Promise and Unrest’ is
South-East Asia
British-Irish Isles
Family / Kinship
Labour
Migration
Linguistics / Language
Seed and Earth
1989
36
‘
Directed by
Lina Fruzzetti
Alfred Guzzetti
Ned Johnston
Ákos Östör
.
Seed on Earth is a film about everyday life in rural Bangladesh (village of Janta, near Bishnupur town). It follows the daily schedule of two families and observes the complementary and difference of
South Asia
Rural
Family / Kinship
Gender Role and Identity
Sophia and Her People
1985
35
‘
Directed by
Peter Loïzos
.
Sofia and her family lost their village home in 1975 when Turkey invaded Cyprus. The film, mainly set in Nicosia in 1983, shows the pressures of refugee economic recovery through shift work in a
South-East Europe
Refugees / Displaced populations
Social Change
Family / Kinship
TOTE_Grandfather
2019
80
‘
Main Competition
Directed by
María Sojob
.
This film portrays an unexpected encounter between an old Tzotzil man, who is going blind, and his granddaughter, who does not remember her childhood well. The granddaughter, having grown up in the
Central America
Indigenous Filmmaking
Gender Role and Identity
Family / Kinship
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Elderly people
Love
Intergenerational relations
Linguistics / Language
Memory
Tempus de Baristas
1993
100
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
This film depicts the characters, and social dilemmas of three generations of Sardinian mountain shepherds. Although born roughly 20 years apart, Franchiscu (62), his son Pietro (17) and their
Western Europe
Herding
Social Change
Family / Kinship
Rural
Treasured Moments
2016
33
‘
Student
Directed by
Ravi Hart Lloyd
.
This is the personal story of a boy who grew up mixed in every aspect of his life, his parents, where he was from, his race. The black kid who thought that he was white. The white kid who thought
Caribbean Islands
North America
Family / Kinship
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Collective / Community identity
Film / Photography / Mass media
Without Fathers or Husbands
1995
26
‘
Directed by
Hua Cai
.
The Na are an ethnic group in south-east China. Their particularity is that all the members of each household are consanguineous relatives; their social organisation is absolutely matrilineal and as
South-East Asia
Family / Kinship
Collective / Community identity
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
Wives
2017
85
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Lisbet Holtedahl
.
Alhajji Ibrahim is an Islamic scholar who has served as judge at the Sultanate of Ngaoundéré in Northern Cameroon for 46 years. The film follows Alhajji during the last years of his life, focusing
West Africa
Family / Kinship
Everyday Life
Gender Role and Identity
Marriage
Personal Narrative
Religion / Belief / Faith
Social Norms