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
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
Country
“Australia”
x
Directors
“Sandall, Roger”
x
Series
“0”
x
Status
“A”
x
Region
Australia
1
Country
Australia
1
x
Keywords
Animals
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
1
Infrastructure / Transport
1
Directors
Sandall, Roger
1
x
Series
not set
1
x
Country of production
Australia
1
Year of production
1969
1
Status
Film
Camels of the Pitjantjara
1969
45
‘
Directed by
Roger Sandall
.
From the 1920s onwards, when motor vehicles displaced camels as a mode of supply in central Australia, camels gradually went feral. As this film shows, however, in the 1960s, the Pitjantjara were making good use of camels to facilitate their travels and connections with other areas. This remarkable film, shot in 1968 (released in 1969) follows a group of Pitjantjara men, led by “Captain”, a veteran cameleer, who travel out from their base at Areyonga Settlement, to capture a wild camel, tame it and add it to their domestic herds. They then use camels to help transport a large group of people from Areyonga to Papunya, three days’ walk away. This film departs from the usual emphasis of the AIAS films in the 1960s on recording ceremonial life and traditional craft skills. It is instead a beautifully photographed observation of daily activities in the lives of the Pitjantjara and their camels. The film also touches on the malaise of life at Areyonga, where the men are generally bored: “yesterday’s skills are meaningless” in the Settlement where food and necessities are generally supplied. Unlike much of Roger Sandall’s specialist ethnographic film work for the AIAS, this film was made for a general audience, although still retaining serious ethnographic intent. The young anthropologist, Nicolas Peterson, initiated the idea for the film, and assisted Sandall in the production. The film is a significant reminder of Sandall’s skills as a filmmaker, his great eye for evocative images, and his patient attention to detail as a story-teller.
Australia
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Infrastructure / Transport
Animals