Series Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Piri Koman
Country/Production UK
Release 2009
Length 22 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location USA
Ethnic Group American
Language English
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3099
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A short insight into a male lap dancer’s life and work. The film explores not only the two parts of his life: family life during the day and ‚professional seduction’ at night, it also shows the extraordinairy entertainment women seek for when going to the striptease bar – and how it’s offered by a group of dancers.
Director Kim Longinotto, Jano Williams
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 106 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Japan / Asia
Ethnic Group Japanese
Collection Kim Longinotto
Order No RAI-200.319
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A film about courage, transformation and dreams in the extraordinary world of Japanese women's wrestling. Gaea Girls focuses on the hopes and fears of the beleaguered Gaea Japan squad, whose reputation hangs by a thread after a series of setbacks in the ring. There is the spindly 16-year old who spent three years persuading her parents to let her join, the new recruit who ran away but has returned begging for a second chance, and the rookie desperate to make her debut in the ring. At the centre of the film is the tough but popular trainer who - with her own very particular philosophy and personal history - rules the girls, trying to fashion them in her own image.
Director David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia
Release 2008
Length 185 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location India / Asia
Collection MacDougall
University Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University
Order No RAI-200.349
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A monolithic building on the outskirts of Delhi provides food and shelter for 350 boys. Some are orphans, some have been abandoned, others have run away from home. About half are held under a court order, having been picked up for petty crimes. Living at the institution for several months, MacDougall explores its routines and the varied experiences of several boys. Despite the harshness of their lives, many show remarkable strength of character, knowledge, and resilience. One day 181 child labourers arrive, placing additional strain on the building’s deteriorating facilities. The institution does what it can, but is it enough?
Director Ariane Lewis, Jon Jerstad
Country/Production UK
Release 1988
Length 25 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Papua New Guinea, Sepik area / Pacific
Order No RAI-200.187
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A detailed account of domestic life in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea, mainly from the women’s point of view. It describes their everyday activities in the ‘gardens’ in order to produce the staple food (sago). The different stages of the preparation and cooking of sago are shown. The film closes with the puberty rite of a young girl.
Director Martine Journet, Gerard Nougarol
Country/Production France
Release 2005
Length 87 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Sulawesi / Asia
Ethnic Group Wana
Order No RAI-200.266
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Among the Wana people, semi nomads from the Indonesian (Sulawesi) forest, Indo Pino is a shaman recognized by everybody. Her Nephew, who is also a shaman’s son, converted to Christianity some months ago and is now preaching the visions. And for him, if the visions come from God, the visions of the shamans inevitably must come from Satan. Through the Christian concepts of sin and original fault, good and evil notions are revised, The traditional healing practices of the shamans are heavily under attack. Under our eyes a fight between two worlds of religious conceptions is taking place.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Catarina Alves-Costa
Country/Production UK
Release 1992
Length 35 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Portugal, Arga / Europe
Ethnic Group Portugese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3002
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For those who live in the city, each and every summer is about going back to Arga, the village in Northern Portugal, which they left to find work. For the few who have stayed, Their return brings back memories of what village life used to be like.
Director David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia/ USA
Release 1977
Length 70 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Australia, Melville Island / Pacific
Ethnic Group Tiwi
Collection MacDougall
Order No RAI-200.94
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A last request of a Tiwi man on Melville Island was that a film be made of the pukumani (bereavment) ceremony to follow his death. The film follows his family, from the days of preparation to their final leave-taking of the old man. Commentary by Thomas Woody Minipini, one of the participants.
