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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
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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
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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Films
23 Films
Keywords
“Health Health care Healing”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
films with a digital version
11
short films
8
films available on demand
4
Region
British-Irish Isles
5
North America
1
North and Northeast Africa
3
South America
4
South Asia
2
South-East Asia
3
Southern Africa
4
West Africa
1
Country
Bolivia
1
Botswana
3
Brazil
2
Eritrea
1
Ethiopia
2
Ghana
1
India
2
Indonesia
2
Myanmar
1
South Africa
1
Sudan
1
United Kingdom
5
Venezuela
1
Keywords
Alternative culture
2
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
2
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
1
Children / Young people
3
Development projects
4
Education / Knowledge Transmission
2
Family / Kinship
1
Health / Health care / Healing
22
Health/ Health care/ Healing
1
x
Informant-researcher relationship
2
Life Story/ Life History
1
Personal Narrative
1
Political Activists
1
Possession
1
Prison
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
8
Reproduction (biology)
2
Ritual
5
Social Change
2
Social Conflict
1
Socioeconomic conditions
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Colucci, Erminia
3
Cook, Alistair
1
Cross, Stephen
1
Engels, Claudia
1
Farrell, Emma
1
Grove-White, Will
1
Kurutuac, Judith
1
Lawrence, Andy
1
Lehto, Veera
1
Leizaola, Ricardo
1
Levaulx-Vrecourt, Henriette
1
Longinotto, Kim
1
Pinhheiro, Joceny
1
Robinson, Paul
1
Ross, Nina
1
Singer, André
1
Solomons, Natasha
1
Werbner, Richard
3
Woodhead, Leslie
2
Series
Disappearing World Series
4
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
7
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Staff Film
1
Shorts Collection 2
1
The Well-Being Quest in Botswana
3
not set
7
Country of production
Australia
1
Indonesia
2
Italy
1
United Kingdom
23
x
United States
1
Year of production
1974
1
1977
1
1982
1
1987
1
1989
1
1991
1
1995
1
1997
2
1998
1
2001
1
2003
1
2004
2
2006
1
2007
1
2008
3
2015
1
2020
1
2021
2
Film list
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 Chains
2015
64
‘
Student
Directed by
Erminia Colucci
.
The practice of using shackles and chains to physically restrain people with mental illness (known as pasung) is widespread in Indonesia (as in many other developing/low middle income countries) and
South-East Asia
Prison
Health / Health care / Healing
Political Activists
Development projects
Cae Dai – a Home From Home
1997
30
‘
Directed by
Will Grove-White
.
After the closure of the North Wales psychiatric hospital in the late 1980s, Sparrow Harrison opened his family home to local people suffering from mental illness. This film explores the humour,
British-Irish Isles
Health / Health care / Healing
Alternative culture
The Daring Young Girl on the Flying Trapeze
2020
27
‘
Directed by
Nina Ross
.
As a child, Nancy Willis dreamt of joining the circus, longing for freedom and adventure. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and told she would not live beyond her twenties, the now 65-year-old artist
British-Irish Isles
Art/ Artists/ Artisans
Personal Narrative
Health/ Health care/ Healing
Life Story/ Life History
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
Encountering Eloyi
2008
56
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
Of all the faith-healing churches in Botswana, Eloyi is the most controversial. Sensational stories in newspapers and on television have made Eloyi notorious for so-called witch-busting and for
Southern Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Ritual
Religion / Belief / Faith
Reproduction (biology)
Fresh Fields
1995
31
‘
Directed by
Alistair Cook
.
From conflict to construction — this is the story of two disabled ex-fighters rebuilding their lives. What does the future hold for them in Eritrea, the homeland to which they are committed?
North and Northeast Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Development projects
HARMONI: HEALING TOGETHER
2021
98
‘
Directed by
Erminia Colucci
.
As a nation of 270 million, Indonesia is facing the grave task of caring for millions of people living with mental illness. Many have experienced human rights abuses in their lifetime. In communities
South-East Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Heal the Whole Man
1974
50
‘
Directed by
Paul Robinson
.
