Director Ulla Rasmussen
Country/Production Denmark
Release 1990
Length 84 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Faroe Islands, Gásadalur, North Atlantic / America
Order No RAI-200.234
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Inhabitants of an isolated settlement called Gásadalur (on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic) discuss the pending tunnel planned to connect them to the rest of the island. They share their outlooks concerning the future impact it will have on their present way of life and living conditions.
Director Ben Hopkins
Country/Production UK
Release 2006
Length 85 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Turkey / Asia
Ethnic Group Pamir Kirghiz
Language English, Turkish, Kirghiz (English sub)
Prizes/Commendations Basil Wright Film Prize 2007
Order No RAI-209.2007.132
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The Pamir Kirghiz are a tribe of some 2,000 people from the Pamir region of Central Asia. For the last 27 years they have lived in exile in Eastern Turkey. In 2005 an Anglo-Turkish film crew arrives in their village to work with the tribe to tell their story. (Winner Basil Wright Film Prize 2007
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Priscilla Clarissou
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 31 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Chile / America
Ethnic Group Chilean
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3086
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Nestled below the rugged Chilean peaks of the Andes lies the gold mining town of Andacollo. The town's remoteness and mining economy has nurtured religious beliefs in the power of the Virgin over the inhabitants' lives. The film tells the story of the artisan miners and what goes into producing 75 grams of gold.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 1
Director Timothy Asch, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch
Country/Production Australia / USA
Release 1980
Length 46 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-200.122
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Jero Tapakan is ‘entered’ by deities and spirits who converse with her clients . Unbeknown to her, they wish to contact the spirit of their dead son to learn the cause of his death and his wishes for his cremation ceremony
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 2
Director E. Douglas Lewis, Patsy Asch, Timothy Asch
Country/Production Australia
Release 1992
Length 45 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Wai Brama, Flores / Asia
University Australian National University
Comments See Lewis’ book, People of the Source. The Social and Ceremonial Order of Tana Wai Brama on Flores
Order No RAI-200.238A
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This film is a record of the gren mahe rituals of the people of the domain of Wai Brama. The gren mahe is the largest religious event of the Wai Brama ceremonial system and requires the participation of the whole community. The film examines ceremonial leadership and the role of evolving religious practice in a changing society.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director Charlie Nairn, Jean-Paul Dumont
Country/Production UK
Release 1970
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Venezuela / America
Ethnic Group Panare Indians, Creoles
Order No RAI-200.5
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In common with many other Indian groups in South America, the culture of the Panare Indians of Venezuela is threatened by their almost daily contact with neighbouring creoles, Spanish-speaking peasants. However, in spite of nearly fifty years of interaction, their culture has remained distinctively Indian. The film focuses on activities of their daily life, such as making cassava, preparing blow-darts, hunting and gathering. The Indians strongly resented the presence of the camera-crew; indeed, as Dumont points out early in the film, they were loath to reveal details of their belief-system even to him, although he had been living with them for eighteen months. This was the first and the shortest of the films in the Disappearing World series. Although useful and interesting, it is relatively superficial and its commentary contains some anthropological oddities: it cannot be compared with the much more sophisticated films made later in the series. J.-P. Dumont, 1976. Under the Rainbow: Nature and Supernature among Panare. University of Texas Press, Austin. J.-P. Dumont, 1979. The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the Fieldworking Experience. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Director Steef PM Meyknecht
Country/Production Netherlands
Release 2005
Length 62 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Netherlands, Amsterdam / Europe
Language Dutch (English subtitels)
Prizes/Commendations Commendation RAI Film Prize 2007
Order No RAI-209.2007.1
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At the end of Van Goghstraat in Amsterdam is the Veerhuis. A normal residential house in a normal urban area, where children play outside in front of the door. But people come to the Veerhuis to die. For his research, Steef Meyknecht worked for three years as a volunteer in The Veerhuis.
Director John Baily
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Afghanistan, Kabul / Asia
Ethnic Group Afghan
Order No RAI-200.334
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Ethnomusicologist John Baily returns to Kabul to see what is happening in the world of music one year after the defeat of the Taliban. The film documents a variety of musical activities, including performances of rubab lute music by Kabul's traditional musicians, songs of Afghan orphans, the Music Department of Kabul university and a student pop group playing electric guitars and keyboard. Implicitly, the film identifies some of the dilemmas facing those seeking to help Afghans rebuild their music culture.
