Skip to content
RAI FILM
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
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
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
15 Films
Keywords
“Sex Sexuality”
x
films with a digital version
9
short films
7
films available on demand
5
Region
British-Irish Isles
1
Central Asia and Far East
1
East Africa
1
Melanesia
1
North America
2
Scandinavia
1
South America
2
South-East Asia
2
Western Europe
5
Country
Brazil
1
China
1
Colombia
1
Denmark
1
France
2
Germany
1
Indonesia
1
Japan
1
Kenya
1
Los Angeles
1
Netherlands
1
Samoa
1
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
1
United States
1
Keywords
Children / Young people
1
Collective / Community identity
2
Dance / Theatre / Performance
2
Ethnofiction
4
Family / Kinship
3
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Gender Role and Identity
9
Health / Healthcare / Healing
1
Informant-researcher relationship
1
LGBTQI*
5
Labour
3
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
1
Love
3
Migration
2
Participatory / Collaborative methods
1
Reflexivity
3
Reproduction (biology)
1
Research Methods
1
Ritual
1
Sex / Sexuality
15
x
Tourism/ Travel/ Pilgrimage
1
Directors
Akin, Dorcas
1
Atieno, Lavine
1
Awino, Effie
1
Cai, Hua
1
Croall, Heather
1
Eagle, Rob
1
F. Quigua, Claudia
1
Hughes-Freeland, Felicia
1
Jeppesen, Kira de Hemmer
1
Longinotto, Kim
2
Mai, Nick
2
Moffat, Zemirah
1
Ndinya, June
1
Njoki, Ruth
1
Sjøberg, Johannes
1
Sonderegger, Ramona
1
Sterre Schmitz, Julia
1
Williams, Jano
1
Series
Pleasure Shorts
3
not set
12
Country of production
Australia
1
China
1
Colombia
1
Denmark
1
France
2
Kenya
1
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
United Kingdom
8
United States
1
Year of production
1995
1
1996
1
1997
1
1999
1
2006
1
2007
1
2012
1
2015
1
2016
3
2018
1
2019
1
2020
2
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
Come Here Come Here
2019
28
‘
Directed by
Julia Sterre Schmitz
.
As a poetic manifesto for a more plural understanding of female sexuality, this associative film interweaves many theories, images, fantasies, memories and confusions drawn from popular culture,
Western Europe
Sex / Sexuality
Love
Gender Role and Identity
Research Methods
Dreamcatcher
2015
98
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
.
A film set in Chicago about an inspirational woman who has defied her past and now rescues girls and young women from a life on the streets.
North America
Gender Role and Identity
Labour
Sex / Sexuality
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
Mirror Mirror
2006
58
‘
Directed by
Zemirah Moffat
.
Mirror Mirror is based on an audio-visual ethnography of London’s queer Club Wotever. Begun in the autumn of 2003, it promoted itself as a club that welcomed all genders and sexualities – a
British-Irish Isles
LGBTQI*
Sex / Sexuality
Gender Role and Identity
Motels
2020
27
‘
Directed by
Claudia F. Quigua
.
Have you ever been in a motel room with rounded beds, love chairs, coloured lights and dancing poles? This film explores a prominent yet often overlooked aspect of Colombian culture through the
South America
Sex / Sexuality
Love
Tourism/ Travel/ Pilgrimage
Oink!
2020
22
‘
Directed by
Rob Eagle
.
An experimental research documentary offering a portrait of gay men who‚ in different ways‚ relate to the “pig” sexual imaginary. It provides insight into their experiences of identity,
Western Europe
North America
Sex / Sexuality
LGBTQI*
Collective / Community identity
Paradise Bent. Boys will be Girls in Samoa
1999
51
‘
Directed by
Heather Croall
.
Paradise Bent is a fascinating and entertaining film that tells the story of the Samoan fa’afafines: boys who are raised as girls and take on the domestic duties performed by women around the home,
Melanesia
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
Shinjuku Boys
1997
54
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
Jano Williams
.
A film about love and gender. This film is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo where all the hosts are women who have decided to live as men. They make their living by working in a club with
Central Asia and Far East
Gender Role and Identity
Sex / Sexuality
Love
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
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
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