Royal Anthropological Institute

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Brian Moser
Anthropologist Peter Silverwood-Cope, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Christine Hugh-Jones
Country/Production UK
Release 1971
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Columbia / America
Ethnic Group Makú and Barasana, Amazonian Indians

Order No RAI-200.62
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While relying on a polemical stance directed against the cultural genocide wrought by missionaries, War of the Gods also contains a wealth of information and detail about Amazonian Indian cosmology, social life and sexual division of labour. Two groups of Indians from the Vaupés region of Colombia are shown, the Makú, who live mainly by hunting and gathering, and the sedentary Barasana, who live mainly by farming. The film contrasts the belief systems and way of life of the Indians, presented by the anthropologists who worked and lived with them, with those of Protestant and Catholic missionaries. The Protestants, North American Fundamentalists from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, are said to have used their organisation as a cover in order to be allowed to work with the Indians, because open Protestant missionary activity would not have been acceptable to the authorities. No attempt is made to gloss over the complexities of contact between Whites and Indians: the Barasana themselves want change, and the missionaries' influence is undoubtedly more beneficial to the Indians than that of rubber gatherers. Included in this film is an interview — using voice-over — with a Makú shaman, and there are scenes from the Barasana moloka, the communal house which is a centre of social and domestic activity. The climax of the film is a contrasting look at a church service at the S.I.L. headquarters, a Barasana ritual dance (accompanied by the ritual use of the hallucinogen yagé), and a Mass at the Catholic mission attended by some of the Indians who took part in the ritual dance. Some missionaries who have seen this film consider that its editing is unfair to the S.I.L., but the head of another important missionary organisation has said that it should be screened during missionary training courses. C. Hugh-Jones, 1979. From the Milk River: Spatial and Temporal Processes in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, No. 26. Cambridge University Press. S. Hugh-Jones, 1978. A Closer Look at Amazonian Indians. The Archon Press, London. (Book intended for children aged 10–14.) S. Hugh-Jones, 1979. The Palm and the Pleiades: Initiation and Cosmology in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, No. 24. Cambridge University Press. B. Saler, 1974. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 76, pp. 210–212

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Stephen Cross, Peter Fry
Country/Production UK
Release 1977
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group South Ameriacans

Order No RAI-200.76
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Umbanda is a syncretic religious movement, combining elements from orthodox Catholicism with submerged African and indigenous Indian spiritual beliefs. In spite of past attempts to suppress it, Umbanda flourishes in the heterogeneous culture of contemporary urban Brazil. The film somewhat ambitiously seeks to give an exposition of the eclectic repertoire of the Umbanda movement. There is lengthy coverage of ritual performances, including interviews with mediums and their clients, which emphasise the role the movement plays in the management of personal malaise and affliction experienced as a by-product of change and urbanisation. The concluding sequences of the Sea Goddess, Yemenya – identified with the Virgin Mary – show the annual Umbanda festival where half a million participants from all over the country assemble on the beaches of Säo Paulo. The film's strength lies in its graphic footage of spiritual possession and healing but it has been criticised for not providing a fuller account of the functioning of Umbanda groups, and the movement's articulation with the political authorities in Brazil. R. Bastide, 1960. Les Religions Africaines au Brésil. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. D. Brown, 1979. `Umbanda and Class Relations in Brazil'. In M.L. Margolis and W.E. Carter (eds.), Brazil: Anthropological Perspectives. Essays in Honour of Charles Wagley. Columbia University Press, New York. Jean Comaroff, 1978. Review of the film. RAIN, 26, pp. 6–7.m S. & R. Leacock, 1972. Spirits of the Deep: A Study of an Afro-Brazilian Cult. Doubleday Natural History Press, New York. I.M. Lewis, 1971. Ecstatic Religion: an Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism. Penguin, Harmondsworth. R.J. Perelberg, 1980. `Umbanda and Psychoanalysis as Different Ways of Interpreting Mental Illness'. British Journal of Medical Psychology, Vol. 53, pp. 323–332. E. Pressel, 1974. `Umbanda Trance and Possession in Sao Paulo, Brazil'. In I. Zaretsky (ed.), Trance, Healing and Hallucination, Part Two. Wiley-Interscience, U.S.A. E. Willems, 1966. `Religious Mass Movements and Social Change in Brazil'. In E.N. Baklanoff (ed.), New Perspectives of Brazil. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. Article in T.V. Times, Vol. 89, No. 47, November 1977.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Staff Film
Director Ricardo Leizaola
Country/Production UK
Release 1998
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Venezuela, Caracas / America
Ethnic Group South American
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3028
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Filmed in the city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Uncle Poison is an intimate portrait of a traditional faith healer, set against the backdrop of his community’s Easter celebrations. Every day, Benito Reyes receives people at his house looking for all sorts of cures. Through the personal testimony of the healer, this documentary looks at his role as mediator between the social, natural and spiritual worlds. Before curing someone, or even before harvesting medicinal leaves, he must first seek permission from the plant he uses as well as from a variety of Saints. He then uses these plants to extract the sickness and spells from his patients. A conjunction of sacred and profane, celebration and mourning, Easter provides a rare opportunity to look at traditional faith-healing in a wider social and religious context.

Director David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
Country/Production USA/Australia
Release 1973
Length 15 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Uganda / Africa
Ethnic Group Jie
Language Jie with English subtitles
Collection MacDougall
Comments on same dvd as Nawi

Order No RAI-200.37B
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At Jie cattle camps in Uganda men often gather under a special tree to make leather and wooden goods and talk, relax, and sleep. This brilliant ethnographic documentary by renowned filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall captures one particularly riveting discussion one afternoon under the men's tree. The conversation on this particular afternoon becomes a kind of reverse ethnography, centering on the European's most noticeable possession, the motor vehicle. This is a uniquely delicate and intimate film, filled with the humor of the Jie and, implicitly, the ironic wit of the filmmakers.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director James Vybiral
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Greenland / Europe
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3096
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‘Untouched Rock’ follows a British climbing expedition to Greenland where six young men hope to establish new routes on the mountains of 'the un-named valley'.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Michaela Schäuble
Country/Production UK
Release 2001
Length 32 mins
Format Colour / PAL / All region
Location Togo / Africa
Ethnic Group African, German
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3046
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In the 1980s Ursula Heimer leaves behind her husband and children in Germany and goes to live in the African bush. We meet her seventeen years later in a tiny village in Togo, where she has been living in her own eccentric world, far away from the life she once knew.

Series Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Caroline Corral Paredes
Country/Production UK
Release 2009
Length 25 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Mexico
Ethnic Group Maya
Language Spanish with English subtitles
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3110
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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 be looking for in an indigenous and picturesque region in southern México.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Sharis Coppens
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Peru, South America / America
Ethnic Group Peruvians
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3066
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Chicha music evokes the experiences of the many Peruvians who migrate from the high Andes down to the cities. This film tells the story of Aurora Ramos, a cobbler and market saleswoman, and the role that chicha plays in her life.

Director Kim McKenzie
Anthropologist Les Hiatt
Country/Production Australia
Release 1980
Length 57 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Australia
Ethnic Group Anbarra
Language Anbara, English (English subt)
Prizes/Commendations RAI Film Prize 1982

Order No RAI-200.100
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Although the events around which this film was planned were the final mortuary rites for Les Angabarraparra, the subject of the film became interaction. Interaction between the anthropologist Les Hiatt and the Anbarra people of northern Australia, between the Anbarra and other Aboriginal groups in the area, and finally the relations between various Anbarra and the ever-absent Harry. The film-makers are effective in using this interaction to create a continuity, giving the viewer insights into Anbarra life as everyone grows tense waiting for Harry. Harry is the dead man's maternal uncle and a leader in the community of Maningrida. He is vital for the mortuary ritual because his appearance authorizes the use of motifs on the coffin and bones. Frank Gurrmanamana, instigator and narrator for the film and classificatory brother of the dead man, needs important people such as Harry to give the rites validity and a proper respect for the dead man. The men build a shade structure and prepare a hollow log coffin for the necessary painting. They wait three weeks, but still no Harry. Frank begins the painting without Harry. Then, wonder of wonders, Harry arrives. They make a sand sculpture but Harry has to leave again because his son has a court case. People from other groups arrive for the ceremony, but no Harry. Les Hiatt is an integral part of the film. Both he and Frank cope together in various ways with the frustration of the delays. Finally Frank suggests that Les go into town and get Harry. After some negotiation, Les agrees, Harry returns with him-the magistrate had never shown up for the court case-and the ceremony begins. Another group arrives to inspect the accuracy of the coffin painting. The bones are covered with ochre and smashed, then put in the hollow log. Part of what makes this film intriguing is the triangular involvement of the audience, the film-makers and the filmed. It is as much a film about film making as it is about a ceremony, but it works. Les and Frank negotiate to have the ceremony performed during the day so they can film and we see Frank telling various people who are participating in the ceremony about the film and its purpose.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Rane Willerslev
Country/Production UK
Release 1997
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Siberia / Asia
Ethnic Group Yukhagirs
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3021
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The Yukhagirs are one of the small indigenous peoples of Northern Siberia. This film, shot in the village of Nelemnoye, explores what it means to be a Yukhagir.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Andy Lawrence
Country/Production UK
Release 1996
Length 29 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, Ulster, North Ireland / Europe
Ethnic Group English
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Student Film Prize 1998

