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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
RAI Film Festival 2025
RAI Film Festival 2025 Group passes
About RAI Film Festival
RAI Film Festival prizes and awards
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
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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
RAI Film Festival 2025
RAI Film Festival 2025 Group passes
About RAI Film Festival
RAI Film Festival prizes and awards
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
RAI Film Festival 2025
RAI Film Festival 2025 Group passes
About RAI Film Festival
RAI Film Festival prizes and awards
Archive of past editions
Login
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Films
5 Films
Keywords
“Indigenous peoples First Nations peoples”
and
“Ritual”
x
films with a digital version
2
short films
2
Region
Australia
2
Central Asia and Far East
1
North America
1
South America
1
Country
Australia
2
Brazil
1
Canada
1
Japan
1
Keywords
Animals
1
Archival material / Museum displays
1
Collective / Community identity
1
Dance / Theatre / Performance
1
Death
2
Elderly people
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
5
x
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Ritual
5
x
Social Organisation
1
Directors
Glass, Aaron
1
MacDougall, David
1
MacDougall, Judith
1
Munro, Neil G.
1
Pasini, Carlos
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
not set
4
Country of production
Australia
2
Canada
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
2
Year of production
1931
1
1974
1
1977
1
1980
1
2004
1
Film list
The Ainu Bear Ceremony
1931
27
‘
Directed by
Neil G. Munro
.
The RAI has reedited the original film of this ceremony among the Ainu people of Japan. In the bear ceremony, now no longer performed, a specially reared bear was reverently killed and its flesh and
Central Asia and Far East
Ritual
Animals
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Good-bye Old Man
1977
70
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
A last request of a Tiwi man on Melville Island was that a film be made of the pukumani (bereavment) ceremony to follow his death. The film follows his family, from the days of preparation to their
Australia
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Death
Elderly people
Film / Photography / Mass media
Ritual
The House-Opening
1980
45
‘
Directed by
Judith MacDougall
.
When Geraldine Kawanka’s husband died, she and her children left their house at Aurukun on Cape York Peninsula. In earlier times a bark house would have been burnt, but today a ‘house-opening’
Australia
Ritual
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Death
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
The Mehinacu
1974
52
‘
Directed by
Carlos Pasini
.
The Mehinacu live near the head-waters of the River Xingu in Central Brazil, in a single village within the protective confines of the Xingu National Park. Although the film concentrates upon the
South America
Social Organisation
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Collective / Community identity
Ritual