Director Dipesh Kharel
Country/Production Norway
Release 2006
Length 59 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Nepal / Asia
Language Thami (English sub)
Collection NA
University Visual Cultural Studies, University of Tromsø
Prizes/Commendations Material Culture Film Prize 2007
Order No RAI-209.2007.61
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Alampu is a beautiful and exceedingly remote village in Nepal. The majority of the settlers there are Thami People, one of the indigenous groups of Nepal. More than 90 percent of them have been involved in the slate production at Alampu. This film includes technical details about slate production in the mountainside mine, and how the slate is worked prior to distribution. In the film we see the social relationships, co-operation between the miners, and the intimacy of the mining families. Strong women perform the tough and arduous work alongside the men. They have to carry heavy slate loads far to sell them. The film also describes the socio-cultural life of the village and its interaction with the environment. The activities of the men and women in the mine, as well as in the village, have an almost poetic dimension. (Material Culture and Archaeology Film Prize 2007)
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Laura Kirk
Country/Production UK
Release 1998
Length 34 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Nepal / Asia
Ethnic Group Nepalese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3026
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This film in a traditional household in Nepal: a servant girl, Nani; a married woman, Sarita; and a mother-in-law, Ama. An interesting mixture of entrapment, duty and tradition.
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Bulgaria
Release 1999
Length 56 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Bulgaria, Sofia / Europe
Ethnic Group Bulgarian
Order No RAI-200.317
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Ephtim D., 73 years old, is a retired postman. He lives in Sofia with his wife Ghinka in a three room suburban apartment. As a socialist he feels confused by the ‘crazy’ democracy and the uncertainties of the transition period. The couple’s combined pensions amount to $66.00. Ephtim experiences constant difficulties in balancing the family budget. Free medical care and lunches at a subsidised canteen are essential to his survival strategy. This portrait of a Bulgarian pensioner is presented in the context of a global hopelessness and a clearly felt nostalgia for the communist past.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Emma Farrell
Country/Production UK
Release 1997
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, Manchester / 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-200.3018
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How is someone’s life affected when faced with cancer? This film is a portrait of three people from Manchester, England, who have chosen to include complementary therapies as part of their daily coping strategies.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Line Hatland
Country/Production UK
Release 1995
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location USA, Philadelphia / 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-200.3012
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Dorothy Day, ex-communist, anarchist, single mother and co-founder of the widespread ‘Catholic Worker’ movement — died in New York in 1980. Soon after the Claretian Fathers started a campaign to get her canonised. But the Philadelphia Catholic Workers oppose the idea.
Director Allen Moore, Louis Werner
Country/Production USA
Release 1996
Length 40 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Mexico / America
Ethnic Group South American
Order No RAI-200.313
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This film documents a migrant worker’s experiences as a herder on a Nevada sheep ranch who then returns to his family in Mexico after a long absence to renew ties and find a job at home. It contains an original Mexican corrido song track and a voice over based on John Berger’s ‘A Seventh Man.’ The film contributes towards understanding the often temporal and circular process of migration, and its impact on social networks and familial relations.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Julia Yezbick
Country/Production UK
Release 2004
Length 32 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Nepal / Asia
Ethnic Group Nepalese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3072
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Through following the daily life of a home for the elderly in Kathmandhu, Nepal, run by Catholic nuns but situated beside the cremation ghats of Pashupathinath Hindu temple, this film explores cross-religious views on old age, death and karma.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Claudia Engels
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location India / Asia
Ethnic Group Indian
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3087
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‘A spark in him’ is a film about the life story of Sajay Kumar, a young man without arms who lives in a home for disabled children in Kerala, India, and studies at the College of Fine Arts. By simultaneously showing the school life of the challenged children in Sajay’s present home the cinematographic portrait visualizes Sajay’s exceptional position as a disabled person in Southern Indian society.
Director Jon Jerstad
Country/Production UK
Release 1987
Length 45 mins
Format Colour / PAL / All region
Location India / Asia
Ethnic Group Tibetan
Prizes/Commendations Basil Wright Film Prize 1988
Order No RAI-200.214
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This outstanding documentary is placed in Northern India among a group of Tibetan refugees. They celebrate the New Year, following a ritual of their religion, Bonpo, which is older than Buddhism.
Director Judith MacDougall, David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia
Release 1986
Length 22 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Australia, New South Wales, Australia
Ethnic Group Aboriginees
Order No RAI-200.297
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Replacing the engine in an old car is a familiar rural task, but how people go about it differs. For these Aboriginal men in New South Wales, it’s an occasion for affirming continuing relationships in characteristically Aboriginal ways, through consensus and humour, and by pooling their skills. For Stevie, the small boy, it’s a chance to learn by watching. And even if he’s only a little help he’s never excluded.