Order No RAI-200.3014
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In 1996 the troubles in Northern Ireland continued to the sound of beating drums and marching feet. This is the story of a Protestant family in rural Ulster and their fight to remain British and free from Irish rule.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Ruth Hammill
Country/Production UK
Release 1992
Length 37 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Jamaica, Negril / America
Ethnic Group Jamaican
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3003
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Griffiths takes his responsibilities seriously and works very hard as a taxi driver in Negril, Jamaica, to support his family. His sense of obligation extends to his siblings, his ageing father and even his deceased mother. As Griffiths recalls a decision made long ago which played a part in his entire family becoming squatters, this film examines the tensions and repercussions that continue to affect his life and his relationships.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Brian Moser, Bernard Arcand
Country/Production UK
Release 1975
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Columbia, South-East / America
Ethnic Group Cuiva

Order No RAI-200.26
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The film focuses on recent changes in the culture and society of the Cuiva, hunters and gatherers in a remote forest region of south-eastern Colombia, brought about through contact with Colombian settlers. Two groups of Cuiva are shown: one is relatively isolated, while the other has had extensive contacts with the settlers. The first group live a nomadic life moving frequently: the men hunt and fish, the women gather. The second group has been drawn into the Colombian economy, working occasionally for the ranchers to earn money to buy trade goods. The film also usefully includes interviews with white ranchers, showing their racist attitudes to the Indians, whom in the past they feared and on whose land they are now continually encroaching. The basic incompatibility between the economic systems of the Cuiva (based on communal distribution of food, gift-giving and receiving), and that of the settlers who attempt to survive within the world-capitalist market, is startlingly illustrated. Unlike later films in the series, The Last of the Cuiva relies on a moving commentary recorded during filming by the French-Canadian anthropologist, Bernard Arcand, who emphasises that the traditional way of life of the Cuiva (whom he describes, following Sahlins, as exemplifying the `original affluent society') will be seriously damaged by these contacts with whites. Rather than giving a more conventional anthropological description, Arcand's commentary is a humanist plea for the survival of hunter-gatherer groups, and carries an implicit criticism of western lifestyles. B. Arcand, 1972. The Urgent Situation of the Cuiva Indians of Colombia, Document No. 7, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen. (Available from Survival International, 36 Craven Street, London WC2.) B. Arcand, 1979. `The Cuiva Band'. In G. A. Smith and D.H. Turner (eds.), Challenging Anthropology: A Critical Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. McGraw Hill, Toronto. P. and D. Maybury-Lewis, 1974. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 76, pp.487–489.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead
Anthropologist Pierre Maranda
Country/Production UK
Release 1982
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands / Pacific
Ethnic Group Lau

Order No RAI-200.191
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Pierre Miranda and a team from Granada Television have made a fine film exploring the trouble realities of the people of the lagoon in the 1980s. B. Shore This film focuses on the people of Lau lagoon in the Solomon Islands who live on artificial islands near the island of Malaita. These islands are built of coral rubble and the people moved to them in an attempt to escape the dangers of malaria and enemies, and to find better fishing. The film focuses on change and conflict. The concept of `custom' is vital to the islanders' identity, yet this is being eroded, particularly by Christian missionaries. The conflict between Christian and Pagan now pervades daily life, creating divisions in families and eroding knowledge of traditional life. Two `custom' priests recently committed ritual suicide, one by swimming under a canoe containing women and the other by deliberately making a mistake in a ceremony. Within weeks, both priests physically died. The despair in the ability of `custom' to continue that these priests must have felt is presented visually throughout the film. Few of the islanders remember more than a fraction of the hundreds of traditional spirits and the young are turning more and more to the traditions and commodities of Western culture. This theme is a common one makes it no less powerful or relevant. Spurred by the presence of the Disappearing World camera crew, the islanders built a house in which to store their traditional and ritual objects. A commendable act of preservation on the part of the islanders, but at the same time the implications of their act are saddening. They are taking their ritual things out of the sphere of living, daily tradition and placing them in the realm of objective history. The Lau is recommended for courses in anthropology, sociology, development, culture change, Melanesia, religion, and ecology. B. Burt, 1988. Review of the film in Visual Anthropology Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 482–83. C. E. Fox, 1974. Lau Dictionary with English Index. Australian National University Press, Canberra. P. Gathercole, 1987. Review of the film. Anthropology Today, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 20. W.G. Ivens, 1930. The Island Builders of the Pacific. Lippincott, Philadelphia. E.K. Maranda, 1978. `The Averted Gift: The Lau Myth of the Seeker of Exchange'. Yearbook of Symbolic Anthropology, Vol. 1, pp. 37–50. P. Maranda, 1985. `Un Ici Ailleurs'. In S. Genest (ed.) La Passion de l'Echange, pp. 101–9. G. Morin, Chicoutimi. P. Maranda, 1987. Correspondence on the film. Anthropology Today, Vol. 3, No. 6, p. 24. P. Maranda, forthcoming. Mythe, Métaphore et Métamorphose: Les Lao de Malaita. P. Maranda and E.K. Maranda, 1970. `Le Crâne et l'Utérus: Deux Théorèmes Nord-Malaitains'. In J. Pouillon and P. Maranda (eds.) Echanges et Communications, pp. 829–61. Mouton, Paris and The Hague. B. Shore, 1989. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 91, pp. 275–6.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Staff Film
Director Paul Henley
Anthropologist Dieter Heinen
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 46 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Venezuela, Orinoco Delta / America
Ethnic Group Warao
Language English, Spanish and Warao with E/subtitles
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3038
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Antonio Lorenzano was an acclaimed musician, shamanic healer and craftsman, and the leader of the Warao community of Morichito on the Winikina River, in the lower Orinoco Delta, Venezuela. The film follows anthropologist Dieter Heinen, who knew Lorenzano well, as he returns to Winikina, some six months after Lorenzano's death in November 1996 to pay his respect to his relatives. From the testimonies of his children, grandchildren and others who knew him, it becomes clear that even post-mortem, Lorenzano's view about the proper conduct of Warao cultural practices carry great weight. However the cultural tradition that Lorenzano represented was a hybrid, a fusion of the old with new ideas and practices which he introduced from outside his community.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director John Shephard, Tom Shehan
Country/Production UK
Release 1993
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Burma / Asia
Ethnic Group Karen

Order No RAI-200.289
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The Karen of Burma have been fighting a war for nearly half a century against the Burmese, whilst attempting to retain their traditional way of life. Sons and daughters who have never known peace follow parents and grandparents against one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 1
Director Timothy Asch, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch
Country/Production Australia / USA
Length 31 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Central Bali / Asia
Ethnic Group Indonesian
Collection Asch
University Australian National University
Comments A study guide, Jero Tapakan: Balinese Healer, written by the three filmmakers, complements these films.

Order No RAI-200.123C
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Jero uses massage and traditional medicines to treat Ida Bagus, who suffers from sterility and seizures. Through her treatment and her words, Jero reveals her conceptions of the human body, the nature of illness, the contrast between Western and traditional Balinese medicine, and the relationship between human beings and the cosmos.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Carlos Pasini
Anthropologist Thomas Gregor
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Brazil, River Xingu, Central Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Mehinacu

Order No RAI-200.33
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The Mehinacu live near the head-waters of the River Xingu in Central Brazil, in a single village within the protective confines of the Xingu National Park. Although the film concentrates upon the most exotic aspects of Mehinacu life, focusing on a series of rituals concerned with the planting and harvesting of the piqui tree, these rites are firmly located in their social context: relations between the sexes in this society are formalised in an astonishing abundance of ritual, celebration, dances and games, performed to ensure fertile soil and good crops. Many sequences deal with the daily life of the Mehinacu, showing, for example, the sexual division of labour, with men fishing and women preparing manioc. The use of subtitled interviews provides a depth and sensitivity in the film's approach which helps to underline the concern with the fact that these Indians are seriously threatened by a road which is being cut through their territory. One of the highlights of the film is an interview with a Mehinacu elder who tells of the origin myth of the sacred flutes, a myth which is part of a complex belief system that will be lost if the Mehinacu, who are such a small group, are not able to survive under the pressures of the outside world. The film could be used to stimulate discussions of sex role differences, sexual division of labour in particular societies, and the connection between ritual and social relationships. T. Gregor 1970. `Exposure and Seclusion: A Study of Institutionalized Isolation among the Mehinacu Indians of Brazil'. Ethnology, Vol. 9, pp. 234–250. T. Gregor 1973. `Privacy and Extramarital Affairs in a Tropical Forest Community'. In D. Gross (ed.) Peoples and Cultures of Native South America. Natural History Press, Garden City. T. Gregor 1974. `Publicity, Privacy and Mehinacu Marriage'. Ethnology, Vol. 13, pp. 333–349. T. Gregor 1977. Mehinacu: The Drama of Daily Life in a Brazilian Indian Village. University of Chicago Press. S. Hugh-Jones, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 6, p.9.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Bruce MacDonald, Marianne Ferme
Country/Production UK
Release 1990
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Sierra Leone / Africa

