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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
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
19 Films
Keywords
“Reflexivity”
x
films with a digital version
8
films hosted on Kanopy
1
short films
9
films available on demand
6
Region
Australia
1
British-Irish Isles
3
Caribbean Islands
1
Central America
1
East Africa
1
North and Northeast Africa
2
South America
5
South-East Asia
1
West Africa
1
Western Europe
4
Western Mediterranean
1
Country
Australia
1
Belgium
1
Brazil
4
Colombia
1
Ethiopia
2
France
2
Germany
1
Greece
1
Indonesia
1
Jamaica
1
Mexico
1
Sierra Leone
1
Uganda
1
United Kingdom
3
Keywords
Art / Artists / Artisans
1
Children / Young people
3
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
1
Death
1
Essay film
3
Ethnofiction
3
Film / Photography / Mass media
3
Folklore
1
Gender Role and Identity
2
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
2
Informant-researcher relationship
4
Infrastructure / Transport
1
LGBTQI*
1
Labour
2
Love
1
Migration
4
Possession
1
Prison
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
1
Reflexivity
19
x
Refugees/ Displaced populations
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Resettlement
1
Sex / Sexuality
3
Social Change
1
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Arcé, Adrian
1
Asch, Patsy
1
Asch, Timothy
1
Connor, Linda
1
Fossgard-Moser, Titus
1
Hanson, Kieran
1
Kawase, Itsushi
1
Maagdenberg, Ester
1
MacDougall, David
1
MacDougall, Judith
1
Mai, Nick
2
McKenzie, Kim
1
Mekonen, Solomon
1
Sjøberg, Johannes
1
Werbner, Richard
3
Xu, Beina
1
Zirión, Antonio
1
van de Port, Mattijs
3
Series
ANU, Indonesia Series
1
Decolonising Shorts
1
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
2
Shorts Collection 2
1
The Well-Being Quest in Botswana
3
not set
11
Country of production
Australia
3
France
2
Germany
2
Japan
1
Mexico
1
Netherlands
3
Norway
1
Sweden
1
United Kingdom
6
United States
1
Year of production
1973
1
1980
2
2006
1
2007
1
2010
1
2011
4
2013
1
2016
4
2018
2
2020
2
Film list
The Body Won’t Close
2020
74
‘
Main Competition
Directed by
Mattijs van de Port
.
Our bodies are semi-permeable. All over the world, stories are being told about heroes who magically “close” their bodies, so as to become invincible. This film follows one such story, as it is
South America
Essay film
Gender Role and Identity
Folklore
Reflexivity
Counterpoint Botswana
2011
45
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
Seeing ‘Holy Hustler’, the 2009 film made in Botswana, local viewers respond and discuss it with the filmmaker Richard Werbner in 2011. ‘Counterpoint Botswana’ captures the reception by home
British-Irish Isles
Reflexivity
Counterpoint One
2011
37
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
The first in the Forum Follies series, ‘Counterpoint One’ pitches the ethnographic filmmaker Richard Werbner into debate with audiences for his film ‘Holy Hustlers’ (2009), from a rough to a final
British-Irish Isles
Reflexivity
Counterpoint Two
2011
45
‘
Directed by
Richard Werbner
.
The second in the ‘Forum Follies’ series, ‘Counterpoint Two’ pitches the ethnographic filmmaker Richard Werbner into debate with audiences for his film ‘Encountering Eloyi’ (2008), from a rough to a
British-Irish Isles
Reflexivity
Emails to My Little Sister
2018
35
‘
Directed by
Solomon Mekonen
.
An autoethnographic phenomenology of blackness in Berlin via Ethiopia. The film explores the historical and ongoing relationship between the so-called West and Africa. A brother who lives north of
Western Europe
North and Northeast Africa
Migration
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Reflexivity
Forget Alberto For Now
2020
19
‘
Directed by
Beina Xu
.
A refugee known only as Alberto flies from Athens to Brussels on a fake passport. Three years later, a small crew from Berlin tries to make a film by shooting the landscape of his transit. Things
Western Europe
Western Mediterranean
Reflexivity
Migration
Resettlement
Refugees/ Displaced populations
Ignacio’s Legacy
2016
52
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Titus Fossgard-Moser
.
