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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
Login
Facebook
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Films
16 Films
Region
“South-East Asia”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
films with a digital version
11
short films
5
films available on demand
3
Region
South-East Asia
16
x
Country
China
3
Indonesia
10
Myanmar
3
Keywords
Animals
2
Collective / Community identity
2
Dance / Theatre / Performance
3
Development projects
3
Environment
1
Everyday Life
1
Food
1
Gender Role and Identity
3
Health / Health care / Healing
3
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
1
Infrastructure / Transport
1
Labour
1
Land Rights
1
Marriage
1
Material Culture
1
Memory
1
Music / Ethnomusicology
1
Political Activists
1
Prison
1
Public Figure
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
2
Ritual
3
Rural
1
Sex / Sexuality
1
Shamans and Shamanism
1
Social Change
2
Social Organisation
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
2
Directors
Berg, Julia
1
Blake, John
1
Colucci, Erminia
2
Curling, Chris
1
Hartford, Hugh
1
Hellwig, Jean
1
Hughes, Richard
1
Hughes-Freeland, Felicia
2
Kawanami, Hiroko
1
Kerlogue, Fiona
1
Lansing, Steven
1
Lehto, Veera
1
Moser, Brian
1
Sheppard, John
2
Singer, André
1
Wason, David
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
4
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
4
not set
8
Country of production
Australia
1
Indonesia
2
Italy
1
United Kingdom
16
x
United States
1
Year of production
1972
1
1974
1
1988
3
1989
1
1993
1
1996
2
1998
1
2000
1
2002
1
2004
2
2015
1
2021
1
Film list
Breaking the Chains
2015
64
‘
Student
Directed by
Erminia Colucci
.
The practice of using shackles and chains to physically restrain people with mental illness (known as pasung) is widespread in Indonesia (as in many other developing/low middle income countries) and
South-East Asia
Prison
Health / Health care / Healing
Political Activists
Development projects
The Dancer and the Dance
1988
44
‘
Directed by
Felicia Hughes-Freeland
.
This film is an invitation to see Javanese palace dancing as performed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and to go beyond appearances to discover what the dance means to those who continue the tradition. In
South-East Asia
Dance / Theatre / Performance
Fatmawati’s Wedding: the Weddings of two Sisters, the Preparations
1998
50
‘
Directed by
Fiona Kerlogue
.
This film records the preparations for the wedding of two sisters in eastern Sumatra in December 1996. There is an emphasis on the importance of the role of women in the village. Ritual exchanges
South-East Asia
Gender Role and Identity
Marriage
Ritual
Material Culture
Guiyang Beautiful Flavour Barbecue
2000
30
‘
Directed by
Richard Hughes
.
In the teeming cities of the most populated country on earth, 20 years of economic reform have brought new opportunity, new energy, and new dangers. This film follows one family’s efforts to navigate
South-East Asia
Food
Social Change
Labour
HARMONI: HEALING TOGETHER
2021
98
‘
Directed by
Erminia Colucci
.
As a nation of 270 million, Indonesia is facing the grave task of caring for millions of people living with mental illness. Many have experienced human rights abuses in their lifetime. In communities
South-East Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Religion / Belief / Faith
Keepers of the Faith: The Buddhist Nuns of Sagaing Hills
1996
51
‘
Directed by
Hiroko Kawanami
.
In the Sagaing Hills, 12 miles from the ancient capital of Mandalay are hundreds of pagodas, stupas, monasteries and nunneries which form a focal point of worship for Buddhism in Burma. In 1986 the
South-East Asia
Religion / Belief / Faith
Collective / Community identity
Gender Role and Identity
The Longest Struggle: The Karen of Burma
1993
52
‘
Directed by
John Sheppard
.
In the forested hills of eastern Burma, a war has been going on for more than 50 years. A war that is rarely reported and is often apparently at a stalemate. For the Karen people of this part of
South-East Asia
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Memory
The Meo
1972
52
‘
Directed by
Brian Moser
Chris Curling
.
Over the last three thousand years the Meo (Miao or Hmong) have migrated south from north and central China to avoid oppression and protect their way of life. Today they live in scattered mountain
South-East Asia
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Shamans and Shamanism
Ritual
Social Organisation
Rural
The Most Admired Man
2002
29
‘
Directed by
Julia Berg
.
‘Wise’? ‘Serene’? ‘A Sage’? Mythologized as the Daoist physician from the Jade Dragon Mountain of Lijiang Province in southwest China , Dr Ho receives hundreds of visitors in search of the ‘Real
South-East Asia
Public Figure
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
The Sakuddei
1974
52
‘
Directed by
John Sheppard
.
The Sakuddei are a small and ethnically separate community living on the island of Siberut off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Their distinctive way of life and elaborate religious
South-East Asia
Collective / Community identity
Social Change
Land Rights
The Second Red Line
2004
25
‘
Directed by
Veera Lehto
.
In HIV testing, the second red line is the indication of a positive result. This film follows two volunteers working with HIV & Aids sufferers in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. In the
South-East Asia
Health / Health care / Healing
Development projects
Small Man of the Forest
2004
37
‘
Directed by
Hugh Hartford
.
Murray Collins leaves his city life in search of a bipedal ape. On his journey to highland Sumatra, he meets an academic, three farmers, two conservationists and a shaman, all of whom advise him on
South-East Asia
Animals
Sundanese Culture Alive
1988
46
‘
Directed by
Jean Hellwig
.
Jaipongan is a new style of music and dancing which was ‘invented’ about a decade ago on Western Java, Indonesia. Drawing on more classical Javanese music and taking elements from Japanese and
South-East Asia
Music / Ethnomusicology
Dance / Theatre / Performance
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
The Water Goddess and the Computer
1989
52
‘
Directed by
André Singer
Steven Lansing
.
The film demonstrates how in Bali, development projects can threaten a carefully balanced ecological irrigation system that is maintained by temple priests. A biologist and an anthropologist look at
South-East Asia
Infrastructure / Transport
Development projects
Environment
The Whale Hunters of Lamalera
1988
52
‘
Directed by
John Blake
David Wason
.
The Whale Hunters of Lamalera was filmed over a period of four weeks during June 1987. Lamalera is a village which is perched on the rocky slopes of an active volcano on the southern coast of the
South-East Asia
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Animals
Everyday Life