Order No RAI-200.284
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Granada Television’s major documentary series looks at various aspects of societies from around the world.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Brian Moser, Jacques Lemoine
Country/Production UK
Release 1972
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location China, South-East Asia / Asia
Ethnic Group Meo

Order No RAI-200.34
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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 villages in south China and south-east Asia; and the 250,000 of them who live in the Kingdom of Laos have suffered greater losses, relative to their numbers, in the Indo-China wars than any other single group. In 1972, when this film was made, the Vietnam war was still at its peak; therefore it is not surprising that a fairly straightforward ethnographic account is combined with a more journalistic analysis of the political situation. Indeed it would be difficult to approach a discussion of the Meo without such an emphasis, and the review in RAIN (listed below) is a useful supplement to this. In effect, the film's narrative divides into two parts: first we are introduced to a village which managed to remain neutral and avoid the worst effects of the war (which was why the anthropologist chose it for his fieldwork). The daily life and material culture of the Meo people are shown as they sow rice using slash-and-burn agricultural methods, distil opium for sale and entertainment, and discuss with the anthropologist their fear of conscription and its effects on other villages. Two rituals are shown ( the shaman who performed them was the close friend of the anthropologist) one to banish a nightmare, the other to exorcise the spirit of a man which haunts the house of the brother who accidentally killed him while out hunting. In the second part of the film we see the Meo who live in American-run refugee camps (which is the majority of them), far removed form the village life of their fellows. The interviews with some of the Meo pilots who fly American B28 bombers over their homeland emphasise the tragic absurdities of such a war; for these Meo are not sure exactly who the `enemy' are, each one giving vague answers to the interviewer's questions. M. Barber and J. Lemoine 1977. `Two Letters from Indo-China'. RAIN, 21, pp. 1–6. W. Geddes, 1976. Migrants of the Mountains: The Cultural Ecology of Blue Miao (Hmong Njua) of Thailand. Clarendon, Oxford.

Director André Singer
Country/Production USA/UK
Release 1989
Length 50 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Satawal Island / Pacific
Ethnic Group Micronesian, American

Order No RAI-200.182
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This is the story of two cultures and two technologies. An American navigator is taught the skills of navigation by a traditional Micronesian navigator on Satawal island. The American tries to navigate a boat through dangerous waters, without Western technology, while the traditional navigator watches him. The making of the film brought out interesting conflicts within the Micronesian community and in the interactions with the American navigator.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead
Anthropologist David Turton
Country/Production UK
Release 1979
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location South-Eastern Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Kwegu

Order No RAI-200.140
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`The Kwegu' is an entirely tasteful and dignified presentation of the harsh realities of subsistence living, and it may help us understand how, even in stateless societies, dominated groups come to accept their domination as part of the natural order. A. Southall The Kwegu are hunters and cultivators who live along the banks of the River Omo in Southwestern Ethiopia. They are experts on the river, manipulating their dugout canoes through a swift current where falling overboard could mean delivery into the jaws of a crocodile. The Mursi are cattle herders and cultivators who live with the Kwegu for several months of the year. This film is about the relationship between these two groups of people. The Mursi number about 5,000 and the Kwegu about 500. Both groups cultivate flood land along the Omo during the dry season, when the Mursi may also bring their cattle to the river. But the Kwegu keep themselves separate from the Mursi; they speak their own language among themselves, although they are bilingual and communicate with the Mursi only in Mursi. When the Mursi and Kwegu share a village, the Kwegu houses usually form a separate cluster.When a Kwegu marries, a vital part of the bridewealth is livestock. But since the Kwegu do not keep cattle, a system of exchange has developed whereby the Kwegu perform services in exchange for Mursi cattle. In addition to providing bridewealth cattle, the Mursi patron protects `his' Kwegu from other Mursi and acts on his behalf in bridewealth negotiations. In return the Kwegu provides his patron with honey and game meat and is available to ferry him and his family across the Omo when needed. This is a vital economic service, since the Mursi cultivate on both banks of the river and yet do not, unlike the Kwegu, live at the Omo all the year round. The Kwegu are therefore `guardians' of the canoes as well as ferrymen. There is some debate about the nature of the Mursi-Kwegu relationship. The anthropologist advisor for the film, David Turton, sees the relationship as one of domination. The Mursi depend economically on the Kwegu more than the Kwegu do on them, and yet the Kwegu see themselves as dependent, in a different, more extreme sense, on the Mursi: they cannot marry without the aid of Mursi patron. The Mursi exploit the economic services of the Kwegu through their control of Kwegu marriage. Jean Lydall, in her review of the film in RAIN (June 1982), suggests another interpretation for the exchange of services. She wonders if indeed the Kwegu are not making the Mursi ¡pay through the nose¬ for the services they require. This film suggests that far from being second-class citizens, the Kwegu are sharp manipulators who have acquired protection and material wealth by making their services indispensable to the Mursi. Turton defended his interpretation in a reply to Lydall (RAIN, No. 51, pp. 10–12) and has more recently provided a more detailed description and analysis of the Mursi-Kwegu relationship, following the same argument as developed in the film but including much additional ethnographic information (Turton, 1986). The Kwegu won the Grand Prix du Festival at the Festival International du Film de Grand Reportage in Paris. This film is the second part of a trilogy, In Search of Cool Ground (see entry). The film is particularly recommended for courses in anthropology, African studies, patron–client relationships, ethnicity and multi-cultural studies. D.J.J. Brown, 1983. `The Kwegu' (letter). RAIN, No. 55, p. 12. J. Lydall, 1982. Review of the film. RAIN, No. 50, pp. 22–24. A. Singer with L. Woodhead, 1988. Disappearing World: Television and Anthropology. Granada Television Ltd., Boxtree. A. Southall, 1984. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 86, pp. 512–13. D. Turton, 1977. `Response to Drought: The Mursi of Southwest Ethiopia'. In J.P. Garlick and R.W.J. Keay (eds.) Human Ecology in the Tropics. Taylor and Francis, London. (Reprinted in Disasters, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1977). D. Turton, 1982. `The Kwegu' (letter). RAIN, No. 51, pp. 10–12. D. Turton, 1986. `A Probl

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Charlie Nairn, Nazif Shahrani
Country/Production UK
Release 1975
Length 51 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Afghanistan / Asia
Ethnic Group Kirghiz

Order No RAI-200.294
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The Kirghiz of Afghanistan are a group of some 2,000 pastoralists living on a bleak mountain plateau in a narrow isthmus of land between the borders of the Soviet Union and China. For nine months of the year heavy snows cover the ground, which was formerly used only by the Kirghiz for their summer pastures before the borders were closed, virtually terminating the contact of this group with other Kirghiz communities. Although the film shows dramatically the ten-day journey which lowland traders must make to reach this remote people, as well as scenes of a Kirghiz wedding and the traditional Central Asian sport of `buzkashi' – demonstrating the horse-riding skills of the people – there is very little about the pastoral economy and society of the ordinary Kirghiz. The main reason for this is that the film focuses on the remarkable wealth and authority of their leader – the Khan – by far the wealthiest pastoralist on the plateau. Ninety-five Kirghiz families work for him as shepherds and herders. The film's principal concern is to show the way in which the Khan wields his power (using interviews with him and illustrative scenes) which thus turns The Kirghiz into a study of oppressive paternalism in this remote corner of the world. There is, however, some disagreement over the interpretation of the Khan's role (see correspondence in RAIN listed below). R. Dor, 1975. Contribution à l étude des Kirghiz du Pamir Afghan. Publication Orientalistes de France, Paris. R. Dor and C. Naumann, 1978. Die Kirghisen des Afghanischen Pamir. Graz, Austria. N. Shahrani, 1976. `Kirghiz Pastoralists of the Afghan Pamirs', Folk, Vol. 18, pp. 129–143. N. Shahrani, 1979. The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan. University of Washington Press, Seattle. A. Singer, 1976. `Problems of Pastoralism in the Afghan Pamirs'. Asian Affairs, Vol. 63, Pt. 2, pp. 156–160. N. Tapper, 1976. Review of the film. RAIN, 13, p.6. See also correspondence in RAIN, 16, pp.10–11.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director John Sheppard, Caroline Humphrey
Country/Production UK
Release 1989
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location USSR, Tuva / Asia