Between 1960 and 1992, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Brian Moser made four films concerning indigenous peoples of northwest Amazonia: "Piraparana" (1960), "War of the Gods"
South America
Film / Photography / Mass media
Social Change
Reflexivity
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed
1980
16
‘
Directed by
Timothy Asch
Linda Connor
Patsy Asch
.
For the first time Jero sees herself on film as she watches ‘A Balinese Trance Séance’. Her spontaneous comments provide insights into her feelings while possessed, her understanding of her
South-East Asia
Possession
Reflexivity
Health / Health care / Healing
Knots and Holes. An Essay Film on the Life of Nets.
2018
74
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Mattijs van de Port
.
A singular anthropological essay film that observes the various nets we find across different contexts in Bahia (from fishing nets to delicate nets of lace), and the emotions and sensations
South America
Essay film
Reflexivity
Love
Made in Trenchtown
2010
33
‘
Directed by
Ester Maagdenberg
.
‘Made in Trenchtown’ is the product of a collaboration with three teenagers from Trenchtown – a ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica, controlled by drug lords. As Philomena, Diamond and Stephan hold the
Caribbean Islands
Children / Young people
Reflexivity
Out of Focus
2013
37
‘
Directed by
Adrian Arcé
Antonio Zirión
.
This is a collaborative documentary about arts, culture and everyday life inside a prison for minors. It was shot during a photography and video workshop with young inmates at the Juvenile Community
Central America
Children / Young people
Prison
Art / Artists / Artisans
Reflexivity
The Possibility of Spirits
2016
72
‘
Directed by
Mattijs van de Port
.
What is it that you film when you film a spirit? I was brought up to believe that spirits do not exist. Years of research on an afro-Brazilian spirit possession cult taught me the limits of such
South America
Essay film
Religion / Belief / Faith
Reflexivity
Room 11, Ethiopia Hotel
2006
23
‘
Directed by
Itsushi Kawase
.
The film recounts the life of children living on the street in Gondar, Ethiopia, by witnessing the interaction between two children and the filmmaker. The entire film was shot in the room of Ethiopia
North and Northeast Africa
Children / Young people
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
Informant-researcher relationship
Reflexivity
Shooting Freetown
2011
29
‘
Directed by
Kieran Hanson
.
A decade since Sierra Leone’s devastating civil war, from the ashes rises a new dawn of creativity in audio-visual media. Inspired by Jean Rouch’s ‘shared anthropology’ and ‘ethno-fiction’,
West Africa
Film / Photography / Mass media
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Reflexivity
Transfiction
2007
58
‘
Directed by
Johannes Sjøberg
.
Transfiction explores ‘ethnofiction’ – an experimental ethnographic documentary film style in which the participants collaborate with the filmmaker to act out their own and others’ life experiences
South America
Reflexivity
Film / Photography / Mass media
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
LGBTQI*
Ethnofiction
Travel
2016
63
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Nick Mai
.
(This version of the film is edited using a single screen. For the split screen version see ‘Travel – double screen version’). Joy left Nigeria to help her family after her father’s death. She
Western Europe
Sex / Sexuality
Labour
Migration
Ethnofiction
Informant-researcher relationship
Reflexivity
Travel (double screen)
2016
63
‘
Directed by
Nick Mai
.
(This version of the film uses a split-screen device throughout. For the single screen version see ‘Travel’). Joy left Nigeria to help her family after her father’s death. She knew that she was
Western Europe
Sex / Sexuality
Labour
Migration
Ethnofiction
Reflexivity
Under the Men’s Tree
1973
15
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
Judith MacDougall
.
At Jie cattle camps in Uganda men often gather under a special tree to make leather and wooden goods and talk, relax, and sleep. This brilliant ethnographic documentary by renowned filmmakers David
East Africa
Infrastructure / Transport
Informant-researcher relationship
Reflexivity
Waiting for Harry
1980
57
‘
Directed by
Kim McKenzie
.
Although the events around which this film was planned were the final mortuary rites for Les Angabarraparra, the subject of the film became interaction. Interaction between the anthropologist Les
Australia
Informant-researcher relationship
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Death
Reflexivity