This is a list of films at the RISD Library, which has been compiled as a research resource for anthropology courses. Films labelled NEW have been added to the collection during the current academic year.
NEW African art as theater: the Bwa masks of the Gnoumou family of the village of Boni / Laughing Dove Films and the Art and Life in Africa Project present ; by Christopher D. Roy. [United States?] : Christopher D. Roy, c2006.
Masks of the Gnoumou family of the village of Boni in theatrical perfomance. African families in Burkina Faso make masks for use in performances that reenact the encounters between their ancestors and the spirits of the wilderness that watch over them
All under heaven: life in a Chinese village / Long Bow Group ; directed by Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon ; produced by Daniel Sipe, Kathy Kline. Philadelphia, PA : Long Bow Group, 1985. VHS
An intimate look at daily life in Long Bow, a village about 400 miles southwest of Beijing. Shows how traditional way of life has persisted and altered with political changes of the last 40 years, particularly collectivization and decollectivization.
Amir: an Afghan refugee musician’s life in Peshawar, Pakistan / National Film and Television School in association with the Royal Anthropological Institute ; directed and edited by John Baily. [S.l.] : National Film and Television School, Royal Anthropological Institute ; Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources [distributor], 1985.
Musician Amir Mohammad moved from Herat, Afghanistan to Peshawar, Pakistan in 1979 as a result of the Marxist regime and civil war in his homeland. Through him viewers are introduced both to Afghan music and to the poverty and isolation faced by refugees. In the accompanying booklet, ethnomusicologist John Baily discusses the making of a documentary film as a form of research and fieldwork.
Amrit beeja = The eternal seed / a film by Meera Dewan ; SouthView Productions. New York, NY : Women Make Movies, 1996. VHS
Rural peasants protest Green Revolution, preferring the traditional methods of farming.
Marie-Clemence and Caesar Paes: Angano…Angano: Tales from Madagascar. California Newsreel, 1989. VHS
“Venerable but unmistakably contemporary storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture, the creation of man and woman, the origin of rice cultivation, the reason for animal sacrifice.”
The ax fight / a Documentary Educational Resources production ; a film by Timothy Asch and Napoleon A. Chagnon. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, c2004, 1975.
A four-part analysis of a fight in a Yanomamo Indian village between local descent groups. Includes an unedited record of the event; a slow-motion replay of the fight; a discussion of the kinship structure of the fight; and an edited version.
The Best place to live [videorecording] / Du Art Video ; Tin Can Alley. [Providence, R.I.] : Tin Can Alley, 1982.
A documentary about the changing lives and feelings of members of a Hmong community that has been living in Providence, Rhode Island for five years.
NEW Birds of the wilderness: the beauty competition of the Wodaabe people of Niger / by Christopher D. Roy. [United States?] : Christopher D. Roy, c2007.
The Wodaabe people of southern Niger, West Africa, hold a beauty competition each fall in which young men paint their faces yellow and wear costumes of white beads and cloth, with white ostrich feathers in their hats, They are judged based on charm and beauty by the young women of the competing clan. This video includes Wodaabe camp life, the feast before the competition, a young men’s initiation, lots of young women, the Ruume dance of welcome, a young man applying his makeup, and lengthy, detailed footage of the Geerewal.
Bitter melons. Watertown, MA (101 Morse St., Watertown, MA 02172) : Documentary Educational Resources, c2006.
Portrays the difficulty of survival in the central Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. A native musician, a member of a Bushman group called the G/wi San, performs songs about animals, the land, and daily life. Describes the G/wi San and their traditional music, dances, children’s games, hunting, planting, and food preparation.
Black harvest / Arundel Productions presents a film by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly ; produced with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission ; made in association with Australian Broadcasting Corporation. New York : Filmakers Library, [1993?]
In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Joe Leahy, a mixed race highlander and wealthy coffee plantantion owner, joins forces with the Ganiga tribe to expand his operation. His ally is the tribal leader, Popina Mai, a superior warrior and orator, who wants to take his people into the modern world quickly. A power struggle erupts and coffee picking is quickly abandoned for inter-tribal warfare on the eve of the crop harvest.