Order No RAI-200.188
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The Tuvinians live deep inside the Soviet Union, at the very centre of Asia. Tuva is geographically closer to Peking than to Moscow. It only entered the USSR in 1944 and was closed to foreigners until 1988. The last British visitors were members of the Carruthers expedition in 1910–11. With `glasnost', the new openness, the Disappearing World film crew was given permission to film the nomadic yak-herders of Mongun-Taiga, a rugged district on the border with Mongolia. Mongun-Taiga or `sacred wilderness' is, even at its lowest point, 6.000 feet above sea level. Two huge mountains dominate the landscape and provide a stunning backdrop for the film, accompanied at times on the film sound track by the traditional throat singing. Arable farming is impossible and the inhabitants are dependent on the nomadic herding of yak, sheep, goats and horses. Families live alone or in groups of two to three felt tents (yurts). Following the seasons and the pastures they move camp several times each year. The film looks at the methods the herders use to protect their children from destructive spirits. A girl, dressed in a traditional frock, is revealed in the film to be a boy. This cross-dressing of the sexes continues until a child is three or four, when it is believed that its soul is more firmly attached to its body and not so easily stolen by spirits. Shamanic beliefs continue, despite state disapproval, and now include worship of the spirits of mountains, purification by the water of sacred springs, sacrifice, and the use of animals in exorcism, omens and divination. The opportunities for modern Soviet life which attract many young people are countered by the pull of an independent Mongolia, which is much closer to the Tuvinians in culture and way of life. Under Gorbachev, new systems of herding have been introduced which allow families to work for themselves as well as the state farms. The herders, however, still have reservations about the new ways. `How are you doing with perestroika?' asks the daughter of Chugluur-Ool, a herder. `Perestroika's doing all right,' he replies. Part of what makes this film interesting is the filmakers' admission of the material they were not able to obtain. Continually throughout the film, the narrator mentions the confusion and frustration the filmmakers felt. This gives a refreshing honesty to the film as a whole. D. Carruthers, 1913. Unknown Mongolia. Vols. 1 and 2. Hutchinson, London. C. Humphrey, 1989. `Perestroika and the Pastoralists: The Example of Mongun-Taiga in Tuva ASSR.' Anthropology Today, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 6–10. S. Vainshtein, 1980. Nomads of South Siberia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Director Judith MacDougall
Country/Production Australia /USA
Release 1980
Length 45 mins
Format Colour / VHS / PAL / All region
Location Austalia, Cape York Peninsula / Pacific
Ethnic Group Australian

Order No RAI-200.295
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When Geraldine Kawanka’s husband died, she and her children left their house at Aurukun on Cape York Peninsula. In earlier times a bark house would have been burnt, but today a ‘house-opening’ ceremony — creatively mingling Aboriginal, Torres Strait and European elements — has evolved to deal with death in the midst of new living patterns. Although sometimes suggesting a party, its underlying purpose is serious. This film records the opening of the house and Geraldine’s feelings about it in her informative and personal commentary.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Ellie Ford
Country/Production UK
Release 2004
Length 29 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Columbia, Cali / America
Ethnic Group South-American
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3068
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Cali in Colombia is celebrated for salsa music and beautiful women and is also the base of the Internet Bride agency, 'Latin Best' with 900 women on its files. Accompanying the British and American men who arrive at the agency, the film-maker meets the potential brides and discovers their motivations for leaving the past behind and following the dream of a life elsewhere.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Charlie Nairn, Andrew Strathern, Marilyn Strathern
Country/Production UK
Release 1990
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Papua New Guinea / Pacific
Ethnic Group Kawelka

Order No RAI-200.283
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Ongka is a charismatic big-man of the Kawelka tribe who live scattered in the Western highlands, north of Mount Hagen, in Papua New Guinea. The film focuses on the motivations and efforts involved in organising a big ceremonial gift-exchange or moka planned to take place sometime in 1974. Ongka has spent nearly five years preparing for this ceremonial exchange, using all his big-man skills of oratory and persuasion in order to try to assemble what he hopes will be a huge gift of 600 pigs, some cows, some cassowaries, a motorcycle, a truck and £5,500 in cash. As an example of the big-man familiar from written texts, Ongka is memorable, and the film manages to convey through this main character the importance of pigs, of exchange and of prestige in the life of these Highlanders. The film-crew never in fact managed to film the big moka, as the conspiratorial and complex manoeuvres involved in setting the date thwarted their plans. But we are shown Ongka replacing tee-shirt and shorts with his ceremonial feathers and setting off to a little moka where he collects pigs he `invested' with his wife's father. The interview with Ongka's wife raises the issue of the sexual division of labour and the importance of the wife's labour in pig-rearing and moka preparation, as well as the role of women in the establishment of a big-man. As a teaching aid to complement the written material (listed below) this film is highly effective. J. Leach, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 7, pp.7–8. See reply by A. Strathern in RAIN, 8, 1975, pp.16–17. A. Strathern, 1971. The Rope of Moka. Cambridge University Press. A. Strathern, 1979. Ongka: A Self Account by a New Guinea Big-Man. Duckworth, London.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Michael Beckham
Anthropologist Terence Turner
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Kayapo

Order No RAI-200.23
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Professor Terry Turner explained this truly extraordinary situation in a lucid, intelligent and unpatronizing commentary.... Mike Beckham directed this splendid film with great pace. The result is an important and accurate picture of two contrasting essays in acculturation. It was also gripping television for a prime-time audience. J. Hemming This film focuses on the conflicts and determination of a group of people trying to survive and maintain their ethnic identity in the face of almost overpowering odds. The film contrasts the reactions of two groups of Kayapo to outside influence. The Kapot have opposed contact and resisted both non-indigenous Brazilian settlers and gold miners. The Gorotire, by contrast, were invaded by gold miners who strip-mined their land and polluted their rivers. The miners paid the Gorotire very little for the destruction until 1985 when the Gorotire forced the miners to raise the commission by 5% when 200 warriors seized the airstrip. This commission amounts to two million dollars per year for the tribe and the tribe is learning to cope with the money, both with the problems it brings and the power it gives. They have trained several of their number to deal effectively with the outside world on behalf of the rest of the tribe and they now run a plane (and hire a pilot) to patrol their land against intruders. The Kapot, in their own way, are also trying to assert their identity and independence. This portion of the film shows the Kapot in the traditional activities of building and dismantling a hunting camp. The hunters returning with the tortoises they have caught are a particularly impressive sight. The now famous Chief Rop-ni is featured as a leader of the Kapot and he states eloquently his opposition to the Gorotire's acceptance of the gold miners. Despite their adherence to tradition, however, the Kapot use modern technology – video, radios, etc. – to protect their interests and record their rituals. This is a political film and would be excellent for courses in anthropology, Latin American studies, ecology, development, and international politics. J. Hemming, 1987. Review of the film. Anthropology Today, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 20. P. Riviere 1989. Review of the film in Anthropology Today, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 213–15.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Michael Beckham
Anthropologist Terence Turner
Country/Production UK
Release 1987
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / PAL / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Kayapo

Order No RAI-200.189
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Early in 1989 the Kayapo rallied other Brazilian Indians to attend a reunification of the tribes at Altamira«the proposed site of a massive hydro-electric dam, that will flood large parts of the Xingu valley. The gathering also served as a media event as the Kayapo and their allies demonstrated their case to the assembled international press. The film focuses on the Kayapo's ability to manipulate the media, including Chief Rop-ni stage-managing his entrance to arrive with the pop star Sting. However, much of the power of this film, made for Granada Television's Disappearing World series, comes from the tensions that revolve around the intricate planning behind the Altamira meeting. A Kayapo warrior, Pakayan, brings together previously hostile and warring factions in a common cause. Tension mounts when, only days before the conference, he is rushed to hospital for major surgery, and must force himself from his hospital bed to ensure the survival of the alliance he has carved. V. Lea, 1986. Nomes e Nekrets KayapÌ: Uma Concepcao de Rigueza. PhD thesis (3 vols.), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro S. Nugent, 1989. Review of the film in Anthropology Today Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 18–19. D. Posney, 1988. `Kayapo Indian Natural Resource Management'. In C. Padoch and J. Denselo (eds.) Peoples of the Rainforest. University of California Press. pp. 89–90. T. Turner, 1978. `The Kayapo of Central Brazil'. In A. Sutherland (ed.) Face Values. BBC Publications, London. pp. 245–279. [`The Kayapo of Central Brazil' and `The Social Skin' are written for a general audience, the former dealing with social and political structure and the latter with social values and the cultural constitution of the person (thus touching on many of the same themes as the Jaguar film). For those interested in pushing further with the ideas raised in the Jaguar film, see T. Turner, 1980 `Le Dénicheur d'Oiseaux en Contexte', Anthropologie et Sociétés, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 85–115, and articles by Gustaaf Verswijver.] T. Turner, 1979. `The Gê and Bororo Societies as Dialectical Systems'. In D. Maybury-Lewis (ed.) Dialectical Societies. Harvard University Press. T. Turner, 1979. `Kinship, Household and Community Structure among the Kayapo'. ibid. T. Turner, 1980. `The Social Skin'. In J. Cherfas (ed.) Not Work Alone. London. T. Turner, 1985. `Animal Symbolism, Totemism and the Structure of Myth'. In P. Urton (ed.) Animals, Myths and Metaphor in South America. University of Uta Press. pp. 49–107. T. Turner, 1990. `Visual Media, Cultural Politics, and Anthropological Practice. Some Implications of Recent Uses of Film and Video among the Kayapo of Brazil'. C.V.A. Review, Spring 1990, pp. 8–13. [In this article Turner discusses the context in which The Kayapo and The Kayapo – Out of the Forest were made.]