Series Netsilik Eskimo Series Group C
Director Asen Balikci
Country/Production Canada / USA
Length 120 mins
Format Colour / VHS
Location Canada, Pelly Bay Canadian Arctic / America
Ethnic Group Netsilik
Order No RAI-208.42
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 Cecilie Øien
Country/Production UK
Release 2006
Length 41 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Portugal / Europe
Ethnic Group Angolan, Cape Verdean, Portuguese
Language Potuguese and some Cape Verdean Creole (English sub)
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3080; 209.2007.165
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Júlia is a young Angolan woman who lives in a poor neighborhood of Lisbon, together with her daughter Magui. The story of how she arrived in Portugal and what happen to her afterwards is dramatic, and we follow her as she tries to make sense out of her life. As much as being a portrait of Júlia, the film highlights ambivalences that are common to many migrants in: feelings of belonging, the importance of intergenerational relations and the relation between the past, the present and the future. The film focuses on Júlia's story and her daughter's future. It explores some of the challenges they face everyday, and the importance of the wider community to her life.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Richard Hughes
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location China, Kunming, Yunnan Province / Asia
Ethnic Group Chinese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3035
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In the teeming cities of the most populated country on earth, 20 years of economic reform have brought new opportunity, new energy, and new dangers. This film follows one family's efforts to navigate the choppy waters of the new China as they run a restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Charles Namondwe
Country/Production UK
Release 1991
Length 37 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Central/Southern Africa
Ethnic Group Chewa
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3000
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Performed by the Chewa secret societies, Gule Wamkulu is a form of masked dance which takes place at male initiation ceremonies, funerals, and other major celebrations. Acting as a medium between the ancestral world of spirits and the mundane present, Gule Wamkulu symbolises almost the entire spectrum of life's emotions and actions.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Bessie Morris
Country/Production UK
Release 1998
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Hania, Crete, Greece / 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-200.3024
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Bessie Morris, a Greek-American, portrays the romantic relationships between Greek men and women tourists. She explores the story of Vassilis, a young male bartender in the tourist town of Hania, Crete.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Joceny Pinhheiro
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Brazil, Fortaleza, Coast of Northeast Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3061
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During the day, Isnar is a community paramedic who works in the local clinic and runs an arts and drugs rehabilitation centre for young people in Fortaleza on the coast of Northeast Brazil. But by night, he is a priest of the Umbanda Afro-Brazilian religious cult. Then he comes flying over the trees and the streets, down to the beach. When the spells are strong, only he can break them.
Director John Baily
Country/Production UK
Release 1983
Length 21 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Afghanistan, Harat / Asia
Ethnic Group Afghan
Comments In three parts, all on one video tape
Order No RAI-200.210B
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These videos were edited from seven hours of Super 8 film shot by John Baily during two years of ethnomusicological fieldwork carried out in the Herat region of western Afghanistan between 1973 and 1977. The footage was transferred and edited at the TV Unit of Queen’s University Belfast 1981-82. The non-synchronous sound is a problem at certain moments, but overall the editing has made the best of the image and sound available. All three films have a substantial amount of voice-over commentary. The films are of special interest because of the damage suffered by this region during many years of civil war. (This is the city referred to so poignantly in Baily’s later film Amir.) Using Paul English’s paper ‘The Traditional City of Herat’ as a starting point, The City of Herat sets out to describe systematically the organisation of urban space. The film contrasts the old city and its traditional businesses, against the new city with its modern shops and workshops, and surrounding villages absorbed into the expanding town.
Director John Baily
Country/Production UK
Release 1983
Length 56 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Afghanistan, Harat / Asia
Ethnic Group Afghan
Comments In three parts, all on one video tape
Order No RAI-200.210A
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These videos were edited from seven hours of Super 8 film shot by John Baily during two years of ethnomusicological fieldwork carried out in the Herat region of western Afghanistan between 1973 and 1977. The footage was transferred and edited at the TV Unit of Queen’s University Belfast 1981-82. The non-synchronous sound is a problem at certain moments, but overall the editing has made the best of the image and sound available. All three films have a substantial amount of voice-over commentary. The films are of special interest because of the damage suffered by this region during many years of civil war. (This is the city referred to so poignantly in Baily’s later film Amir.) The Annual Cycla of Music in Herat includes performances of a variety of traditional genres of music and dance. These include sha’er-s (poets) exchanging extemporised quatrains, sorna and dohol (shawn and drum), dutar (long-necked lute) band, nai chaponi (shepherd’s flute), chahartar (long-necked lute), male singer with daireh (frame drum) and Chelu musicians singing and playing sarang (fiddle), tal (small cymbals) and daireh. Dances include atan, aushari and chub bazi. Some of these genres are described in Baily
Director John Baily
Country/Production UK
Release 1983
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Afghanistan, Harat / Asia
Ethnic Group Afghan
Comments In three parts, all on one video tape
Order No RAI-200.210C
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These videos were edited from seven hours of Super 8 film shot by John Baily during two years of ethnomusicological fieldwork carried out in the Herat region of western Afghanistan between 1973 and 1977. The footage was transferred and edited at the TV Unit of Queen’s University Belfast 1981-82. The non-synchronous sound is a problem at certain moments, but overall the editing has made the best of the image and sound available. All three films have a substantial amount of voice-over commentary. The films are of special interest because of the damage suffered by this region during many years of civil war. (This is the city referred to so poignantly in Baily’s later film Amir.) The Shrines of Herat shows four of its many Sufi mazar-s (shrines) for which it is famous: Seyed-e Mukhtar; Karrukh; Kabarzan; and Gazer Gah (the tomb of Ansari). Notable for its controversial visual representation of zikr.