The Blooms of Banjeli: technology and gender in African ironmaking / a film by Carlyn Saltman. Watertown, Mass : Documentary Educational Resources, c1986. VHS
Portrays the construction of an iron working furnace by the Bassari of western Togo and the attempt to smelt iron in it, using traditional techniques, materials and rituals.
La chasse au lion a larc : un film / de Jean Rouch ; Les Films de la Pléiade. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, [199-?] VHS
An ethnographic study which follows an ill-fated band of Niger hunters from the elaborate preparations for lion hunting through the actual kill. Characterizes the hunters as a group apart from their kinsmen; describes the intricacies of brewing poison for the arrows and discusses the passion of the kill.
Cannibal tours [videorecording] / a film by Dennis O’Rourke. [S.l.] : O’Rourke & Associates ; Los Angeles, CA : Direct Cinema Ltd., 1987.
When tourists today journey to the farthest reaches of Papua New Guinea, is it the indigenous tribespeople or the white visitors who are the cultural oddity? This unusual documentary explores the differences and the surprising similarities that emerge when Western and New Guinean people meet within the context of organized “travel adventure tours.” This gently ironic film neither condones nor condemns the tourists or the Papua New Guineans. It offers a series of striking observations that exemplify the quandry of culture clash and the human sameness of people everywhere.
Chronique d’un été [videorecording] : (Paris 1960) = Chronicle of a summer / Anatole Dauman présente ; un film de Jean Rouch et Edgar Morin ; réalisé avec le Comité du film ethnographique, Musée de l’Homme, Paris ; production, Argos Films ; Anatole Dauman et Philippe Lifchitz, [producteurs]. Brooklyn, NY : First Run/Icarus Films, [2002?]
Paris. The summer of 1960. While war rages in Algeria and the Congo struggles for independence, ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin send two women out into the streets of the city to interview passerby. Are you happy, sir? From this simple starting question, the inner lives of the characters are revealed.
Climbing the peach palm / Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, [199?]
Using an ingenious climbing frame, a young Yanomama Indian man carefully ascends a spiny peach to harvest the fruit.
Coming to light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians / a co-production of Anne Makepeace Productions, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET ; produced, written and directed by Anne Makepeace ; executive producer, Susan Lacy. [U.S.] : Anne Makepeace Productions [production Co.] ; Oley, PA : Bullfrog Films [distributor], 2000. VHS
The dramatic story of Edward S. Curtis’ life, his work, including his monumental photographic output, and his changing views of the people he set out to document. This video includes Native Americans in the discussion of Curtis’ images.
Conversations with Jean Rouch [videorecording] / by Ann McIntosh. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, c2004.
This intimate revealing video of conversations between Jean Rouch and a number of filmmakers and friends, including John Marshall and Colin Young, is unlike any past films on Rouch’s life and work. It was shot over a three year period from 1978-1980 by his friend, Ann McIntosh, who taught video under Ricky Leacock at MIT
The couple in the cage : a Guatinaui odyssey / Authentic Documentary Productions ; directed and produced by Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia. Chicago, Ill. : Video Data Bank, c1993. VHS
Color sequences of the display in various museums of performance artists portraying an aboriginal couple from Gautinau, a fictional island off the coast of Mexico, are contrasted with archival footage and still photographs showing various occasions when indigenous persons were put on public display at circuses, sideshows and the like. Emphasis is placed on the response of the people viewing the Gautinaui couple.
Dancing with the Incas : Huayno music of Peru / camera, directed and produced by John Cohen. Berkeley, CA : University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, c1991. VHS
Explores the lives of three Huayno musicians in a contemporary Peru torn between the military and the Shining Path guerillas. The film examines the roots of Huayno music as well as its contemporary forms. Rather than focusing on a single community or ethnic group, the film investigates a broad cultural region and illustrates what happens to it as it confronts the commercial traditions and demands of the West.
De bende van Rouch [videorecording] = Rouch’s gang / een film van MM Produkties in co-produktie met IKON-Televisie ; samenstelling en regie Steef Meyknecht, Dirk Nijland, Joost Verhey. Watertown, Mass. : Documentary Educational Resources, 2005, c1993.