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Michael Beckham
Anthropologist Terence Turner
Country/Production UK
Release 1989
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Kayapo

Order No RAI-200.190
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Early in 1989 the Kayapo rallied other Brazilian Indians to attend a reunification of the tribes at Altamira«the proposed site of a massive hydro-electric dam, that will flood large parts of the Xingu valley. The gathering also served as a media event as the Kayapo and their allies demonstrated their case to the assembled international press. The film focuses on the Kayapo's ability to manipulate the media, including Chief Rop-ni stage-managing his entrance to arrive with the pop star Sting. However, much of the power of this film, made for Granada Television's Disappearing World series, comes from the tensions that revolve around the intricate planning behind the Altamira meeting. A Kayapo warrior, Pakayan, brings together previously hostile and warring factions in a common cause. Tension mounts when, only days before the conference, he is rushed to hospital for major surgery, and must force himself from his hospital bed to ensure the survival of the alliance he has carved. V. Lea, 1986. Nomes e Nekrets KayapÌ: Uma Concepcao de Rigueza. PhD thesis (3 vols.), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro S. Nugent, 1989. Review of the film in Anthropology Today Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 18–19. D. Posney, 1988. `Kayapo Indian Natural Resource Management'. In C. Padoch and J. Denselo (eds.) Peoples of the Rainforest. University of California Press. pp. 89–90. T. Turner, 1978. `The Kayapo of Central Brazil'. In A. Sutherland (ed.) Face Values. BBC Publications, London. pp. 245–279. [`The Kayapo of Central Brazil' and `The Social Skin' are written for a general audience, the former dealing with social and political structure and the latter with social values and the cultural constitution of the person (thus touching on many of the same themes as the Jaguar film). For those interested in pushing further with the ideas raised in the Jaguar film, see T. Turner, 1980 `Le Dénicheur d'Oiseaux en Contexte', Anthropologie et Sociétés, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 85–115, and articles by Gustaaf Verswijver.] T. Turner, 1979. `The Gê and Bororo Societies as Dialectical Systems'. In D. Maybury-Lewis (ed.) Dialectical Societies. Harvard University Press. T. Turner, 1979. `Kinship, Household and Community Structure among the Kayapo'. ibid. T. Turner, 1980. `The Social Skin'. In J. Cherfas (ed.) Not Work Alone. London. T. Turner, 1985. `Animal Symbolism, Totemism and the Structure of Myth'. In P. Urton (ed.) Animals, Myths and Metaphor in South America. University of Uta Press. pp. 49–107. T. Turner, 1990. `Visual Media, Cultural Politics, and Anthropological Practice. Some Implications of Recent Uses of Film and Video among the Kayapo of Brazil'. C.V.A. Review, Spring 1990, pp. 8–13. [In this article Turner discusses the context in which The Kayapo and The Kayapo – Out of the Forest were made.]

Series Disappearing World Series
Director André Singer, Shirin Akiner
Country/Production UK
Release 1983
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location China, Sinkiang / Asia
Ethnic Group Kazakhs

Order No RAI-200.136
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The Kazakhs of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) are one of the fifty-five national minorities that now live within the borders of the People's Republic of China. The policy of the Chinese Communist Party toward these people has been one of Sinofication, a neutralization of `reactionary' local leaders and an alliance of Han Chinese with the indigenous culture. Xinjiang is a particularly sensitive area for the Chinese because of the traditional ties of the Kazakh with the Soviet Union. In 1962, some 50,000 Kazakhs and other non-Han peoples sought refuge in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Since then, the Sino-Soviet border has been closed, and until recently the entire area was off-limits to non-Chinese outsiders. This film offers unique ethnographic material about the Kazakh, as well as about Chinese policies in the years following the Cultural Revolution.The film follows the movement of the family of Abdul Gair, illustrated the cycles and tensions of present day Kazakhs, mixes detail of their traditional life as herders with suggestion of the effect of Chinese rule. The Chinese government allowed the filmmakers freedom to choose the subjects and people for the interviews and action sequences. Because of this, the film expresses, to a great extent, the view of the filmmaker, not of the Chinese government. Against a background of the Tienshan Mountains, the Kazakhs are shown branding yaks, milking mares, drinking kumis (fermented mare's milk), making their yearly move from winter to summer quarters, and setting up their felt-covered summer tents. Then, through the trip of Ahmed the production team leader to the brigade headquarters, the film portrays the relations between Kazakh and Han, showing the brigade's authority. Rather than livestock, formerly a mark of wealth being owned for individual profit, production and gain is now controlled by the brigade leaders. Women are given more freedom within the community. Kazakh children now have an opportunity for education in the Kazakh language, but the teaching is largely Party doctrine; they have health care, but this again is Chinese. Yet, despite pre-1977 restrictions on local religion and nomadic culture, and although Abdul Gair is himself a Party member, the Chinese do not, as yet, control the Kazakh. The Kazakh have retained their horses, not only as wealth, but as a means of freedom. Here, as in other cultures where a strong centralized government controls a minority, the continued cultural independence of the Kazakh is an open question. The Chinese policy is currently to move as many Han as possible from the overcrowded central areas of China to the less populated border areas such as Xinjiang. This film gives an understanding, not only of a Kazakh society, but also insights into current change, of the conflicts of domination and independence. S. Akiner, 1984. Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union. Kegan Paul International, London. E. Bacon, 1966. Central Asians under Russian Rule: A Study in Culture Change. Cornell University Press, Ithaca N.Y. Fei Hsiao-tung, 1981. Towards a People's Anthropology. New World Press, Beijing. S. Feuchtwang, 1983. Review of the film. RAIN, No. 57, p. 10. A.E. Hudson, 1938. Kazak Social Structure. Yale University Press, New Haven. L. Krader, 1966. Peoples of Central Asia. Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 26, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. G. Moseley, 1966. A Sino-Soviet Cultural Frontier: The Ili Kazakh Autonomous Chou. East Asian Research Center, Cambridge, Mass. H.G. Schwarz, 1984. The Minorities of Northern China. Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington. [Bibliography mostly in Chinese; relevant pages for Kazakhs of China pp. 17–26 and pp. 259–63.] A. Singer with L. Woodhead, 1988. Disappearing World: Television and Anthropology. Granada Television Ltd., Boxtree.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, David Turton
Country/Production UK
Release 1985
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Mursi

Order No RAI-200.192
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The Migrants is the third film in the trilogy In Search of Cool Ground (see entry) made for Granada Television's Disappearing World series. It is about a drought-induced migration of Mursi from their traditional territory in the Omo valley to the Mago valley, about fifty miles away. This migration has brought them, for the first time, into contact with the market economy of the Ethiopian Highlands. David Turton notes that, when he first met the Mursi, men were seldom, and women never, seen at the highland markets. Now the Mago migrants, and especially women, are familiar figures in the weekly market at Berka, just four hours walk from their new settlements. With their foothold in the pastoral economy weakening (tsetse flies make the Mago area quite unsuitable for cattle herding) and their dependence on market exchange growing, the migrants are in the process of becoming settled agriculturalists, like their highland neighbours, the Ari. By tracing the present and likely impact of this move on the lives of the migrants, the film shows how they are beginning to carve out a new ethnic identity for themselves, as well as a new home. D. Turton, 1988. `Looking for a Cool Place: The Mursi, 1890s-1980s'. In D. Johnson and D. Anderson (eds.) The Ecology of Survival: Case Studies from Northeast African History, pp. 201–82. Lester Crook Academic Publishing and Westview Press, Boulder and London. D. Turton and P. Turton, 1984. `Spontaneous Resettlement after Drought: An Ethiopian Example'. Disasters, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 178–89. L. Woodhead, 1987. A Box Full of Spirits: Adventures of a Film-maker in Africa. Heinemann, London.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Julia Berg
Country/Production UK
Release 2002
Length 29 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location China, Jade Dragon Mountain of Lijiang / Asia
Ethnic Group Chinese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Student Film Prize 2003

Order No RAI-200.3049
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Wise'? 'Serene'? 'A Sage'? Mythologized as the Daoist physician from the Jade Dragon Mountain of Lijiang in South, Dr Ho receives hundreds of visitors in search of the 'Real China' every year. But what lies behind the doctor and his fame?

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Nick Kirkwood
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 24 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, Scotland / Europe
Ethnic Group English
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3064
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A day without laughter is the most wasted of all days according to veteran circus performer Jan Erik, a.k.a 'Fips the Clown'. So when his back goes in the middle of the summer tour round Scotland, it's no joke. Through following the trials and tribulations of training new girl Mahri to work with his younger partner Emile, this film gives an insight into the realities of modern-day circus life on the road.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director John Sheppard, Reimar Schefold
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Indonesia, Sumatra / Asia
Ethnic Group Sakuddei

Order No RAI-200.54
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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 ceremonies, centred on the umah (ceremonial house) are under threat from the Indonesian government which wishes to `civilise' the Sakuddei. These people are also threatened by a timber company from the Philippines which has been granted a logging concession in the Sakuddei's territory. The first part of the film contains strikingly photographed scenes of ritual life in the umah, while in the second part there is an interview with a representative of the government who wants to send the Sakuddei children to school in a government village on the coast. The adults fear that the children will lose touch with their own customs and identity if placed in such an institution. Their concern forms part of a moving and dramatic film which explores the contrast between the Sakuddei's way of life and the various pressures of modern Indonesian society on them: Islam, money, police, administrators and the lumber companies. H. Nooy-Palm, 1968. `The Culture of the Pagai-Islands and Sipora, Mentawei'. Tropical Man, 1, pp. 152–241. R. Schefold, 1973. `Religious Conceptions on Siberut, Mentawai'. Sumatra Research Bulletin (Berita Kajian Sumatera), II, 2, pp. 12–24. R. Schefold, 1976. `Religious Involution: Internal Change, and its Consequences, in the Taboo-System of the Mentawaians'. Tropical Man, 5, pp. 46–81. R. Schefold, 1980. `The Sacrifices of the Sakuddei (Mentawai Archipelago, Western Indonesia): An Attempt at Classification'. In R. Schefold, J.W. Schoorl and J. Tennekes (eds.), Man, Meaning and History: Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. H.G. Schulte Nordholt. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague. B.E. Ward, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 8, pp. 10–11.