Series Turkana Conversations 2
Director Judith MacDougall, David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia /USA
Release 1981
Length 72 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Kenya / Africa
Ethnic Group Turkana
Comments Special rate for all three films 3 for 2
Order No RAI-200.90
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This segment of the trilogy on the Turkana of northern Kenya (see Lorang’s Way and The Wedding Camels above) evolves around the role of women in the society. The audience follows the MacDougall’s while they search for an elusive wedding they want to film. Along the way they stay with friends and talk with them about the role of the Turkana women.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director John Blake, Michael Stewart
Country/Production UK
Release 1988
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Hungary / Europe
Ethnic Group Vlach Gypsies
Order No RAI-200.185
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`Across the Tracks' is a gripping film for the general viewer.... It is beautifully filmed in observational style (lingering scenes of muddy courtyards) with enough subtitled interview material to provide context. A. Sutherland. Rom is the word that describes Vlach Gypsies, unassimilated descendents of Gypsy slaves in Wallachia in Romania in the 19th century. A larger group, the Romungro, are more obviously part of Hungarian society: they speak Hungarian, not Romany. Romungros are the people who play violins in restaurants; `true' Rom, the Vlach, wouldn't dream of it. The total Gypsy population in Hungary forms 3% of the Hungarian population the same proportion as people of Asian or Caribbean origin in Britain. This Disappearing World film explores the Vlach Gypsies' position in socialist Hungary through the eyes of three related families. Maron and her husband Jozi work in conventional jobs where work is compulsory: this is the fundamental first principle of the `official' economy. Maron and Jozi use their income to improve their impoverished lives. They are becoming more like the gazo — the contemptuous Romany term for all Hungarians, meaning `peasants'. Jozi's first wife, Terez, and her husband Mokus try to realise their dreams in a more Gypsy-like fashion. Terez scavenges in rubbish bins for bread to fatten pigs which she hopes to sell for Mokus to buy horses. Mokus reluctantly works in a factory but wants to be a horse dealer like his brother-in-law Sera. He is disqualified from work by a dubious disability, and instead buys and sells horses, `turning money around, so that more comes to me.' The market is central to the Gypsy economy, but is not seen as a means of accumulating wealth. The market exists to circulate wealth, to ensure money passes through as many hands as possible – so that all may benefit from it. If a Gypsy acquires money, he is expected to celebrate with his friends, his `brothers'. Horses are like temporary bank deposits, ready to be exchanged or cashed in when a `brother' needs money. This film provides an interesting view of the tensions between the Hungarian state and the Gypsies, and of the complex contradictions of the Gypsies' lives. It is recommended for classes in anthropology, sociology, European studies, ethnicity, ecology, and political studies. J. Okely, 1984. The Traveller-Gypsies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. M. Stewart, 1989. `True Speech'. Man N.S. Vol. 24, pp. 79–101. A. Sutherland, 1975. Gypsies: The Hidden Americans. Tavistock, London. A. Sutherland, 1989. `Across the Tracks: The Vlach Gypsies of Hungary'. Anthropology Today, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 20–21.
Director Ruth Prince, Wenzel Geissler, Ruth Tuchtenhagen
Country/Production Germany / UK
Release 2001
Length 66 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Kenya / Africa
Ethnic Group Luo
Prizes/Commendations Winner of the 2003 JVC Student Video Prize
Order No RAI-200.322
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‘Adhiambo’ means ‘the one born in the evening’ in the language of the Luo of western Kenya. The film follows NyaSeme, a married mother and grandmother in her late 30s, during the last month of her pregnancy and through the first weeks of her newborn daughter’s life. The first part of the film focuses on everyday life in NyaSeme’s home, as well as on the work of the anthropologists in the home, who themselves are expecting a child, which is born shortly after NyaSeme’s. The second part follows the various small illnesses that the child, goes through. NyaSeme employs the herbal resources of the bush surrounding the home as well as those of the government dispensary; simultaneously, Otto, the anthropologists’ son falls ill and receives various forms of medical treatment. The film creates a personal account of a woman’s life, motherhood, children and the maintenance of bodily health in rural western Kenya, as well as insights into the reflexive and relational nature of ethnographic fieldwork.