In 1991 Jean Rouch started work on his new feature film Madame l’Eau, much of which was shot in Holland. The documentary Rouch’s Gang follows the film crew and provides a glimpse behind the scenes as Jean Rouch and his four friends from Niger make their film. By providing an outsider’s view of Madame l’Eau, the documentary provides insight into how Rouch approaches his films. …Most of his fiction films were shot with four African friends: Damouré Zika, Lam Ibrahim Dia and Tallou Mouzourane as actors and Moussa Hamidou as sound man. Rouch has been their friend for more than forty years. This bond is the theme of the documentary Rouch’s Gang
Discovering the Moche / a film by Christopher Donnan, Richard Cowan and William B. Lee. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, [198-?]VHS
Introduces the art and iconography of the Moche people, an ancient Peruvian Indian group. Explains the meaning of the amazingly realistic and often sexually explicit Moche art, and shows how it served as a means of communication in Moche life.
Divine horsemen [videorecording] : the living gods of Haiti / Cherel Ito. New York : Mystic Fire Video, distributed by Women Make Movies, c1985. VHS
Documentary of the Voudoun religions of Haiti. Presents rituals performed by the Rada, Petro, and Congo cults, whose devotees commune with cosmic powers through invocations, sacrifices, and possession.
Fiesta a la vida / una produccion de multi activa basada en el studio antropologico del padre Hans Van der Berg. [S.l. : s.n.], 1990.
This dramatized feature film focuses on a group of Bolivian peasants trying to deal with different family issues. The drama is an interweaving of live action with interpretive dance.
First contact / Arundel Productions ; produced and directed by Bob Connolly, Robin Anderson. Watertown, Ma. : Documentary Educational Resources, 1983.
Recounts the discovery of a flourishing native population in the interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930 in what had been thought to be an uninhabited area. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers’ gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforseen meeting. Includes still photographs taken by a member of the expedition and contemporary footage of the island’s terrain.
NEW Fulani: art and life of a nomadic people / by Christopher Roy. [United States?] : Christopher D. Roy, c2007.
The Fulani are a diverse people who live across west Africa from Dakar to Lake Chad. They herd cattle, sheep, goats and camels, and live from the milk from their cows. They create very beautiful art, including hairstyles, dress, mats, architecture, song, music and dance. This video features three Fulani peoples: the Gowabe, Jelgobe, and Wodaabe. The video includes scenes of daily life, interiors and exteriors of their homes, cattle, milking, making butter, weaving mats, and the spectacular dances of the Wodaabe Fulani in Niger, the Geerewal and the Ruume. Young men paint their faces red with clay and butter, and put on beautiful costumes of beads, white cloth, and ostrich feathers. They dance in long lines to show off their sex appeal. The competitions are judged by beautiful young women from the opposite clan, and the winners’ names are remembered for years to come
Gogodala : a cultural revival? / a film by Chris Owen. [Boroko, Papua New Guinea?] : Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies ; Watertown, MA : [Distributed by] Documentary Educational Resources, [1983]VHS
The Gogadala, like other peoples of the swampy lowlands of western Papua New Guinea, traditionally produced magnificent carvings for use in ceremonies. By the 1930s, the work of Christian missionaries and Papuan evangelists, with the approving nod of government, resulted in mass burnings of ritual carvings and the suppression of traditional ceremonies. In the 1970s there were attempts to revive the culture of the Gogodala, and a long-house was completed and officially opened as the Gogadala Cultural Centre.
Grass [videorecording] : a nation’s battle for life / a Paramont Picture ; [presented by] Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. [New York, N.Y.?] : Milestone Film & Video ; [Denver, Colo.?] : Lumivision, [1992]
A documentary in which Merian C. Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack, and Marguerite Harrison travel through Asia Minor and Iraq to reach a tribe of nomads in Iran known as the Bakhtyari. They follow the tribe on its forty-eight day trek across deserts, streams, and mountains to reach pasture for their flocks. These three people were the first Westerners to cross the Zardeh Kuh Pass and the first to make this migration with the tribes.