Series Taiga Nomads, part 3
Director Heimo Lappalainen
Country/Production Finland
Release 1992
Length 50 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Siberia / Asia
Ethnic Group Evenki (Tungus)
Comments Special price for series, 3 for 2

Order No RAI-200.228
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Taiga Nomads is a film series about the Evenki (previously the Tungus), a nomadic people scattered all over eastern Siberia, and living under harsh conditions in the taiga ± an area predominated by coniferous/larch forests and swamp lands. This series gives a picture of everyday life, during the four seasons the film crew lived with the main characters, consisting of three generations of members of the Archemku family.The first part, Hundreds of Homes, relates the story of Sasha Archemku and his family. He is the leader of Sovchos Brigade No. 6 which actually consists of his closest family members and some temporary helpers. They move throughout the taiga with their herd of reindeer in the traditional Evenki way. Each year the family sets up "home" in more than ten different campsites.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Veera Lehto
Country/Production UK
Release 2004
Length 25 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Burma / Africa
Ethnic Group African
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3070
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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 absence of medication, the only thing the volunteers can offer is care, compassion and religious faith.

Series Strangers Abroad, Programme 3
Director André Singer, Bruce Dakowski (writer and presenter)
Country/Production UK
Release 1986
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location America
Comments Special price for series, 6 for 5

Order No RAI-200.277
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Central Television’s major documentary series looks at the first anthropologists to stop ‘armchair theorising’ and go out to live among the peoples who so interested them. The six part series was filmed all over the world, from the frozen Canadian Arctic to the dry outback of Australia, from New Guinea to India, Africa to the South Pacific.The programme makers retraced the steps of the pioneering anthropologists in those countries and, by following the life story of each scholar, they reveal how social anthropology has contributed to our lives. (For further details on each individual programme, please contact the Film Officer at the RAI.)

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Chris Curling, Paul Howell, Walter Kunijwok, André Singer
Country/Production UK
Release 1976
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Sudan / Africa
Ethnic Group Shilluk

Order No RAI-200.69
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This film presents a compelling visual and aural analysis of Shilluk kingship in 1975, and provides a very useful complement to Evans-Pritchard's 1948 text, The Divine Kingship of the Shilluk. Although the Reth (king) has been reduced to the status of second-class magistrate in dispute settlement by the Sundanese government, he is still the focus of political and national identity for a Shilluk people composed of competing territorial groupings. At the death of the Reth, his spirit passes into the Nile. This film follows the procession of priests as they carry the effigy of Nyikang, the 16th century founder of the Shilluk dynasty, and his son Dak on the pilgrimage from the Nile, retracing the movements of their conquest of the North, capturing the Reth and installing Nyikang. The journey is part of a spiritual renewal for the Shilluk, as well as a renewal of political unity which reaffirms the social order. The outcome of the journey is known, for the Reth-elect will be captured after a ritual battle, and only after being possessed by the spirit of Nyikang will he be installed as King. Thus, the office is seen to be more powerful than the man, and the continuity of divine kingship is affirmed. However, this is not simply a filmed version of the type of analysis provided in Evans-Pritchard's book, for it deals with the kingship in a quite different political context. For example, throughout the period which leads to his installation, the king-elect is guarded by Government police who are not Shilluk. It is apparent that the future king accedes to office with the `support' of the Government, the `mock' aspect of the ritual battle being somewhat confused by the very real presence of the guards and their disruptive effects on the proceedings. In any course on political anthropology this film is clearly crucial, and for those quick enough to appreciate it, the commentary carries a great deal of information and analysis. It is also rated highly for verbal and visual accuracy. C. Curling 1978. `Anthropology and the General Audience: Disappearing World'. Educational Broadcasting International, June, Vol. II, No. 2. (This is not specifically about the Shilluk but discusses inter alia particular aspects of the film of interest to anthropologists and filmmakers.) E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1948. The Divine Kingship of the Shilluk of the Nilotic Sudan (The Frazer Lecture of 1948). Cambridge University Press. (Reprinted in E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Essays in Social Anthropology. Faber, London, 1962. E.E. Evans-Pritchard (ed.), 1972. `Shilluk, Sudan'. In T. Stacey (editorial director), Peoples of the World, Vol. 2, Africa from the Sahara to the Zambezi. Tom Stacey and Europa Verlag, [London]. P.P. Howell and W.P.G. Thomson, 1946. `The Death of a Reth of the Shilluk and the Installation of his Successor'. Sudan Notes and Records, No. 27, pp. 4–85. L. Mair, 1976. Review of the film. RAIN, 12, p. 6. M.E.C. Pumphrey, 1941. `The Shilluk Tribe'. Sudan Notes and Records, Vol. 24, Pt. I, pp. 1–45.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Austin Paterek
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location USA / America
Ethnic Group American
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3093
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For the past 10 years the shrimping industry in United States has been on a steady decline. Estimates show that only 15 percent of the original fleet is still in operation, due to overseas competition and escalating fuel prices. ‘The Shrimpers’ follows the crew of the Capt. Drew fishing vessel, highlighting the social aesthetics of life on a shrimp trawler, and also delving into many of the troubling issues surrounding this industry and why these men continue to persevere in a dying industry.

Series Taiga Nomads, part 2
Director Heimo Lappalainen
Country/Production Finland
Release 1992
Length 50 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Siberia / Asia
Ethnic Group Evenki (Tungus)
Comments Special price for series, 3 for 2

Order No RAI-200.227
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Taiga Nomads is a film series about the Evenki (previously the Tungus), a nomadic people scattered all over eastern Siberia, and living under harsh conditions in the taiga ± an area predominated by coniferous/larch forests and swamp lands. This series gives a picture of everyday life, during the four seasons the film crew lived with the main characters, consisting of three generations of members of the Archemku family.The first part, Hundreds of Homes, relates the story of Sasha Archemku and his family. He is the leader of Sovchos Brigade No. 6 which actually consists of his closest family members and some temporary helpers. They move throughout the taiga with their herd of reindeer in the traditional Evenki way. Each year the family sets up "home" in more than ten different campsites.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Anne Schiltz
Country/Production UK
Release 2002
Length 29 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Romania, Transylyvania / Europe
Ethnic Group Saxons, Romanians, Gypsies
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3055
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Although the Saxons arrived in Transylyvania, Romania over 800 years ago, they have retained a strong sense of their distinctive identity and still speak German. After the Revolution of 1989, most Saxons left the country. But Rosi and her father have stayed behind, determined to live in harmony with the Romanians and Gypsies who have moved into the formerly Saxon villages.

Director Paul Henley
Country/Production UK
Release 1987
Length 56 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Venezuela, Cuyaga / America
Ethnic Group Afro-Caribbean

Order No RAI.200.183B
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The film centres on the predominantly female celebration of the feast of Saint John. The women sing the songs associated with the Feast, describe their beliefs and how they organise the feast. Preliminary scenes establish the themes that underlie the Feast a mixture of the sacred and the profane, eroticism and death, celebration and mourning.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Chris Curling, Anders Grum
Country/Production UK
Release 1977
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Kenya / Africa
Ethnic Group Rendille