Director Trevor Graham
Country/Production Australia
Release 1994
Length 58 mins
Format Colour, B&W / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Australia / Pacific
Ethnic Group Yanyuwa
Prizes/Commendations Winner of the (RAI) Basil Wright Film Prize 1996
Order No RAI-200.246
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December 1942: US bomber ‘Little Eva’ was returning to base after a bombing raid over New Guinea. It hit a storm and crashed at Moonlight Creek in Australia’s far north. Aeroplane Dance dramatises the Americans’ struggle to survive in an unfamiliar land, a place they experienced as hostile, and brings together the Americans’ and Yanyuwa peoples’ tales of war, survival, story-telling and the creation of legends.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director André Singer
Anthropologist Akbar Ahmed, Remy Dor
Country/Production UK
Release 1980
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Pakistan
Ethnic Group Pashtun, Kirghiz, Hazara
Order No RAI-200.281
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Granada Television’s major documentary series looks at various aspects of societies from around the world.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Irene Petropoulou
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 32 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Greece, Olympos / Europe
Ethnic Group Greek
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3057
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For the people of Olympos, a small mountain village on the Greek island of Carpathos, preserving tradition is of great importance, not least as a source of income. The parading 'brides' of the Virgin Mary festival, dressed up in their glittering costumes to attract grooms, are now just as keen to attract tourist photographers. But the visitors bring change as well as money and the young women to whom the village looks to preserve its traditions are increasingly reluctant to do so.
Director John Baily
Country/Production UK
Release 1994
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL or NTSC / All region
Location Pakistan / Asia
Ethnic Group Afghan
Comments Study guide available.
Order No RAI-200.147
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Amir, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan, tells his story through music. His work with other musicians and his precarious existence as a refugee are at the centre of the film. Sensitive camerawork and direction makes this a film of insight and beauty.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Charlotte Grégoire
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Hungary, Budapest / Brussels,Belgium / Europe
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3033
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Hungarian-born André Reinitz only discovered his Jewish identity when he moved to Brussels at the age of ten. Since then, in spite of the silence of his parents, he has become involved in the Jewish community as a Klezmer musician. This film follows him, torn between Brussels and Budapest, as he tries to learn more about his cultural and family roots.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director Claudia Milne, Charlotte Boaitey
Country/Production UK
Release 1982
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ghana, Kumasi Market / Africa
Ethnic Group Asante
Order No RAI-200.139
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As retailers, wholesalers, and negotiators, Asante women of Ghana dominate the huge Kumasi Central Market amid the laughter, argument, colour and music. The crew of this `Disappearing World' film have jumped into the fray, explored, and tried to explain the complexities of the market and its traders. The success of this crew is impressive. As the film was to be about women traders, an all female film crew was selected and the rapport between the two groups of women is remarkable. The relationship was no doubt all the stronger because the anthropologist acting as advisor to the crew, Charlotte Boaitey, is herself an Asante. The people open up for the interviewers telling them about their lives as traders, about differences between men and women, in their perception of their society and also about marriage. The women control the market through Queen Mothers who are leaders of particular sections of the market such as the yam or tomato sections. Generally these Queen Mothers are elected by the traders. However, Oba, the Plantain Queen Mother acquired her position through influence and because of this she has less control over her workers and over the resolution of differences. Market traders work long hours, make less than a shoe clerk or office worker yet the rewards for them can be many. The residual matrilineal system of Asante society means that inheritance moves from a man to his sister's children. The result is that an Asante woman is left with no means of support if her husband dies. The traders have gone to work to protect themselves against this possibility, to pay for their children's education and to maintain their independence. Implicit in this analysis of women traders is the relationship between men and women in Asante society. Marriage is polygamous and the crew interview women about their feelings on marriage and of their hopes of coming marriages. The film portrays the influence women have in the market as a direct contrast to their position in the home. Interviews with several husbands reveal, perhaps not surprisingly, that their perception of women differs from the women's perception of themselves. The men talk of the importance of having two wives, one to serve when the other is tired; one to grant sexual favours while the other is menstruating; each to compete with the other for male attention thus allowing the husband to retain control. Although the men accept a woman earning extra money, they still say a woman should be submissive and serve men. The women regard themselves as assertive, capable, and in control. Interviews with two young women demonstrate a desire for equality in the home. The film's analysis is a sympathetic one and full of insight. The focus is, though, rather narrowly on the husband-wife relationship and women's important relationships with their female and male kin are given little attention. Gracia Clark and Esther Goody's review of the film (1982) is very informative. K. Abu, 1983. `The Separateness of Spouses: Conjugal Resources in an Ashanti Town'. In C. Oppong (ed.) Female and Male in West Africa. Allen and Unwin, London. W. Bleck, 1975. Marriage, Inheritance and Witchcraft: A Case Study of a Rural Ghanaian Family. Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden. P. Bohannan and G. Dalton (eds.), 1965. Markets in Africa. Doubleday, New York. E. Boserup, 1970. Woman's Role in Economic Development. Allen and Unwin, London. G. Clark and E. Goody, 1982. Review of the film. RAIN, No. 50, pp. 20– 22. M. Fortes, 1950. `Kinship and Marriage among the Ashanti'. In A. Radcliffe-Brown and D. Forde (eds.) African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. Oxford University Press, London. D. McCall, 1961. `Trade and the Role of Wife in a Modern West African Town'. In A.W. Southall (ed.) Social Change in Modern Africa. Oxford University Press, London. G. Mikell, 1984. `Filiation, Economic Crisis, and the Status of Women in Rural Ghana'. Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 195–218. A. Singer with L. Woodhead, 1988. Disappearing World: Television and Anthropology. Granada Television Ltd.,
Series Netsilik Eskimo Series Group A
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Canada / USA
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / VHS
Location Canada, Pelly Bay Canadian Arctic / America
Ethnic Group Netsilik
Order No RAI-208.39-43
Sale Info Currently not distributed, contact RAI Film Officer
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These films are for all who wish to see how life used to be among the Netsilik when they still lived apart and depended entirely on the land and their own ingenuity to sustain life through the rigors of the Arctic year. The filming was done in the Pelly Bay region of the Canadian Arctic. (See library for details; sales condition on request)
Series Netsilik Eskimo Series Group A
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Canada / USA
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / VHS
Location Canada, Pelly Bay Canadian Arctic / America
Ethnic Group Netsilik
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Part 1, colour, 30 minutes The time is early autumn. The woman wakes and dresses the boy. He practices with his sling while she spreads a caribou skin to dry. The boy picks berries and then the men come in their kayak with another caribou. This is skinned, and soon night falls. In the morning, one man leaves with his bow while the other makes a fishing mannick, a bait of caribou meat. The woman works at the skins, this time cleaning sinews and hanging them to dry. The man repairs his arrows and then sets a snare for a gull. The child stones the snared gull and then plays hunter, using some antlers for a target. His father makes him a spinning top.
Part 2, colour, 29 minutes Two men arrive at the camp and the four build from stones a long row of manlike figures, inukshult, down toward the water. They wait for caribou and then chase them toward the stone figures and so into the water where other men in kayaks spear them. The dead animals are floated ashore and skinned. The boy plays with the visitors, the woman cooks the meat, the men crack the bones and eat the marrow, and then feast on the plentiful meat.
Series Netsilik Eskimo Series Group B
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Canada / USA
Length 90 mins
Format Colour / DVD
Location Canada, Pelly Bay Canadian Arctic / America
Ethnic Group Netsilik
Order No RAI-208.4
Sale Info Currently not distributed, contact RAI Film Officer
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These films are for all who wish to see how life used to be among the Netsilik when they still lived apart and depended entirely on the land and their own ingenuity to sustain life through the rigors of the Arctic year. The filming was done in the Pelly Bay region of the Canadian Arctic.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Dominic French
Country/Production UK
Release 1994
Length 33 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, Somerset, South-West England / 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-200.3007
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A group of environmentalists and homeless have purchased some land on which to settle and get back to a simpler way of life. But the nearby residents in Somerset, Southwest England, best-kept village’ are determined to force them to leave
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Heidi Lipsanen
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 32 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Brazil, Olinda, Northeast Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Afro-Brazilian
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3058
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Majê Molê is an Afro-Brazilian dance group which offers girls and young women in Olinda, Northeast Brazil, the opportunity to rise above the poverty, drug addiction and crime that scars their community. For teenager Simone it is the central focus of life, but for Leda it is something she must leave behind as she confronts prospective responsibilities as a mother. This is a film about miserable childhoods, sorrow and loss but also about joy, hope found through dance and, eventually, the happiness of motherhood.
Series Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Jennifer Rosen
Country/Production UK
Release 2009
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location New Delhi, India
Ethnic Group Indian gypsies
Language Hindi (?) 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-200.3100
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12 castes of gypsy artists ended their nomadic ways nearly 45 years ago to squat in New Delhi. Now the slum is being dismantled and rehabilitated. These are their last months in the colony as they know it, with an uncertain future ahead.