Haitian song / produced, photographed and edited by Karen Kramer. Watertown, Mass. : Documentary Educational Resources [distributor], 1982, c1981 199-?Presents a way of life in Haiti based on dependence on the land. Focuses on the “rituals” which compose the texture of everyday life: getting water from the river, making rope by hand, cooking rice and beans in an outdoor kitchen, planting and harvesting, with traditional songs, music, and dance as an accompaniment to daily life and work.
Herdsmen / Australian Film Finance Corporation presents a Vingan Pty Limited production ; Producer Luo Ming ; director Chen Jianjun. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, c2004.
This documentary tracks a Kazak family in Xinjiang, China’s western most province. The Kazaks are a small minority among many more tenacious peoples of Xinjiang. To exist they wind their way among the mountains and plateaus of the most remote region of the most desolate area of China.
Imagining Indians [videorecording] / writer, producer, director, cinematographer, editor, Victor Masayesva, Jr. [United States] : V. Masayesva, c1992. VHS
A Native American’s view of the disparity between the “white” culture’s principally Hollywood-inspired perceptions of American Indians and their own self-perceptions.
In and out of Africa / by Gabai Baaré, Ilisa Barbash, Christopher Steiner, Lucien Taylor. [Los Angeles, Calif.] : Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, c1992.
During the colonial period in the 1920’s, European interest in collecting African art stimulated a transnational trade between Africa and the West. Today this multi-million dollar trade lies largely in the hands of Muslim merchants. This is a story about Gabai Baaré, a merchant who brings ‘wood’ from West Africa to sell in the United States. It is a story about the meaning of art.
In the land of the war canoes: Kwakiutl Indian life on the Northwest coast [videorecording] / by Edward S. Curtis. Seattle, Wash. : University of Washington Press ; [distributed by] Alpha Video, 1991, c1973. VHS
Presents an epic saga of Kwakiutl Indian life on the northwest coast of America as filmed in the summer of 1914 at Kwakiutl villages on Vancouver Island, Canada, by Edward S. Curtis. Edited and restored with the addition of an authentic sound track.
Jaguar / by Jean Rouch. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, [2003, c1967]
Three young men from the Savannah of Niger leave their homeland to seek wealth and adventure on the coast and in the cities of Ghana. This film is the story of their travels, their encounters along the way, their experiences in Accra and Kumasi, and, after three months, their return to their families and friends at home. This film is part documentary, part fiction, and part reflective commentary. There was no portable sound synchronized equipment in the early 1950’s when Jaguar was shot. Instead, Rouch had the main characters (his friends and “accomplices”) improvise a narrative while they viewed the film, which was itself improvised along the way. … The film raises, but does not answer questions about the meaning of this experience and the transformations it may entail in the lives of the returned youths.
Jean Rouch and his camera in the heart of Africa / a film by Philo Bregstein. Watertown : Documentary Educational Resources, [1978?] VHS
Jean Rouch a French anthropologist uses the camera as a tool to obtain a dialogue between different cultures. This documentary provides an in depth look at the filmwork of Rouch and his associates from Niger. These filmmakers talk about their work and filmmakers who have had historical influence in the field. Clips from Rouch’s earlier work is included.
Jean Rouch : Screening room with Robert Gardner ; produced by Studio 7 Arts. [Watertown, MA] : Documentary Educational Resources, c2004.
Interview with Jean Rouch by Robert Gardner conducted on the television program Screening room in July, 1980. Includes screening of Les Maîtres Fous as well as several film excerpts including Rhythm of work; Dogon, Sigui Ritual; and Death of a Priest.
Joe Leahy’s neighbors. [Australia : R. Anderson and B. Connolly ; Watertown, Mass. : Documentary Educational Resources], 1988.
The sequel to “First Contact” by filmmakers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson concerns Australian prospector and explorer Michael Leahy’s mixed-race son Joe. Never recognized by his father, Joe has pursued a course of Western life and become a wealthy coffee plantation owner. He lives amongst the Ganiga tribe, who envy his success and question the means by which he got his land. In a volatile situation Joe tries to keep the lid on matters, and uses his freedom from tribal obligations to further his financial success. This film looks at a situation which mirrors the questions about Papua New Guinea’s future and the choices its people face.