Order No RAI-200.73
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The Rendille are camel herders who live in villages and camps dotted over 10,000 square miles of desert and scrub bush in Northern Kenya. As the terrain they occupy is so dry, the Rendille grow no crops and their cultural and economic life is centred on their animals. As with other pastoral peoples, the Rendille have to be sensitive to the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals and `natural' resources in order to maintain a suitable balance between them. Throughout the year the Rendille have to follow the grazing and rains, dividing their herds between camel camps and semi-permanent village settlements: long-term planning and decision-making are therefore crucial and this film brings out the manner in which the elders make their decisions. Each man gives his opinion and is listened to attentively until eventually a consensus is reached. The role of the sexual division of labour and the age-set system is explained in commentary, interviews and visual sequences, in a way which allows the viewer insights in the various interacting levels of Rendille social structure. Sequences detailing the ritual activities surrounding the naapo ceremony (which marks a young man's transition to elderhood) are given towards the end of the film, after explanation of the fact that young men have to live in camel camps for about 14 years, while girls look after sheep and goats living in settlements with women and elders. In this way the building of symbolic villages by moran, each man making his own `home' with stones representative of wife and children before sacrificing a goat, is denied status as exotic spectacle: the subtitled comments of the naapo participants convey their feelings of embarrassment and uncertainty about the ritual procedure and allow a visual statement to be made about the relationship of ritual to every-day life. The importance of the purely visual images in conveying a sense of vast desert space, of a daily life filled with the movement and sight of camels, sheep and goats, and of the social effects of village layout, is not to be underestimated. Although this colour film could be criticised for at times beautifying and softening the rough edges of pastoral life, its power as a statement of what it means to exist as a Rendille is very much a property of the camera work. The skilled usage of cinema verite techniques, combined with full subtitling of interviews, gives to this film an integrity and sensitivity which serves to reinforce its concern for the Rendille and its anxiety that for the Kenyan authorities the Rendille are a problem and an embarrassment. P.T.W. Baxter, 1977. Review of the film. RAIN, 20, pp. 7–9. S. Sato, 1980. `Pastoral Movements and the Subsistence Unit of the Rendille of Northern Kenya with Special Reference to Camel Ecology'. Senri Ethnological Studies, No. 6, (African 2), pp. 1–78. G. Schlee, 1979. Das Glaubens - und Socialsystem der Rendille: Kamelnomaden Nord-Kenyas. (Summary in English, pp. 449–464). Berlin. P. Spencer, 1973. Nomads in Alliance: Symbiosis and Growth among the Rendille and Samburu of Kenya. Oxford University Press, London and New York.

Director Chris Owen
Anthropologist Alfred Gell
Country/Production UK
Release 1981
Length 50 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS
Location Papua New Guinea, West Sepik Province / Pacific
Ethnic Group Umeda

Order No RAI-200.130
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In a remote part of the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, the Umeda people eke out a difficult living from the sago swamps and primary rain forest that surround them. Until recently, these people performed an annual ceremony, the Ida, which dramatised their relationship to the forest and celebrated their continuing survival. The ceremony was the major social occasion of their year in essence a fertility ritual focussing on a complex metamorphosis of figures representing cassowaries. This film is a record of the Ida ceremony, and an analysis of it, seen through the eyes of anthropologist Alfred Gell.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, David Turton
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Mursi

Order No RAI-200.36
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The Mursi, an unadministered tribe living in remote south-west Ethiopia, are a cattle-keeping and agricultural group without chiefs or leaders. This film, made under extremely difficult conditions, focuses on the way decisions are made in this society at a time of crisis. The crisis occurs when a shortage of grazing land, during a draught in 1974, led to warfare with their neighbours, the Bodi. The greater part of the film is concerned with a debate over the Bodi peace proposals. The Mursi reach their political decisions in formal debate at which point each warrior who rises to speak is heard patiently until all the important issues have been raised and a measure of agreement has emerged. The Mursi is a serious and important film, both ethnographically and as a contribution to the understanding of political systems. K. Fukui and D. Turton (eds.) 1979. Warfare among East African Herders. Senri Ethnological Studies 3, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. W. James and T.B. Selassie, 1976. Review of the film. RAIN, 16, pp. 6–7. D. Turton, 1971. `Mursi Tribe on the Plain of Death'. Geographical Magazine, September. D. Turton, 1975. `The Relationship between Oratory and the Exercise of Influence among the Mursi'. In M. Bloch (ed.), Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society. Academic Press, London. D. Turton, 1977. `Response to Drought: The Mursi of Southwestern Ethiopia'. In J.P. Garlick and R.W.J. Keay (eds.), Human Ecology in the Tropics, Symposia of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, Vol. XVI. Taylor and Francis, London. (Reprinted in Disasters, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1978.) D. Turton, 1978. `Territorial Organisation and Age among the Mursi'. In P.T.W. Baxter and U. Almagor (eds.), Age, Generation and Time: Some Features of East African Age Organisations. Hurst, London. Woodhead, Leslie 1988. A Box Full of Spirits - Adventures of a film-maker in Africa. Heinemann (pbk), London

Director Francoise Levie
Country/Production Belgium
Release 1994
Length 44 mins
Format Colour / VHS / PAL / All region
Location Siberia / Asia
Ethnic Group Altai

Order No RAI-200.233
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The film unfolds the archaeological discovery of the frozen tombs of Altai, part of the Scythian culture in the Siberian steppe.

Series Doon School Project
Director David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia
Release 2003
Length 100 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL
Location India, Dehra Dun, Uttaranchal / Asia
Ethnic Group Indian
Collection MacDougall
Comments Special rate for ordering whole Doon School Series - 5 for 4

Order No RAI-200.302
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The social dynamics of the group is the focus of this study of life in Foot House, one of Doon School’s dormitories for new boys. It begins a few days before the boys appear and shows them arriving, struggling with their trunks and suitcases. It then follows them for the next two months of their lives in the house. The film provides a comparison to the group viewed in With Morning Hearts, for these boys appear more divided and class-conscious. Within the group there is a range of personalities and backgrounds—some are natural leaders, some subject to teasing and bullying, some argumentative, some peace-makers. An important feature of the film is the inclusion of conversations among the boys about the causes of aggression and warfare, homesickness, restaurant food, and how to speak to a ghost.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, Barbara Hazard
Country/Production UK
Release 1983
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location China / Asia
Ethnic Group Chinese

Order No RAI-200.137
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This film is a continuation of Living with the Revolution, set in the same communes near Wuxi and focusing on the same families. This film concentrates, however, on the new social and economic policies following the fall of Mao. The new movement is from a highly collectivized system of production to the new `Responsibility System' where the primary production unit is again the household. One of the families interviewed is the Ding family. The Dings are obviously an influential family in the village«it is called Big Ding Village; the mother is a Party member, the father and one son are accountants, another son is an engineer, a daughter-in-law works in an instruments factory. The family is wealthy. By Mr Ding's own admission they earn between 4,000 to 4,500 RMB a year in an economy where they only require 1,500 RMB a year to live. The rest goes for material luxuries. This new-found wealth is shown as the result of the new `Responsibilty System'. Big Ding Village is a partly urbanized community, but another commune of the area, the Wong Jong Commune, is rural. The new policies allow each person their own strip of land, and although the Party dictates what the owner can plant, surplus can be sold for individual profit. These policies are trying to strike a delicate balance to maintain the communal ideals of the Party while encouraging individualism. Although Mrs Ding and others talk about the equality of women, women now not only work away from home, but also do the traditional duties of a wife. A young wife, who traditionally moves to her husband's home, is still expected to serve her in-laws. A young bride's description of her first meeting with her future husband in an arranged marriage corresponds closely with the traditional meeting of Mr and Mrs Ding in the years before Liberation. This film creates a portrait of the tensions between the traditional and the new. One such conflict is the government directive for the one-child family. Although many families in China acknowledge the validity of this policy, it is hard to deny the traditional importance of a large family. Mrs Ding, who gives all appearances of being quite a remarkable woman, also works as a mediator in a system that tries to resolve conflicts in the community before they reach the courts. Implicit in the mediation are traditional Chinese values; the young must respect the decisions of their elders for the system to be effective. After the mediation sequence, the film shows several old men in a tea room while the narration describes a new pension scheme that would free younger people from taking care of their parents. This policy undermines the fundamental Chinese principle of the value of age and it is no wonder that the older people resent the plan. The film is about change, a new materialism, a refocus on individual effort which could threaten communal life. This is in many ways a reassertion of traditional Chinese values; reward for individual effort and materialism have only been strangers to China after Liberation. P. Clark, 1983. `Film Making in China: From the Cultural Revolution to 1981'. China Quarterly, Vol. 94, pp. 304-32. H. Fei, 1939. Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtse Valley. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. C. Howe (ed), 1979. Studying China. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. A. Jenkins, 1983. `Seeing Beyond Seeing: Films on Contemporary China'. Journal of Geography and Higher Education, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 166-78. [Review of China and Kazakh film plus others.] A. Jenkins, 1986. ` ¡Disappearing World¬ Goes to China: A Production Study of Anthropological Films'. Anthropology Today, Vol. 2, No. 3, 6-13. A. Jenkins, 1988. `Granada Television Goes to China: The Choice of Location and Characters'. Visual Anthropology, Vol. 1, pp. 453-73. A. Jenkins, forthcoming (1989). `A View of Contemporary China: A Production Study of a Documentary Film'. In L. Zonn (ed.) Place Images in the Media. Rowmen, Littlefield NY. J. Myrdal, 1984. Return to a Chinese Village. Pantheon Books, New York.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director André Singer, Akbar Ahmed
Country/Production UK
Release 1980
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Pakistan / Asia
Ethnic Group Pathans

Order No RAI-200.98
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There are twelve million Pathans. Bound by a common language, a common heritage and the unifying force of Islam, these proud and independent people do not acknowledge the geographical boundary which divides them between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This film was shot at the same time as Khyber (see RAI Film and Video Library list) in Pakistan, close to the Afghan border. The Pathans accept no imposed leadership, from without or from within. Their laws are the decisions of the democratic assembly of the village, known as the jirga. To disobey the jirga is to court heavy penalties against which there is no appeal. Their code of living is called pukhtunwali – the way of the Pathan. At its core are the principles of hospitality, personal honour and revenge. A man will fight to the death to avenge a wrong done to himself, his family or friends or, above all, his women. The film is noteworthy for the way in which it brings out the importance of these values. Their fierce loyalty, coupled with the independence of spirit which tolerates no formal leaders, makes the Pathans a formidable enemy, as the British once found out and, more recently, the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan have discovered. A. S. Ahmed, 1976. Millenium and Charisma among Pathans. Routlege and Kegan Paul, London. A.S. Ahmed, 1980. Pukhtun Economy and Society. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. F. Barth, 1959. Political Leadership among Swat Pathans. Athlone Press, London. F. Barth, 1981. Features of Person and Society in Swat: Collected Essays on Pathans. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. O. Caroe, 1965. The Pathans, 550 B.C. – A.D. 1957. Macmillan, London. J.S. Spain, 1962. The Way of the Pathans. Robert Hale, London. N. Tapper, 1980. Review of the film. RAIN, 38, pp. 5–6. R. Tapper, 1974. `Pathan'. Family of Man (Park Work), Vol. 6, Pt. 79, pp. 2202–2206. Marshall Cavendish, London.