Director Sylvie Timbert, Carmen Opipari
Country/Production France
Release 1997
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Afro Brazilian
Order No RAI-200.265
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In the divine Afro Brazilian cult Candomble is an initiation religion centred around possession. The filmmakers concentrate on children who introduce and guide us to this world. The children play at Candomble. Passing from simulation of the representation, the children touch on the possession dance. Many are eager to be possessed. The film explores what Candomble may offer them.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Evie Wright
Country/Production UK
Release 2004
Length 25 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK / 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-200.3067
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Anne and Rosemary both chose to bury their husbands in the woods, whereas Tony was certain he didn't want a vicar at his wife's funeral. Focusing on the experiences of three grieving widows, the film explores how, in the absence of strong religious faith in modern Britain, people are looking to ideas of nature and regeneration to cope with grief and loss.
Series Sudan Trilogy by Arthur Howes, 3
Director Arthur Howes
Country/Production UK
Release 1999
Length 87 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Kenya / Africa, USA / America
Ethnic Group African
Language Dinka, Arabic and English (Engl. Sub)
Comments special price, 3 for 2, when buying the trilogy
Order No RAI-200.71
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Years of war and ethnic conflict in the Sudan have created a generation of young men, known as the "Lost Boys," who have spent more years in refugee camps than in their home communities. This intimate film recounts the story of Benjamin and William Deng, brothers joined in the struggle of a seemingly never-ending exile, who are then separated when one is accepted into a United States resettlement program while the other remains in a Kenyan refugee camp
Director Muriel Jaquerod, Eduardo Saraiva Pereira
Country/Production Switzerland / Portugal
Release 2003
Length 94 mins
Format Colour / PAL / All region
Location Portugal, Aldeia da Luz / Europe
Prizes/Commendations Commendation RAI Film Prize 2005
Order No RAI-200.347
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Between two Villages tells the story of Aldeia da Luz, population of 330, bound to disappear with the construction of the Alqueva dam in the south of Portugal. A new village is being built a few kilometres away as a compensation for the polulation. The film focuses on the daily life of Aldeia da Luz, with its strong rural tradition and its prospect of change. From the negotiations to the construction of the new houses, the film shows how the authorities and the population try to recreate the village identity. The situation of the village of Aldaia da Luz reflects a mutating society.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Carla Huysmans
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 19 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Namibia
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-200.3059
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Carla last met Maureen Mulozi in 1998 in Lusaka, Zambia where they were colleagues and friends. Since then Maureen's life has changed considerably: she became a 'born again' Christian and moved to Namibia where she is teaching English in a remote settlement. Her new strong faith however turns out to be a serious challenge for their friendship. Will it survive this religious gap?
Director Chris Owen
Country/Production Australia / PNG
Release 2000
Length 72 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Papua New Guinea / Pacific
Ethnic Group Kawelka
Order No RAI-200.333
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A unique insight into a secret spirit cult among the kawelka people in the western highlands of Papua New Guinea. After a dream, a clan leader initiates a long and complex ‘work’, when he and a group of male supporters seek to make marriage with the spirit goddess Amb Kor.
Series Netsilik Eskimo Series Group A
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Canada / USA
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / VHS
Location Canada, Pelly Bay Canadian Arctic / America
Ethnic Group Netsilik
Sale Info Currently not distributed, contact RAI Film Officer
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These films are for all who wish to see how life used to be among the Netsilik when they still lived apart and depended entirely on the land and their own ingenuity to sustain life through the rigors of the Arctic year. The filming was done in the Pelly Bay region of the Canadian Arctic.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Lucy Pardee
Country/Production UK
Release 2002
Length 27 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location USA, New York / 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-200.3047
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Everyone knows about Ground Zero iin New York but have you bought into the memory? Big Mike, Tyrone and the other street vendors will sell you part of the disaster whilst offering you their views on life, the universe and everything - for free.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Will Grove-White
Country/Production UK
Release 1997
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, North Wales / Europe
Ethnic Group Welsh people
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3016
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After the closure of the North Wales psychiatric hospital in the late 1980s, Sparrow Harrison opened his family home to local people suffering from mental illness. This film explores the humour, bravery and unique family atmosphere of Cae Dai.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director Bruce MacDonald, Tracy Bachrach Ehlers
Country/Production UK
Release 1987
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Guatemala / America
Order No RAI-200.282
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The documentary shows, how Cakchiquel Maya of a village on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, adapted to recent changes. It emerges, that the lake has become a favoured spot for holiday homes, and that the village has been subject to streams of tourists in the last decades. The filmmakers while they are officially welcomed and given permission to film, in practice many people hid their faces, would not co-operate and even throw stones. The film team tried to find an explanation of the Maya hostility to the camera.