A Kalahari family / Kalfam Productions, Inc. Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, c2002.
In 1951, Laurence and Lorna Marshall and their two children, Elizabeth and John, set out to find the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Their aim was to study and document their life and culture. While in Nyae Nyae the Marshall family documented everyday life as well as unusual events and activities, producing a massive body of work that continues to define the fields of anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking today. Encapsulating 50 years of Namibian history, A Kalahari Family represents a lifetime of documentation, research, and personal contact by filmmaker John Marshall.
Living memory : six sketches of Mali today / produced by Musée National du Mali, Eric Engles, Prince Street Pictures ; conceived and directed by Susan Vogel ; written by Susan Vogel, Samuel Sidibe. Brooklyn, NY : First Run/Icarus Films, [2003]
A documentary about Mali’s ancient culture and the place of that culture in the modern country. The six sections are ritual arts, culture on display, style, architecture, contemporary artists and music.
Lorang’s way: a Turkana man / produced and directed by David and Judith MacDougall. Berkeley, CA : Berkeley Media LLC, [2004]
Insightful profile of a senior man of the semi-nomadic Turkana of northwestern Kenya. Because the Turkana are relatively isolated and self-sufficient, most see their way of life continuing unchanged into the future. But Lorang thinks otherwise, for he has seen something of the outside world. This is a study of a man who has come to view his society as vulnerable, and whose traditional role in it has been shaped by that realization.
A Man and his wife make a hammock : Moawa and Daeyama make a hammock / a film by Timothy Asch and Napoleon A. Chagnon. [State Collge] : Pennsylvania State University ; Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, [199-?]VHS
In this film about the Yanomamo Indians who live near the headwaters of the Orinoco River in Southern Venezuela, a Yanomama Indian headman weaves a hammock while his wife and baby watch.
A man called “Bee” : studying the Yanomamö / a Documentary Educational Resources production ; a film by Napoleon A. Chagnon and Timothy Asch ; script, Napoleon Chagnon. Watertown, Mass. : Documentary Educational Resources, 2006, c1974.
Follows anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon as he collects anthropological field data among the Yanomamo Indians of southern Venezuela.
Meta Mayan II. New York : Television Laboratory, WNET/Thirteen, 1981. VHS
Edin Velez produced this subjective portrait of the Guatemalan people, the country’s landscape, and the implications of Guatemala’s political upheaval. Through the use of juxtaposition and visual collage, a culture is documented — without narration, without verite, and without interviews. Produced by Ethel Velez and Edin Velez, in association with the Television Laboratory, at WNET/Thirteen. Executive producer: Carol Brandenburg.
Mountain music of Peru : a film / by John Cohen. Berkeley, CA : Berkeley Media, [2005?]
A portrait of the folk music, culture and lifestyle of the people of Qeros, high in the Peruvian mountains.
Nanook of the North / a film by Robert Flaherty. [Chicago?] : Home Vision, c1976. VHS
Documentary film, made possible by the French fur company Revillon Frères, and based on Flaherty’s experiences in the years 1912-1919 as recorded in his book My Eskimo friends. Realates the story of an Eskimo family pitting their strength against a vast and inhospitable Arctic. The film is generally regarded as the work from which all subsequent efforts to bring real life to the screen have stemmed.
Paj ntaub : textile techniques of the Hmong / Society for the Preservation of Hmong Culture. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1996. VHS
Gives an overview of the Hmong people and their needlework.
Peruvian weaving : a continuous warp for 5,000 years / John Cohen. Berkeley, CA : University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, c1980. VHS
In this film the late Dr. Junius Bird of the American Museum of Natural History traces the beginnings of the Peruvian weaving tradition back to a preceramic period. Continuing in the present, three generations of modern Quechua speakers are shown using a warp pattern technique on both back strap and four stake looms.
