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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
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
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Twitter
Films
19 Films
Region
“South Asia”
x
Country
“India”
x
Country of production
“India”
x
films with a digital version
7
films hosted on Kanopy
3
short films
5
films available on demand
3
Region
South Asia
19
x
Country
India
19
x
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Art / Artists / Artisans
2
Children / Young people
5
Collective / Community identity
2
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
1
Dance / Theatre / Performance
1
Education / Knowledge Transmission
2
Education / Knowledge transmission
1
Environment
1
Everyday Life
1
Food / Water
1
Gender Role and Identity
5
Gender Role and identity
1
Health / Health care / Healing
1
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Inter-religious relations
1
Intergenerational relations
1
LGBTQI*
1
Labour
2
Love
1
Marriage
2
Material Culture
1
Participatory / Collaborative methods
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
6
Ritual
2
Rural
1
Shamans and Shamanism
1
Social Change
1
Social Norms
1
Socioeconomic conditions
3
Sport
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
2
Urban
3
Directors
Balikci, Anna
1
Balikci, Asen
1
Balikci-Denjongpa, Anna
1
Bhattachary, Nilanjan
1
Burstin, Costanza
1
Diengdoh, Wanphrang
1
Hajee, Amin
1
Hörmann, André
1
Kharel, Dipesh
1
Lepcha, Dawa
1
Lepcha, Dawa T
1
Longinotto, Kim
1
MacDougall, David
3
Mukhopadhayay, Kanchan
1
Roy, Rahul
3
Satija, Dhruv
1
Sharma, Aparna
1
Storaas, Frode
1
Tsering Lepcha, Dawa
1
Vohra, Paromita
1
Whitby-Coles, Charlotte
1
Series
not set
19
Country of production
Australia
2
Germany
1
India
19
x
Norway
1
United Kingdom
2
United States
1
Year of production
2000
1
2001
1
2003
1
2005
1
2006
2
2007
1
2008
1
2011
1
2012
2
2013
2
2014
1
2017
1
2018
3
2019
1
Film list
Arnav At Six
2012
28
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
Filmed as a collaborative project with Arnav Koshy in 2008, this film explores the mind and activities of an intelligent and observant child of six. Arnav is fascinated by the geology, plant-life,
South Asia
Children / Young people
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Black Mountain
2008
84
‘
Directed by
Charlotte Whitby-Coles
Amin Hajee
.
A once unremarkable site of multi-faith pilgrimage to a Sufi Saint has been transformed and its local history rewritten – the film documents the journey of Charlotte, a student undertaking her PhD
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Inter-religious relations
Calcutta Calling
2006
16
‘
Directed by
André Hörmann
.
“Business Process Outsourcing” is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, approximately 350,000 people are currently working in call centres to maintain the contact between western
South Asia
Labour
Cham in the Lepcha Village of Lingthem
2007
52
‘
Directed by
Dawa Tsering Lepcha
.
Every winter, over a period of six days, the lamas of Lingthem’s village monastery hold their annual cham. These dramatic ritual masked dances impart elementary Buddhist teachings while providing
South Asia
Ritual
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Religion / Belief / Faith
The Child’s Eye
2018
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
This video is a series of 12 short films that are the result of ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall’s a five-year project video workshop project with Indian children. In six workshops held in
South Asia
Children / Young people
Informant-researcher relationship
Participatory / Collaborative methods
The City Beautiful
2003
78
‘
Directed by
Rahul Roy
.
Sunder Nagri (Beautiful City) is a small working class colony on the margins of India’s capital city, Delhi. Most families residing here come from a community of weavers. The last ten years have
South Asia
Urban
Labour
Socioeconomic conditions
A Kali Temple Inside Out
2018
83
‘
Werbner Award
Directed by
Dipesh Kharel
Frode Storaas
.
Religious boundaries in India are not necessarily as sharp and antagonistic as news media lead us to believe. This film portrays everyday life inside and around a Kali temple in the city of Kanpur,
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Collective / Community identity
Majma
2001
54
‘
Directed by
Rahul Roy
.