Director André Hörmann
Country/Production Germany/India
Release 2006
Length 16:30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location India / Asia
Ethnic Group Punjabi
Language English
Collection HFF "Konrad Wolf", Berlin
Order No RAI-200.4003; 209.2007.19
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“Business Process Outsourcing” is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, approximately 350,000 people are currently working in call centres to maintain the contact between western companies and their customers. Vikhee Uppal is one of them. From a busy office in Calcutta, he pretends to be a guy named Ethan Reed and calls Americans, Brits and Australians to try and sell them cell phones and subscriptions. Vikhee hopes to make it in this sector. On the bulletin board, we see that he and his colleagues keep track of who sells the most. The Americans are the most impolite: they yell at the salespeople and hang up on them. The English, on the contrary, are the most willing to listen to their sales pitch. Even though Vikhee pretends to be a westerner at work, Indian traditions remain very important for him. He wants to get married to a girl from Punjab, and if he doesn’t` t succeed, his family will find a bride for him. At work, Vekhee gets tutored in English. Each night, he watches English soccer matches to see what the people on the other end of the line actually look like.
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 Gary Kildea
Country/Production Australia
Release 2000
Length 109 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL
Location Philippines, Manila / Asia
Prizes/Commendations RAI 1984 Film Prize
Comments Special rate for ordering whole Doon School Series - £ 200 / EURO 300 / $ 380
Order No RAI-200.127
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The film is about one family who live in the slums of Manila. Gary Kildea and a Filipino collaborator enter this family's life, filming them as they eat, as they care for their children, as they work on their daily chores, as they sell cigarettes at night in front of the Tower Hotel. The film employs very little voice-over: the major voice is the (sub-titled) Tagalog conversation of Celso and Cora. Kildea makes the sequence of events portrayed in the film clear through the use of blanks placed between certain sequences explaining an event or time change. The camera, as Kildea's eye, is very much a part of the film. This film grants itself neither the pretence of being objective nor that the filmmakers are invisible. By the end of the film, the viewer feels she or he has in a small way come to know Celso and Cora, the intensity of their lives, the circumstances in which they live. As a political and emotional statement, the film is powerful. Because of the filmmaker's unique use of his camera and because of his narrative style, this film became a classic. It is recommended for courses in anthropology, filmmaking, urban studies, development studies and sociology
Director Dawa Lepcha, Anna Balikci, Asen Balikci
Country/Production India
Release 2007
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location India, Dzongu, North Sikkim / Asia
Language Lepcha (English sub)
Collection NA
Order No RAI-209.2007.123
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Every winter, over a period of six days, the lamas of Lingthem's village monastery hold their annual cham. These dramatic ritual masked dances impart elementary Buddhist teachings while providing entertainment to villagers. Their main purpose is to remove obstacles and ward off misfortune for the village, its inhabitants and the monastery. However, for lamas and more serious Buddhist practitioners, these cham and their rituals hold deep philosophical meanings. The dances were beautifully filmed by Dawa Tsering Lepcha in his own village monastery in the Lepcha reserve of Dzongu, North Sikkim. In the course of this village event, the deities who emerge in the period between death and rebirth make their rhythmic appearances followed by the Lord of Death who judges one's good and bad deeds in the after life. This film is the second produced by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology as part of its visual anthropology project. This training program for indigenous filmmakers aims to produce a documented video record of Sikkim's vanishing indigenous and Buddhist cultures. Its primary purpose is to record and preserve the meaning and proper performance of Sikkim's rituals within their social and economic context.
Director P.B. Hinckley, Carlyn Saltman
Country/Production USA
Release 1990
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Burkino Faso, Ouagadougou, West Africa
Order No RAI-200.306
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Adolescents in Ouagadougou, Burkino Faso, West Africa create a play for their peers in Europe and the USA. They enact an African folktale about a girl who faces a painful dilemma because she is determined to stay in school.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Ricardo Leizaola
Country/Production UK, Venezuela
Release 1994
Length 27 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Venezuela, El Pedregal, 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-200.3008
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For forty years Alejandro Farfán has been making and showing films in El Pedregal. Now located in the heart of Caracas, this community was a small village when Alejandro first went to the cinema. This is a portrait of a local film-maker and of El Pedregal itself, exploring the place and its memories.