Director Kim Longinotto
Country/Production UK
Release 1990
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Egypt / Africa
Ethnic Group Egyptian Muslims
Collection Kim Longinotto
Order No RAI-200.xx
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This film reveals contradictions in the lives of Egyptian women in Muslim society. Living abroad, Safaa Fathy returns to Egypt to interview the internationally renowned feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi. Through her efforts she becomes disillusioned, demonstrating the conflict between modernity and tradition in a Muslim environment.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Julia Kurc
Country/Production UK
Release 2008
Length 25 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Brazil / America
Ethnic Group Brazilian
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3091
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In a violent, marginalized and discriminated environment such as the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, women create a time and a space to construct their identities and beauties. Marcella, Thuany and Nagila are three young girls who deal with the difficulties of their social reality in a particular and beautiful way.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Matthew Fassnidge
Country/Production UK
Release 1998
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Malta / Europe
Ethnic Group Maltese
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3025
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The annual regatta on the island of Malta has been passionately contested for over 200 years by a number of local rowing clubs. Marsamxett has been dismissed by the others as being a club for 'old men'. But its members are determined to prove the detractors wrong
Series The Well Being Quest in Botswana
Director Richard Werbner
Country/Production UK
Release 2009
Length 53 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Botwana / Africa
Ethnic Group Pan-ethnic; Twana, Kalanga, Tswapong, Birwa, Kgaladi
Language English, Twana, Kalanga (English Sugtitles)
University University of Manchester
Comments Special price 4 for 3, when buying the whole series
Order No RAI-200.338
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Charismatic, street-wise young men, living in Botswana’s capital, command the prophetic domain in Eloyi, their Apostolic faith-healing church, at a time of escalating crisis. Bitter, sinful accusations divide Eloyi’s village-based archbishop and his son, the city based bishop. The church itself, seen to be ‘under destruction’, splits.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, prophets are seen in trance, whirling in ecstasy, praying, running wild in exorcism and feeling patients’ pain in their own bodies. But beyond empathy and avowed compassion, prophets hustle and shock.
This film illuminates the creative tension between holiness and hustling by showing how, in this Apostolic church’s time of crisis, city prophets assert themselves powerfully because they are both holy and hustlers.
Director Michael Yorke
Country/Production UK
Release 2005
Length 61 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location India / Asia
Order No RAI-200.340
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The film narrates the story of Uma Giri, a Swedish woman who has become a Hindu nun, called Uma Giri. She is one of the few western women to be accepted into the most radical order of wandering Hindu ascetics. The film follows her and 29-year-old yogi, Vasisht Giri, on an 18 day pilgrimage of self-discovery into the high Himalayas. They search out and stay with the saints and mystics of Hinduism in their remote huts and caves. They meet one sadhu who has not spoken for 14 years living beside the source of the River Ganges, Hinduism most sacred river. Finally Uma discovers what she has been searching for.
Director Molly Dineen
Country/Production UK
Release 1984
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Kenya / Africa, London, UK / Europe
Ethnic Group English
Order No RAI-200.223
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Anthropology’s relationship with colonialism has been discussed widely. Yet the ethnography of the colonial service remains largely unexplored on film. This entertaining documentary shows, not without human sympathy towards the main character, how after 40 years in the tropics, Colonel Hilary Hook returns from the Kenyan highlands to a London suburb.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Aunund Austena
Country/Production UK
Release 1992
Length 23 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-200.3004
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Summer '92 and Hulme, a densely populated and culturally diverse area of inner city Manchester, is being demolished for the second time in 30 years, this time in consultation with local residents and community groups. But will the new Hulme really provide "Hulme homes for Hulme people" as the grafitti writers of the time demanded?
Series Taiga Nomads, part 1
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-200.226
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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.
