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About
About RAI Film
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Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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Film Festival 2025
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Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
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
13 Films
Region
“Central America”
x
Country
“Mexico”
x
films with a digital version
7
films hosted on Kanopy
2
short films
9
films available on demand
2
Region
Central America
13
x
North America
1
Country
Mexico
13
x
United States
1
Keywords
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
1
Art / Artists / Artisans
2
Children / Young people
1
Elderly people
1
Family / Kinship
1
Festivals / Carnival
1
Food
1
Forensic
1
Gender Role and Identity
1
History
1
Indigenous Filmmaking
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
5
Inter-religious relations
1
Intergenerational relations
2
Labour
2
Linguistics / Language
1
Love
1
Material Culture
2
Memory
2
Migration
1
Political Activists
1
Prison
1
Reflexivity
1
Resistance
1
Shamans and Shamanism
1
Social Change
2
Social Conflict
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
1
Trade
1
Directors
Arcé, Adrian
1
Brown, David
1
Contreras, Isis
1
Corral Paredes, Carolina
1
Dreiss, Meredith
1
Engelbrecht, Beate
1
Hennies, Jan-Holger
1
Huffschmid, Anne
1
Lane, Bruce Pacho
1
Magaña, Jaime
1
Moore, Allen
1
Navarro Smith, Alejandra
1
Rivero Uicab, Carlos R.
1
Savage, Rebecca
1
Sojob, María
1
Werner, Louis
1
Zirión, Antonio
1
Series
Ambulante Beyond
3
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
3
not set
7
Country of production
Germany
1
Mexico
6
United Kingdom
3
United States
3
not set
1
Year of production
1996
1
2000
2
2001
1
2006
1
2009
1
2012
1
2013
2
2014
2
2019
2
Film list
Agave is Life
2014
59
‘
Directed by
Meredith Dreiss
David Brown
.
Agave is Life is a documentary film about mankind’s 10,000 year-long symbiotic alliance with the marvelous agave plant, from which tequila, Mexico’s iconic distilled spirit, is derived. The
Central America
Archaeobotany / Ethnobotany
Food
History
Campo 9
2013
25
‘
Directed by
Carlos R. Rivero Uicab
.
Carlos, the director of the documentary, worked for four years with Abraham and his family of Mennonites who have lived in the Campeche region for over a decade. Abraham mainly worked cutting down
Central America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Social Conflict
Inter-religious relations
Copperworking in Santa Clara del Cobra, Michoacán, Mexico – Artisans Facing Change
2001
52
‘
Directed by
Beate Engelbrecht
.
Santa Clara del Cobre, a village in Mexico’s province Michoacán, is well-known for its copperwork, a craft originating from pre-Spanish times. In the late 1940s the people of Santa Clara tried to
Central America
Material Culture
Labour
Art / Artists / Artisans
Democracía Indígena
2000
39
‘
Directed by
Bruce Pacho Lane
.
This film examines the indigenous rights revolution sweeping Mexico through the municipal elections in Huehuetla, Puebla. In 1989, the Huehuetla Totonacs formed the Organización Independiente
Central America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Political Activists
Kutääy
2014
20
‘
Directed by
Isis Contreras
.
Fili, a 22-year-old Mixe, makes ornamental paper hot air balloons. Since this is an important tradition in his community, Fili —an expert in the art— is recognized and accepted. Yet, he is
Central America
Material Culture
Social Change
Intergenerational relations
Los Guardianes del Mayab
2012
34
‘
Directed by
Jaime Magaña
.
Luis Puc is a Yucatecan Mayan jmen (shaman). He dies and travels to the dimension of the seven heavens where he meets the báalam (guardians). Through them, he receives healing powers and wisdom,
Central America
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Shamans and Shamanism
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
Persistence
2019
54
‘
Main Competition
Directed by
Anne Huffschmid
Jan-Holger Hennies
.
Human bodies don’t simply disappear. They were kidnapped, buried, broken into pieces. But they are also searched for, recovered and if forensic experts achieve the unlikely, reconstructed as
Central America
Forensic
Memory
Scenes of Resistance
2000
30
‘
Directed by
Alejandra Navarro Smith
.
A series of portraits of life in a Zapatista indigenous community in Chiapas, Southern Mexico. This film invites us into the people’s everyday lives, and presents their own views of the fight against
Central America
Resistance
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
A Sheepherder’s Homecoming
1996
40
‘
Directed by
Allen Moore
Louis Werner
.
This film documents a migrant worker’s experiences as a herder on a Nevada sheep ranch who then returns to his family in Mexico after a long absence to renew ties and find a job at home. It
North America
Central America
Migration
Labour
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
Tiempo de Vals
2006
22
‘
Directed by
Rebecca Savage
.
The ‘Quinceañera’ celebration is a lived illusion. A daydream shared by the whole community of Tetlanohcan, a rapidly urbanising agricultural town in Tlaxcala, Central Mexico. The dream is
Central America
Festivals / Carnival
Social Change
Vendemos Recuerdos
2009
25
‘
Directed by
Carolina Corral Paredes
.
Carlos is an enthusiastic tour guide and Doña Rosa is an indigenous old woman that sells crafts in the market. Both of their life’s works are an effort to provide what inquisitive tourists might
Central America
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Trade