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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
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Twitter
Films
41 Films
Region
“Western Europe”
x
films with a digital version
16
films hosted on Kanopy
1
short films
24
films available on demand
9
Region
British-Irish Isles
3
Central Africa
1
Central Europe
2
Eastern Europe and Baltic States
1
North America
2
North and Northeast Africa
1
South-East Europe
2
West Africa
1
Western Europe
41
x
Western Mediterranean
1
Country
Belgium
7
Bosnia-Herzegovina
1
Cameroon
1
Denmark
1
Ethiopia
1
France
11
Germany
8
Ghana
1
Greece
1
Hungary
1
Italy
3
Los Angeles
1
Netherlands
2
Spain
1
Switzerland
4
The Netherlands
3
United Kingdom
6
United States
1
not set
1
Keywords
Alternative culture
2
Animals
2
Archaeology
2
Archival material / Museum displays
3
Archival materials / Museum displays
1
Art / Artists / Artisans
4
Children / Young people
1
Collective / Community identity
3
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
3
Education / Knowledge Transmission
2
Education / Knowledge transmission
2
Elderly people
3
Ethnofiction
2
Family / Kinship
3
Festivals / Carnival
5
Folklore
4
Food
1
Gender Role and Identity
1
Health / Health care / Healing
2
Herding
3
History
2
History of Anthropology
2
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
2
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Intergenerational relations
1
LGBTQI*
2
Labour
3
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
2
Life Story / Life History
2
Love
1
Material Culture
2
Migration
7
Music / Ethnomusicology
3
Participatory / Collaborative methods
1
Personal Narrative
1
Political Activists
1
Race / Racism / Antiracism
3
Reflexivity
4
Refugees / Displaced populations
1
Refugees/ Displaced populations
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
3
Reproduction (biology)
1
Research Methods
1
Resettlement
1
Ritual
1
Rural
6
Science / Technology
1
Sex / Sexuality
5
Social Change
2
Social participation
1
Socioeconomic conditions
3
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
1
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
1
Trade
1
Travellers / Roma
1
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
1
Directors
Ahmed, Akbar
1
Asare-Nyako, Afua
1
Brewer, Teri F.
1
Day, Mike
1
De Groof, Matthias
2
Eagle, Rob
1
Goldberg, Claudia
1
Grootheest, Sjoerd van
1
Grégoire, Charlotte
1
Hann, Amelia
1
Heer, Madelief de
1
Hirl, Alexander
1
Horat, Thomas
1
Kezich, Giovanni
1
Kriszio, Janina
1
Langhorst, Insa
1
MacDougall, David
1
Mai, Nick
2
Marcus, Alan
1
Mekonen, Solomon
1
Meyknecht, Steef
1
Mora, Alba
1
Mora, Yves
1
Papenbrook, Jana
1
Rens, Maarten
1
Sanmartí, Anna
1
Schillaci, Rossella
1
Sonderegger, Ramona
1
Sterre Schmitz, Julia
1
Straube, Anna
1
Trentini, Michele
5
Woodhead, Leslie
1
Xu, Beina
1
de Bromhead, Toni
3
van Lanker, Laurent
1
Series
Carnival King of Europe
5
Caught in a Web
3
Decolonising Shorts
1
Disappearing World Series
1
Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
9
National Film and Television School
1
Pleasure Shorts
2
Shorts Collection 2
1
not set
18
Country of production
Australia
1
Belgium
4
Denmark
1
France
2
Germany
6
Italy
7
Netherlands
3
Spain
1
Switzerland
2
United Kingdom
17
United States
2
not set
1
Year of production
1985
3
1987
1
1991
1
1993
1
1996
1
2000
1
2005
1
2007
1
2008
2
2009
5
2010
4
2011
3
2014
2
2015
2
2016
5
2017
2
2018
1
2019
3
2020
2
Film list
André and Nándi
2000
30
‘
Directed by
Charlotte Grégoire
.
Hungarian-born André Reinitz only discovered his Jewish identity when he moved to Brussels at the age of ten. Since then, in spite of the silence of his parents, he has become involved in the Jewish
Western Europe
Eastern Europe and Baltic States
Religion / Belief / Faith
Music / Ethnomusicology
Life Story / Life History
The Basques of Santazi
1987
52
‘
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
*In her book ‘The Circle of Mountains’ Sandra Ott provided a fascinating analysis of social reciprocity (…) The film highlights the village’s contemporary dilemmas and thereby complements rather
Western Europe
Herding
Social Change
Rural
The Bear Chase
2009
7
‘
Directed by
Michele Trentini
.
In the Catalan-speaking southern France, a proper “Bear Chase”, of the kind that was once popular throughout Europe, has been revived in a carnival context. This film is part of **Carnival
Western Europe
Festivals / Carnival
Folklore
Beautiful Dachau
2008
30
‘
Directed by
Alan Marcus
.
Beautiful Dachau is an experimental documentary that observes streams of visitors to the Dachau concentration camp, now a popular tourist attraction. 800,000 people visit the site annually.