Director Bob Edwards, Alastair Kenneil
Country/Production UK
Release 1987
Length 34 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Falkland or Malwinas Islands / America
Order No RAI-200.218
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The 1982 war between Britain and Argentina brought the Falkland or Malwinas Islands into the news headlines. This film is less spectacular: It shows the way of life of one inhabitant
of this remote island in the South Atlantic. The film tells us in measured style about sheep farmer’s Ian Gleadell’s struggle with the rough landscape, the island’s administration and loneliness.
Director Richard Hawkins, Suzette Heald
Country/Production USA / UK
Release 1988
Length 69 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Uganda / Africa
Ethnic Group Gisu
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Basil Wright Film Prize 1990
Order No RAI-200.197
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An insightful documentary, constructed with visual restraint, about the male circumcision ritual among the Gisu of Uganda. The narrative follows one male participant through the ritual and contrasts his hopes and anxieties on this important day of his life with the expectations of the rest of the village and some rude remarks of his circumcisers.
Director Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Taylor
Country/Production USA
Release 1993
Length 59 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ivory Coast / Africa, Long Island (New York, USA / America
Ethnic Group Nigerian
Prizes/Commendations Student Film Prize 1992
Order No RAI-200.310
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A Nigerian, Gabai Baare, is followed from the Ivory Coast to Long Island, USA, as he conducts his job in the transnational trade of African art. Through commercial exchange the commoditization of these art objects is revealed, as is the negotiation of cultural values between European and American collectors and Africa artists and traders.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Steve Vella
Country/Production UK
Release 2003
Length 26 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Malta, Naxxar / Europe
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3062
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In Malta, devotion to the Virgin Mary is very fervent, particularly in the village of Naxxar, where the most important annual feast, taking place over several days, is dedicated to her honour. But beside the religious celebration, there are also more secular festivities, based on traditional local rivalries, which are conducted with a similar intensity.
Series Granada Center for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Ray Ono
Country/Production UK
Release 2009
Length 31 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Japan
Ethnic Group Japanese
Language Japanese with English subt.
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3102
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Tokyo life as rarely seen on mainstream media. This short film takes you to the lives of men who live on the outskirts of the city and of Japanese society.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, David Turton
Country/Production UK
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Kwegu, Mursi
Order No RAI-200.292
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What made this trilogy special was that, unlike most television reportage, it had a temporal dimension. That is to say, it offered not a brutal, intrusive and uncomprehending snapshot, but a sympathetic, well-informed and thoughtful history of ten difficult years in the life of a tribe. Its insight derived from an anthropologist, David Turton, who has been studying the Mursi for years and who was able to provide the absolutely essential explanations of the mysterious events filmed by the Granada crew. This is the kind of illumination which is often provided by books or by personal experience, but almost never by television. John Naughton This is a trilogy about aspects of the culture of two groups of people, the Kwegu and the Mursi, in Ethiopia. The titles are: THE MURSI , THE KWEGU, THE MIGRANTS J. Naughton, 1985. Review of the trilogy. The Listener (London), 24 October.W. Shack, 1987. Review of the trilogy. American Anthropologist, Vol. 89, pp. 780–81.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Julie Moggan
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Manchester / Kosovo / Europe
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3036
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The Shabani family have been living in Manchester as refugees and are homesick for Kosovo. Feeling increasingly unwelcome in Britain, they return home to confront the nightmares of their recent past, but discover that it is not quite the place that they imagine it to be.
Director Aaron Glass
Country/Production USA / Canada
Release 2004
Length 33 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Columbia / America
Ethnic Group Kwakiutl
University New York University
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Blackwell Student Video Prize 2005
Order No RAI-200.352
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The Hamat’sa (or “Cannibal Dance”) is the most important—and highly represented ceremony of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) people of British Columbia. This film traces the history of anthropological depictions of the dance and, through the return of archival materials to a First Nations community, presents some of the ways in which diverse attitudes toward this history inform current performances of the Hamat’sa. With a secondary focus on the filmmaker’s fieldwork experience, the film also attends specifically to the ethics of ethnographic representation and to the renegotiation of relationships between anthropologists and their research subjects.