Aslam sells medicines for sexual problems on the pavements of Meena Bazar near Jama Masjid in Delhi. Khalifa Barkat presides over an wrestling gym (akhara) in the adjacent park and puts a group of
South Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Sport
Socioeconomic conditions
Paani: of women and water
2018
22
‘
Student
Directed by
Costanza Burstin
.
Against the bleached sky of Rajasthan, we encounter the women of a small Muslim village as they engage in their work. Here, water binds their daily labour rituals: they collect and carry water in
South Asia
Environment
Food / Water
Gender Role and Identity
Rural
Everyday Life
Q2P
2006
55
‘
Directed by
Paromita Vohra
.
Q2P is a film about toilets and the city. It sifts through the dream of Mumbai as a future Shanghai and searches for public toilets, watching who has to queue to pee. As the film observes who has
South Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Urban
Socioeconomic conditions
Rain in the Mirror
2012
48
‘
Directed by
Nilanjan Bhattachary
Kanchan Mukhopadhayay
.
Dorji Bhutia, a Buddhist monk and a reputed mask-maker with supernatural powers of bringing or stopping rain chose a self-determined death at the age of eighty-six. Dorji leaves his mystic image
South Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Children / Young people
Education / Knowledge Transmission
Intergenerational relations
Ritual Journeys
2011
75
‘
Directed by
Dawa Lepcha
Anna Balikci
.
The film is an intimate portrait of Merayk, an 80 years old Lepcha shaman or Padim. Merayk lives with his family in Dzongu, a Lepcha reserve in North Sikkim. He performs healing rituals for
South Asia
Ritual
Shamans and Shamanism
Health / Health care / Healing
Salma
2013
90
‘
Directed by
Kim Longinotto
.
When Salma, a young Muslim girl in a south Indian village, was 13 years old, her family locked her up for 25 years, forbidding her to study and forcing her into marriage. During that time, words were
South Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Social Norms
Marriage
Art / Artists / Artisans
Tingvong: A Lepcha Village in Sikkim
2005
60
‘
Directed by
Dawa T Lepcha
Anna Balikci-Denjongpa
Asen Balikci
.
The film illustrates the changes the Lepcha of the Dzongu reserve, North Sikkim, have been through in the last 60 years. From the 1940s, the Lepcha of Tingvong village gradually abandoned hunting,
South Asia
Social Change
Religion / Belief / Faith
Agriculture / Farming
Under the Palace Wall
2013
53
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
From the 16th century the Indian village of Delwara in southern Rajasthan was ruled as a principality of the kingdom of Mewar. Its palace, which overlooks the village, is now a luxury hotel – a
South Asia
Education / Knowledge transmission
Children / Young people
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
Welcome Valentine 2017
2017
16
‘
Student
Directed by
Dhruv Satija
.
In a temple dedicated to Hanuman in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a priest flouts convention by marrying couples who are shunned elsewhere: mostly those who have eloped from families who disapprove of their
South Asia
Marriage
Love
LGBTQI*
Religion / Belief / Faith
When Four Friends Meet
2000
43
‘
Directed by
Rahul Roy
.
Bunty, Kamal, Sanjay and Sanju, best of friends and residents of Jehangiripuri, a working class colony on the outskirts of Delhi are young and trying to make their lives in an environment which is
South Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Children / Young people
Urban
Where the Clouds End
2014
52
‘
Directed by
Wanphrang Diengdoh
.
“My late great grandfather was a Bengali who came to Shillong in the early 1900s – long before the present political border divided the lands.” After the creation of borders between India and
South Asia
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Collective / Community identity
The Women Weavers of Assam
2019
98
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Aparna Sharma
.
The Women Weavers of Assam focuses on the craft, labour and the everyday lives of a group of women weavers in India’s northeastern state of Assam. The weavers belong to a non-profit collective
South Asia
Art / Artists / Artisans
Gender Role and identity
Material Culture