Western Europe
History
Tourism / Travel / Pilgrimage
War / Conflict / Reconciliation
Breeding Cells
2009
39
‘
Directed by
Anna Straube
.
Breeding Cells is a film about a reproductive laboratory. A fertility clinic is a place where human reproduction is separated from sex and anatomized into bio/technological components. There
Western Europe
Reproduction (biology)
Science / Technology
Carnival King of Europe. Release 2.0
2011
38
‘
Directed by
Michele Trentini
Giovanni Kezich
.
Award-winning ethnographic caleidoscope featuring over 50 different masquerades of some 13 European countries. Thanks to some careful editing, the underlying structure of European winter masked
Western Europe
South-East Europe
Central Europe
Festivals / Carnival
Folklore
Changes
2010
30
‘
Directed by
Afua Asare-Nyako
.
Kwabena wants to move back to Ghana, the country he left more than 30 years ago. This film shows one of the many journeys that he has to take in preparation for his return. It explores the motives
West Africa
Western Europe
Migration
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
A Donation to the Museum
2015
25
‘
Directed by
Teri F. Brewer
.
Human remains from the California Channel Islands were donated to an English city museum nearly a century ago. More recently research began into how they came to be there, and whose remains they
North America
Western Europe
Archaeology
Archival material / Museum displays
Easy Life
1996
30
‘
Directed by
Amelia Hann
.
This film is about a Breton woman and her family, their vision of life, and their clash with the French state which marked them as ‘terrorists’.
Western Europe
Political Activists
Law and Legislation / Bureaucracy
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
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
Faith
2010
30
‘
Directed by
Insa Langhorst
.
Together with a Pentecostal youth group, teenagers Colin and Salo are on a mission trip to East Germany preaching the word of God. On the streets of Wismar they experience the highs and lows of what
Western Europe
Children / Young people
Religion / Belief / Faith
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
Ghetto PSA
2016
15
‘
Special Interest
Directed by
Rossella Schillaci
.
Jacob arrived in Italy alone from French Guinea when he was 11 years old. Today he is 27, and hip hop music is his whole world: it is his way to express dreams, hopes and frustrations, and to not
Western Europe
Music / Ethnomusicology
Migration
Education / Knowledge Transmission
The Gilles of La Louvière and the Chinels of Fosses-la-Ville
2014
9
‘
Directed by
Michele Trentini
.
In the Catholic, French-speaking part of Belgium, monumental, all-encompassing masquerades take place in the middle of Lent. This film is part of **Carnival King of Europe DVD 6 – RITUAL
Western Europe
Folklore
Festivals / Carnival
The Guga Hunters of Ness
2010
59
‘
Directed by
Mike Day
.
This film follows a vanishing community’s beloved and unique tradition. The Gaelic speakers of Lewis and Scotland are the only people in the EU exempt from a ban on hunting gannets, but they are
Western Europe
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Animals
Ritual
Heart of the Village
1985
52
‘
Directed by
Toni de Bromhead
.
The second film of the Caught in the Web trilogy, which compares and contrast aspects of life in a Dorset community in the Bride Valley and a French village in Provence, Villes-sur-Auzon,
Western Europe
British-Irish Isles
Rural
Socioeconomic conditions
A Hospice in Amsterdam
2005
62
‘
Directed by
Steef Meyknecht
.
At the end of Van Goghstraat in Amsterdam is the Veerhuis. A normal residential house in a normal urban area, where children play outside in front of the door. But people come to the Veerhuis to die.
Western Europe
Health / Health care / Healing
Elderly people
In a State of Dress
2010
21
‘
Directed by
Madelief de Heer
.
Filmed in Walcheren, a region in the south-west of the Netherlands, this film tells of the lived experience of wearing regional dress. Once worn by the whole community, today this complex attire is
Western Europe
Material Culture
Elderly people
Intergenerational relations
Je ne suis pas moi-même
2009
50
‘
Directed by
Alba Mora
Anna Sanmartí
.
Shot in Cameroon and Brussels, ‘Je ne suis pas moi-même’ examines the complex network surrounding the international market of African antiquities, and the contradictions in a European art market
Central Africa
Western Europe
Art / Artists / Artisans
Trade
Journey into Europe
2015
122
‘
Directed by
Akbar Ahmed
.
In Journey into Europe, Akbar Ahmed, a world-renowned anthropologist, Islamic scholar, and filmmaker who the BBC has called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” explores Islam
Central Europe
Western Europe
South-East Europe
History
Religion / Belief / Faith
Collective / Community identity
Kalès
2017
63
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Laurent van Lanker
.
A film of wind and despair, of fire and solidarity, of hope and hell. An intimate and inside perspective of the ‘jungle’ of Calais, evoked through a polyphony of bodies, tales, and
Western Europe
Migration
Refugees / Displaced populations
Squatter Settlements / Homelessness
Participatory / Collaborative methods
Leyssart
2007
30
‘
Directed by
Alexander Hirl
.