Director Edward S. Curtis
Country/Production Canada / USA
Release 1972
Length 47 mins
Format B&W / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Canada, North Baffin Island / Pacific
Ethnic Group Kwakiutl
Comments Original title in 1914: In the Land of the Head-Hunters
Order No RAI-200.20
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The plot concerns the efforts of a young man, Motana, son of a great chief, to obtain a bride and how he is thwarted by a wicked sorcerer. Many of the conventions of early film narrative can be identified in the film's structure and organisation.The film vanished and was completely forgotten and only rediscovered in 1962 by Bill Holms at the Field Museum in Washington. In 1972 the film was restored and re-edited by Holms, David Gerth and George Quimby, with soundtrack of songs and dialogue by the Kwakiutl. The name of the new version was changed to 'In the Land of the War Canoes' when the Kwakiutl objected to Curtis' original title. Although the original material had suffered some nitrate damage over the years, the film is an artistic triumph by one of the finest photographers and an invaluable ethnographic resource of a vanishing culture. The war canoes and totems, built by the Kwakiutl for the film, represent some of the largest great work of their traditional art.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 4
Director Raharjo Suwandi, Patsy Asch and James J. Fox
Country/Production Australia
Release 1992
Length 25 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-200.273A
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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.
Director Martine Journet, Gérard Nougarol, Gabriel Chabamier
Country/Production France
Release 2002
Length 84 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Indonesia, Sulawesi / Asia
Ethnic Group Wana
Language Wana (English subtitles)
Order No RAI-200.330
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The small ethnic group of the Wana Wewaju live in Indonesia in the eastern part of Sulawesi (Celebes Island) among the dense equatorial rain forest of the Tokkala Mountains. The film documents the traditional healing practices of the Wana shamans. This film is the result of fifteen years of research and constitution of ethnocinématographic archives about the shamanism of Wana People from Sulawesi (Indonesia) See as well the companion film GODS AND SATANS, 87 minutes, 2005.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Alyssa Grossman
Country/Production Romania/UK
Release 2005
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Romania / Europe
Ethnic Group Romanian
Language Romanian (English sub)
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3076; RAI-209.2007.80
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Into the Field follows the everyday “secular” lives of nuns in a Orthodox nunnery in Romania. Documenting the nuns’ activities, relationships and roles within their community, the film also incorporates sequences of stop-motion animation to depict some of the anthropologist’s own challenges of working in the field.
Director Alba Mora, Anna Santamaria
Country/Production Spain
Release 2009
Length 50 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Cameroon / Africa & Brussels, Belgium / Europe
Language English, French (English subtitles)
Prizes/Commendations Material Culture Film Prize 2009
Order No RAI-200.351
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Shot in Cameroon and Brussels, Je ne suis pas moi-même examines the complex network surrounding the international market of African antiquities, and the contradictions in a European art market hungry for new tribal objects. Where do the African masks come from? What journey do these masks make before their unveiling in the windows of the biggest galleries or art collections in Europe? Who determines the economic and aesthetic value of these objects now that colonialism is supposedly dead? And then there’s a continent called Africa, in need of economic resources and therefore willing to sell its cultural heritage or, if need be, to fake it. The authenticity of the objects becomes blurred when the people that once adored them start to sell them.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 1
Director Timothy Asch, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch
Country/Production Australia
Release 1980
Length 16 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-200.123A
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For the first time Jero sees herself on film as she watches A Balinese Trance Séance. Her spontaneous comments provide insights into her feelings while possessed, her understanding of her practices and her humility in the presence of the supernatural world.
Series Indonesia Series, ANU, DVD 1
Director Timothy Asch, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch
Country/Production Australia
Length 26 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-200.123B
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Jero beings with an account of her family’s extreme poverty that culminated in her desire to leave her family and travel as a pedlar. She describes mystical experiences that led her to recognise her own ‘blessed madness’ and to return home. Jero’s account is unique but themes of poverty, mysticism, madness and humility are common elements in the autobiographical accounts of many Balinese healers.
Director Toni de Bromhead
Country/Production UK
Release 1982
Length 28 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location UK, East Anglia / Europe
Ethnic Group English
Comments Joint purchase with Smoke recommended
Order No RAI-200.215
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The fens of East Anglia provide the scenery for this documentary. At the centre of the film is John, a solitary character, who makes his living by trapping eels in the numerous canals of the area. We see him at work and narrating his own story. Eel trapping is illegal, so he is always on the run: this is a tale of poaching, a traditional craft, and the influence of the modern state on the individual.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Anya Bernstein
Country/Production UK
Release 2001
Length 30 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Siberia / Asia
Ethnic Group Siberian
Collection GCVA, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
University School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester
Order No RAI-200.3042
Sale Info See Film Prices Student and Staff Films from the GCVA
Hire Info Not for hire
Once brutally persecuted under the Soviet regime, Buddhism is re-emerging in Siberia. But with a past where Lamas were killed in prisons and temples burnt to the ground, there are few masters left to pass on the tradition. Whether or not the faith survives depends on an incarnate Tibetan Lama, scholar and meditational master who travels to remote villages to reawaken Buddhism.