Director David MacDougall, Judith MacDougall
Country/Production Austalia / USA
Release 1983
Length 59 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL
Location Australia, New South Wales
Ethnic Group Aborigines
Collection MacDougall
Order No RAI-200.146
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An account of Aboriginal people steering their way through the often frustrating processes of official decision-making, as it is seen from their viewpoint far away from Canberra. Gordon Smith, head of the co-operative that runs ‘Collum Collum’ Station in northern New South Wales, and Sunny Bancroft, its manager, are trying to get a government loan to stock the property with breeding cattle so that it can become financially independent. This means preparing budgets, arguing their case and keeping up the pressure. The hardest thing, always, is to find out what is going on in Canberra.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 4
Director Raharjo Suwandi, Patsy Asch, James J. Fox
Country/Production Australia
Release 2000
Length 42 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Blitar, East Java / Asia
Ethnic Group Indonesian
Collection Asch
University Australian National University
Order No RAI-200.273B
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These companion films examine the philosophy and ritual practices of the followers of a holy man popularly known as Embah Wali. The movement, centred in Blitar, East Java, regards wayang as a model for living. Their ritual practices involve the performance of a unique form of wayang with human actors.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 5
Director Michael P. Vischer, Thomas Richter
Country/Production Australia
Release 1996
Length 55 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Palu'e / Asia
University Australia National University
Order No RAI-200.354
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The recording follows a journey from the island of Palu'e to the mainland to purchase water buffalo. Back at Palu'e, a series of sacrifices is held to make amends for transgressions. The events, part of the ceremonial cycle of the domain of Ko'a, are the arena in which the order of precedence is periodically contested and reasserted. The strategies employed by various factions of the domain are highlighted.
Director Ian Dunlop, Philippa Deveson
Country/Production Australia
Release 1984
Length 50 mins
Format Colour, B&W / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Australia, North-East Arnhem Land / Pacific
Prizes/Commendations Winner of the RAI Film Prize 1996
Order No RAI-200.247
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A series of interviews with Dundiwuy Wanambi, shot over twelve years. They reveal the struggles of one man in the face of the huge changes brought about by the coming of a mining project, and alcohol, to north-east Arnhem Land.
Director Beate Engelbrecht
Country/Production Germany
Release 2001
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Mexico, Santa Clara del Cobre / America
Ethnic Group Purhepecha
Order No RAI-200.239
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Santa Clara del Cobre, a village in Mexico's province Michoacán, is well-known for its copperwork, a craft originating from pre-Spanish times. In the late 1940s the people of Santa Clara tried to find new possibilities for their copper production. Craft fairs and competitions gave new impetus to the work, and development organisations also became interested to implement projects. These activities caused the copper craft to flourish again. In 1991, a rough-cut of the film was shown to the craftsmen in Mexico. By then, the worldwide recession had left its traces in Santa Clara: some workshops had been closed. The craftsmen comment on their experiences and contemporary problems during and after the screening of the rough-cut. Their remarks have then become part of the final film.
Director Martin Gruber
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 23 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location UK, London / Europe
Ethnic Group English
Collection Goldsmiths, University of London
Order No RAI-200.4001
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Cemeteries are not only places for the dead. They are also spaces in which the living interact with each other – and with the dead. “Cultivating Death” depicts the different ways in which bereaved people remember and commemorate their deceased family members and friends, by visiting and tending their graves at a Victorian cemetery in London. It is a common belief in the West that the bereaved have to ‘let go’ and ‘get over the loss’ of their deceased kin, in order to return to a ‘normal’ life. In contrast to these cultural norms, many survivors maintain strong social relationships with their dead. “Cultivating Death” portrays some visitors of Kensal Green Cemetery in West-London, as they actively sustain these continuing bonds by arranging and tending the graves of their deceased, talking to them and bringing them gifts. They thereby speak frankly about this important aspect of their mourning for which the cemetery constitutes a unique environment.
Director Hua Cai
Country/Production China
Release 1999
Length 40 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL
Location China, Himalaya / Asia
Ethnic Group Na
Comments Study guide available
Order No RAI-200.256
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After more than a quarter of a century without any form of religious ceremony, the Na, an ethnic group living on the Himalayan plateau, began openly practising their religion again in the early 1990s. Their priests are called daba. Among the few old shamans who are still living today, Dafa Luzo is the most remarkable. As the main character in the film, we see him looking after his farm and his family, as well as performing rituals to expel all unclean spirits and demons and honour the ancestors. His main worry, and his greatest hope, is to make sure his knowledge is safely handed down to the next generation.
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.
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