The ‘Barolong boo Ratshidi’ are one of the group of Tswana peoples, who together form a culturally homogeneous population of over two million. The Barolong themselves number about 75’000 and
Southern Africa
Religion / Belief / Faith
Health / Health care / Healing
Healer on the Street
2003
28
‘
Directed by
Joceny Pinhheiro
.
During the day, Isnar is a community paramedic who works in the local clinic and runs an arts and drugs rehabilitation centre for young people in Fortaleza on the coast of Northeast Brazil. But by
South America
Health / Health care / Healing
Ritual
Hold Me Tight Let Me Go
2007
99
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
.
*The main reason I wanted to shoot is that when the kids misbehave, the teachers don’t punish them but try to find out why they are acting in such a way. The driving idea behind the school is to
British-Irish Isles
Children / Young people
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Health / Health care / Healing
In Search of Cool Ground: The Mursi Trilogy
1987
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
This is a trilogy about aspects of the culture of two groups of people, the Kwegu and the Mursi, in Ethiopia. The titles are: THE MURSI , THE KWEGU, THE MIGRANTS *What made this trilogy special
North America
Social Change
Socioeconomic conditions
Health / Health care / Healing
Mursi: The Land is Bad
1991
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
A further visit to the Mursi of Southern Ethiopia with whom contact was established 17 years ago, for an important coming of age ceremony which has had to be postponed many times. An elder of the
North and Northeast Africa
Ritual
Social Conflict
Health / Health care / Healing
A New Kind of Life
1997
28
‘
Directed by
Emma Farrell
.
How is someone’s life affected when faced with cancer? This film is a portrait of three people from Manchester, England, who have chosen to include complementary therapies as part of their daily coping strategies.
British-Irish Isles
Health / Health care / Healing
Alternative culture
Nkabom: A little medicine A little prayer
2021
79
‘
Werbner Award
Directed by
Erminia Colucci
.
A mother is caring for her son at a healing shrine on the edge of a village in the central belt of Ghana. In another village, a father has taken his son to several Christian and traditional healers
West Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
The Second Red Line
2004
25
‘
Directed by
Veera Lehto
.
In HIV testing, the second red line is the indication of a positive result. This film follows two volunteers working with HIV & Aids sufferers in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. In the
South-East Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Development projects
Shade Seekers and The Mixer
2006
60
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
Set in Moremi village within Botswana’s awesome Tswapong hills, the film makes village elders self-consciously reflexive. The elders, including a controversial healer, view and discuss an earlier
Southern Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Informant-researcher relationship
A Spark in Him
2008
28
‘
Directed by
Claudia Engels
.
‘A Spark in Him’ is a film about the life story of Sajay Kumar, a young man without arms who lives in a home for disabled children in Kerala, India, and studies at the College of Fine Arts. By
South Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Children / Young people
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Séance Reflections with Richard Werbner
2004
45
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
Njebe and Martha are a childless couple living in Botswana’s capital. Seeking to recover their well-being, they consult a charismatic diviner and healer, in Njebe’s old village, Moremi. They
Southern Africa
Health / Health care / Healing
Ritual
Reproduction (biology)
Those who Care: Faith and Freedom in a Ladakhi Village
2001
31
‘
Directed by
Henriette Levaulx-Vrecourt
.
In Tia village, in an isolated area of Ladakh – North West India – lives an amchi (a local herbal doctor) and his wife. It is summer – a short season in the Indian Himalayas and the only period of
South Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
Umbanda
1977
52
‘
Directed by
Stephen Cross
.
Umbanda is a syncretic religious movement, combining elements from orthodox Catholicism with submerged African and indigenous Indian spiritual beliefs. In spite of past attempts to suppress it,
South America
Possession
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Ritual
Uncle Poison
1998
60
‘
Directed by
Ricardo Leizaola
.
Filmed in the city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Uncle Poison is an intimate portrait of a traditional faith healer, set against the backdrop of his community’s Easter celebrations. Every day,
South America
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
Witchcraft Among the Azande
1982
52
‘
Directed by
André Singer
.
*Witchcraft among the Azande’ is suitable for showing in undergraduate and graduate classes on topics of religion, philosophy, and African ethnography. It could also be stimulating to discussions of
North and Northeast Africa
Religion / Belief / Faith
Health / Health care / Healing
Social Change