Series Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Student Film
Director Natalie Schädler
Country/Production UK
Release 2000
Length 29 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Ghana / 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-200.3037
Sale Info See Film Prices Student and Staff Films from the GCVA
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In search of the righteous way of living, the Liberian rapper CyLover, aka as 'Jungle Cat' wants to make music for his people. Now based in Ghana, the big chance to finish his first album approaches but he has to prove that being a professional artist means more than being well-known in the 'hood'.
Series Sudan Trilogy by Arthur Howes, 1
Director Arthur Howes, Amy Hardie
Country/Production UK
Release 1979
Length 53 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location Sudan / Africa
Ethnic Group Nuba
Prizes/Commendations Commendation Basil Wright Film Prize 1990
Comments Special rate for all three films 3 for 2
Order No RAI-200.269
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Shot in 1989, Kafi's Story captures Nuba life at the moment before it was engulfed in the Sudanese civil war. Kafi narrates his own story into a portable tape record as he travels from his village, Torogi, to Khartoum to earn enough money to buy a new dress for his second wife, Tete. Kafi is quite consciously negotiating his own path between modernity and tradition.
Kafi and the other Nuba react to the presence of the camera with neither awe nor apprehension; they seem to welcome the camera as an extension of their open, out-going, hospitable lifestyle. At the same time, they rapidly become sophisticated about the way film conventions can frame reality. When a friend walks away from a shot, they joke that he is walking into the screen. At the film's end Kafi asks the filmmaker for one thing: a camera of his own.
Series Doon School Project
Director David MacDougall
Country/Production Australia
Release 2001
Length 54 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
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-200.303
Sale Info See Film Prices General Collection; Not for sale in North America
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This third film in the Doon School quintet follows the main protagonist of With Morning Hearts into the next phase of his life in Jaipur House, one of the five main houses of the school. There he plays hockey, sings, studies, and struggles to settle into the House. He must keep up with his classmates, contend with the authority of older boys, and try to find a way to make his mark. He finds it in gymnastics, for which he has an aptitude.
Series Disappearing World Series
Director Charlie Nairn
Anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere
Country/Production UK
Release 1973
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Sri Lanka, Ceylon, India / Asia
Ethnic Group Singhalese
Order No RAI-200.22
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In ever-increasing numbers Sinhalese of all religions (Muslims, Christians and Buddhists) are turning to Kataragama, an ancient Hindu God, at times of trouble and desperation. Once a year pilgrims make the journey to Kataragama's shrine in southeast Sri Lanka (Ceylon) to fulfil vows by performing acts of penance and worship in payment for a favour received. Kataragama is called on to help with a wide range of problems (unemployment, sickness, examinations, personal relationships) and is appealed to by people of all social backgrounds, notably the growing middle class and urban dwellers. A good third of the film is concerned with the annual festival, showing the often gruesome and sensational acts which the pilgrims perform including fire-walking, and the piercing of body and tongue with needles – all acts designed to obtain forgiveness and grace. One man is suspended from hooks in his back – a self-torture undertaken with apparent joy by a man who, like many others that perform such acts, feels himself (after a time) to be possessed by the God's spirit. These rather sensational acts are interwoven with the story of a peasant family whose son has disappeared, leading them eventually to seek help from Kataragama. The unfolding of this personal drama (with reconstruction of early episodes, and voice-over to detail their thoughts and feelings) forms the context for the events we see at the festival. The effect of the interweaving of these two `stories' is to place the otherwise purely exotic spectacle of the pilgrims' acts of penance within a universally understandable social context – that of the despair of a family whose young son is lost. The unplanned return of the boy, apparently in response to the family's appeal to Kataragama, provides a dramatic and moving finale to a film which has been compared in some respects to the great Italian neo-realist films. Clearly this film is an important one both for anthropologists and those concerned with ethnographic film per se. R. Gombrich, 1974. Review of the film. RAIN, 3, pp.8–9. G. Obeyesekere, 1977. `Social Change and the Deities: Rise of the Kataragama Cult in Modern Sri Lanka'. Man, Vol. 12, Nos.3/4. pp.377–396.
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