Living among 8,000 animals in the South of France, Thérèse and Dominique live their passion as herders and breeders. Their philosophy of life makes us reflect on the nature of relationships between
Western Europe
Animals
Herding
Family / Kinship
The Log Rafters of Lake Aegeri
2016
29
‘
Material Culture
Directed by
Thomas Horat
.
Aegeri, in a remote part of Switzerland, is one of the few lakes in Central Europe where professional log rafters can still be found. This film is based on the gentle observation of the work of a
Western Europe
Material Culture
Labour
Rural
Making it Big in Berlin
2009
24
‘
Directed by
Claudia Goldberg
.
In Berlin, where low rents and space for creative ideas are still available, self-employed workers live the alternative to a nine-to-five-job. A sewing café owner, a freelance journalist and two
Western Europe
Alternative culture
Art / Artists / Artisans
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
Palimpsest of the Africa Museum
2019
69
‘
Directed by
Matthias De Groof
.
In 2013, the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels (Belgium) closed for renovation. It is not only the building and the museum cabinets that are in need of renewal: the spirit of the museum has
Western Europe
Archival material / Museum displays
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Education / Knowledge Transmission
History of Anthropology
Palimpsest of the Africa Museum
2019
69
‘
Decolonising the Archive
Directed by
Matthias De Groof
.
In 2013, the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels (Belgium) closed for renovation. It is not only the building and the museum cabinets that are in need of renewal: the spirit of the museum has
Western Europe
Archival materials / Museum displays
Archaeology
Education / Knowledge transmission
History of Anthropology
Colonialism / Postcolonialism
Race / Racism / Antiracism
Read Me
2008
29
‘
Directed by
Janina Kriszio
.
Reading traditionally played an important role for German (self-)identification. In 2000 an international survey revealed that German pupils are lacking basic reading skills, giving rise to
Western Europe
Education / Knowledge transmission
Rockerill: Rekindling the Fire
2011
53
‘
Directed by
Yves Mora
.
Five years ago, one of the oldest industrial buildings of Charleroi- ‘les Forges de la Providence’- was saved from demolition being brought by two citizens: Thierry Camuy and Mika Hell. Together
Western Europe
Alternative culture
Art / Artists / Artisans
The Silvesterchläuse of Hundwil
2014
12
‘
Directed by
Michele Trentini
.
The old Julian New Year’s Eve on January 13th is still observed and celebrated in some Reformed communities in Outer Appenzell in Switzerland. This film is part of **Carnival King of Europe DVD
Western Europe
Festivals / Carnival
Folklore
The Silvesters of Urnäsch
2011
13
‘
Directed by
Michele Trentini
.
A celebration of mountain wilderness is all too evident in the costumes of the Silvesters of Urnäsch in Outer Appenzell, particularly in their “Pretty/Ugly” version. This film is part of
Western Europe
Festivals / Carnival
Smoke
1991
28
‘
RAI Basil Wright
Directed by
Maarten Rens
.
The film deals with fish smoking in Monnickendam, a small town twelve miles north of Amsterdam. Using archival footage, interviewing old fishermen, and contrasting the traditional and the modern
Western Europe
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Food
Archival material / Museum displays
Talking to Each Other
1985
52
‘
Directed by
Toni de Bromhead
.
The third film of the **Caught in the Web** trilogy, which compares and contrast aspects of life in a Dorset community in the Bride Valley and a French village in Provence, Villes-sur-Auzon,
Western Europe
British-Irish Isles
Rural
Socioeconomic conditions
Tempus de Baristas
1993
100
‘
Directed by
David MacDougall
.
This film depicts the characters, and social dilemmas of three generations of Sardinian mountain shepherds. Although born roughly 20 years apart, Franchiscu (62), his son Pietro (17) and their
Western Europe
Herding
Social Change
Family / Kinship
Rural
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
Vasile Nedea
2009
43
‘
Directed by
Sjoerd van Grootheest
.
The film tells the story of Vasile Nedea, a Romanian gypsy musician an Amsterdam. Due to his former illegal status there have been times in which he was forced to show his skills whilst busking the
Western Europe
Travellers / Roma
Music / Ethnomusicology
A Village Heritage
1985
52
‘
Directed by
Toni de Bromhead
.
The first of the **Caught in the Web** trilogy, which compares and contrast aspects of life in a Dorset community in the Bride Valley and a French village in Provence, Villes-sur-Auzon, Vauclause.
Western Europe
British-Irish Isles
Socioeconomic conditions
Rural
Why is Mr W. Laughing?
2017
76
‘
Directed by
Jana Papenbrook
.
Jana Papenbroock with Horst Wässle, Michael Gerdsmann, Bernhard Krebs WHY IS MR W. LAUGHING? is a portrait of three members of a community of artists with different disabilities. Rather than
Western Europe
Art / Artists / Artisans
Collective / Community identity
Elderly people
Health / Health care / Healing
Life Story / Life History
Personal Narrative
Social participation