Director Rolf Husmann
Anthropologist Asen Balikci
Country/Production Germany
Release 2009
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Various locations, London, Istanbul, Sikkim, Bulgaria / Europe
Ethnic Group Netsilik, Poma, Lepcha
Language English (English subtitles)

Order No RAI-209.2009.1
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Asen Balikci has been a leading figure in making ethnographic films for many decades. In a series of talks between Balikci and filmmaker Rolf Husmann in different locations, the life and work of Asen Balikci are shown and discussed: the film takes us from Asen’s youth in Istanbul to his career in Canada where he became famous for making the Netsilik Eskimos Series, to filming in Afghanistan and then turning to two other activities of his: as a networker for the Commission on Visual Anthropology (CVA) and as a teacher of Summer Schools in Siberia and Bulgaria. His film work among the Bulgarian Pomak and his still ongoing work in Sikkim (India) conclude the film which is not only the portrait of a famous expert in Visual Ethnography, but also more generally touches upon vital issues of ethnographic filmmaking.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Carlos Pasini, Michael Sallnow
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Peru, Andes / America
Ethnic Group Peruvian

Order No RAI-200.52
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This film is set in a community of peasant agriculturalists 2 1/4 miles above sea level in the southern Peruvian Andes. Concentrating on a single family, the film explores aspects of religious and secular life. The first part of the film shows a pilgrimage to a Christian sanctuary situated close to the residence of the most powerful of the Central Andean mountain spirits (Apus) illustrating the syncretism of Catholic and pre-Hispanic local religious traditions. In the second part of the film we see a fertility rite for sheep, and the attempts of certain members of the community to procure government assistance for a motor road to the village which would link them more closely with the rest of Peruvian society. This film portrays the Quechua of the village of Camahuara as being in a sense sealed off from the rest of the world, but it also shows how their way of life is integrated with the Peruvian economy. It has been criticised for emphasising that the desire for change is coming from inside the traditional society rather than being forced on it from without. O. Harris, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 6, p.11. Reply by Michael Sallnow and further correspondence in RAIN, 7, 10 and 11. B.J. Isbell, 1978. To Defend Ourselves: Ecology and Ritual in an Andean Village. Latin American Monographs No. 47. University of Texas Press, Austin. O. Nunez del Prado and W.F. Whyte, 1973. Kuyo Chico: Applied Anthropology in an Indian Community. University of Chicago Press. (An account of a project of directed social change in a community about 19 km. from Camahuara.) M. Sallnow, R. Whitburn and V. Cutler, 1978. The Quechua. Educational pack in the Land and People series intended for 11–13 year old children (RAI/ILEA project). Basil Blackwell, Oxford. W.W. Stein, 1961. Hualcan: Life in the Highlands of Peru. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. P. Van den Berghe, 1977. Inequality in the Peruvian Andes: Class and Ethnicity in Cuzco. University of Missouri Press, Columbia.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director David Griggs
Country/Production UK
Release 2002
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location South Africa, Lesotho / Africa
Ethnic Group Basotho
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3051
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The Basotho live in Lesotho, a kingdom of high mountains surrounded by South Africa. Afflicted by famine, poverty and AIDS, they carry on making a science out of their witchcraft beliefs.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Theo Youngstein
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 26 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Trinidad and Tobago / Africa
Ethnic Group African
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3094
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‘The Temple in the Sea’ looks at ritual and religious practice at a well-known Hindu shrine and its associated cremation grounds in Central Trinidad. Documenting the daily life of the Temple, and those that maintain and worship at it, it seeks to communicate an experience of the place using the 5 elements (earth, water, wind, fire and ether) as a symbolic compass.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Laetitia Merli
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / PAL / All region
Location Mongolia, Ulan Baatar / Asia
Ethnic Group Mongolian
Language Mongolian (English subtitles)
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Student Film Prize 2003

Order No RAI-200.3097
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During Mongolia's seventy years of domination by the Soviet Union, shamanism, like many aspects of Mongolian tradition, was forbidden by the Communist authorities, and went into decline. Since the early 1990s, however, it has been undergoing a revival, eater to regain its place in Mongolian cultural identity. This film explores the life of the shaman-master Tomor, at his centre in Ulaan Baatar.

Director Bruce Pacho Lane
Country/Production USA / Mexico
Release 2000
Length 39 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Mexico, Huehuetla, Puebla / America

Order No RAI-200.318
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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 Totonaca (OIT), and joined in an electoral alliance with the Partido de la Revolución Democratica (PRD). For ten years the OIT and the PRD carried out a non-violent revolution. The visible signs of this Totonac renaissance are the health clinics, schools, roads, drinking water and electricity. But the real change is in the new self-confidence and pride of the Totonacs themselves. The camera follows Cruz Garcia, an "expatriate" Totonac, as he returns to his community

Director Peter Entell
Country/Production Switzerland
Release 1988
Length 56 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location China / Asia
Ethnic Group Mongols

Order No RAI-200.178
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The film is in two parts and focuses on the Mongols living in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Part One (28 minutes) follows the life of a nomadic Mongol family on their yearly journey following their herds across north China. Part Two (28 minutes) gives a more contemporary view of the Mongols trying to reclaim the desert in a more sedentary lifestyle currently encouraged by the Chinese government. The second section highlights disturbing environmental issues regarding the destruction of these northern grasslands.

Series Disappearing World Series
Director Brian Moser
Country/Production UK
Release 1973
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Iran / Asia
Ethnic Group Kurds

Order No RAI-200.8
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A community of Kurds resident in Iran on the border with Iraq forms the subject of this film. Many of the inhabitants of the community are refugees from Kurdish areas of Iraq and the villagers are Qadiri Dervishes – followers of an ecstatic mystical cult of Islam. The unusual manifestations of the Qadiri Dervish faith are explored in this film, both in the context of religious ceremonies and everyday life, with the main focus on the spiritual and temporal power wielded by their leader, Sheikh Hussein. For the Durvishes, Hussein is the direct representative of Allah and, therefore, by serving the Sheikh they are also serving God. In rituals presided over by him they have the power to carry out acts which would normally be harmful, such as having electricity passed through their bodies, eating glass, handling poisonous snakes and skewering their faces. The film includes interviews, not only with members of the cult, but also with the local mullah (representative of orthodox Islam), in an attempt to explore the difference between those two manifestations of the same faith. The film is visually compelling, especially the sequences showing religious celebration and ceremony. F. Barth, 1953. Principles of Social Organisation in South Kurdistan. Universitetets Etnografiske Museum Bulletin No. 7, Oslo. A. Singer, 1973. `Dervishes'. In T. Stacey (editorial director) Peoples of the World, Vol. 15, Western and Central Asia, Tom Stacey and Europa Verlag, [London.] A. Singer, 1974. `The Dervishes of Kurdistan'. Asian Affairs, Vol. 61, Part 2, pp. 179–182. M. Van Bruinessen, 1978. Agha, Shaikh and State. On the Social and Political Organization of Kurdistan. Utrecht.

Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Patrícia Pedrosa
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 31 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Guinea-Bissau
Ethnic Group African
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester

Order No RAI-200.3088
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Four Christian women work and live in a Muslim and patriarchic world. The ‘Sisters of the Consolata Missionaries’ are building a new library in Empada, a small village in the south of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. They went there just because they want to give their lives to those who had never met Christ. They want to take out their own faith to other people - 500 years after the first Portuguese missionaries arrived in Africa to save souls.

Director Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Country/Production UK
Release 1989
Length 80 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Iran, Tehran / Asia
Ethnic Group Iranian
Collection Kim Longinotto
Prizes/Commendations Winner RAI Film Prize 2000

Order No RAI-200.298
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This film is set in the Family Law Courts in central Tehran. The three main characters are Jamileh who punishes her husband for beating her, Ziba, a 16 year old girl who is trying to get a divorce from her 38 year old husband, and Maryam who is fighting for the custody of her daughters. The film moves away from portraying Iran as a country of war, hostages and Fatwas. It concentrates instead on ordinary women who come to this court to try and transform their lives.