Popol vuh : sacred book of the Quiché Maya / a film by Patricia Amlin ; scripted by Patricia Amlin, from translations of the Popol vuh by Munro W. Edmonson and Adrián Recinos ; conceived, produced and directed by Patricia Amlin ; animation, Patricia Amlin, Joanne Corso, Martha Gorzycki. Berkeley, CA : University of California Extension Media Center, c1988. VHS
Portrays the creation myth of the Quiché Maya of ancient Guatemala. Gives life to the mystic history and art of the Maya, using animated drawings taken directly from classic Maya pottery.
The prosperity of Wibisana : a performance of Javanese Wayang Kulit / guest director, A.L. Suwardi. Portland, OR : Resonance Media, c1995. VHS
Video presentation of a traditional Javanese shadow play.
The Prosperity of Wibisana : a study guide and analysis for the Javanese Wayang kulit / [presented by] Resonance Media. [Portland, OR] : Resonance Media, c1995. VHS
The Quechua / Michael Sallnow. Chicago, Ill. : Films Incorporated Video, 1991. VHS
The Quechua, living in an isolated part of Peru, desperately want a road to link them with the outside world.
NEW Quilombo country [videorecording] / a film by Leonard Abrams ; Quilombo Films.[New York] : Moving Eye Productions, c2006.
At one time, Brazil was the world’s largest slave colony. Thousands managed to escape their brutal existence. This film provides a portrait of some of the rural communities in Brazil that were founded by runaway slaves or begun from abandoned plantations. This type of community is known as a “quilombo,” from an Angolan word that means “encampment.” As many as 2,000 quilombos exist today raising issues of political identity, land rights and racial and socioeconomic discrimination.
Saudade [videorecording] / producer, Bela Feldman-Bianco ; direction, Bela Feldman-Biando, Michael Majoros, Peter O’Neill. [Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources], c1990. VHS
Describes the life of the Portuguese who settled in New Bedford, Mass.
Song of the drum : the petroglyphs of Maine / filmed and edited by Ray P. Gerber ; written by Mark H. Hedden ; narrated by Wayne A. Newell. Brunswick, Me. : Acadia Productions, c2004.
In Maine, the native Americans began carving images into stone ledges beginning about 3,000 years ago. These petroglyphs, probably the work of shamans, were used as metaphors of the spirit quest or to help memorize chants. This film shows many examples of the petroglyphs and their settings, as well as the actual wildlife that is often depicted in the images. It presents explanations and ideas about what the images mean and how they changed the as the ideas of the people who made them changed.
Small happiness : women of a Chinese village / directed by Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon ; produced by Richard Gordon, Kathy Kline, Daniel Sipe ; … a production of the Long Bow Group, Inc. New York, NY : Long Bow Group ; Wayne, N.J. : distributed by New Day Films, c1984. VHS
An exploration of sexual politics and the reality of life in contemporary rural China. Filmed under unprecedented circumstances, Chinese women of Long Bow speak frankly about footbindings, the new birth control policy, work, love and marriage.
The southern cross / written and directed by Patricio Guzman ; Quasar Films para Televisión Española. Spain : Quasar Films, 1992. VHS
In this impressionistic documentary, the virtually unswerving intent of the Catholic Church in South America, which is to completely convert all those following another (local) faith, is shown throughout the history of contact, beginning with the time of the Conquistadors through to the present. With some irony, it shows that in some areas, Catholicism itself has adapted to accommodate local practices, despite consistent and strenuous (and often bloody) efforts to the contrary. Present-day Native believers are interviewed concerning their ideologies and beliefs, as are church authorities, and the interviewees responses are allowed to stand on their own without narrative commentary from the filmmaker.
Taking pictures/ Australian Film Finance Corporation presents a Vingan Pty Limited production ; written, producedd and directed by Les McLaren and Annie Stiven. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 1996. VHS
Australian documentary filmmakers explore the issues and pitfalls of filming across cultural boundaries through interviews and samples of their films of Papua New Guinea including ‘Trobriand Cricket’, ‘First Contact’, ‘The Shark Callers of Kontu’, ‘Joe Leahy’s Neighbors’, ‘Black Harvest’, ‘Cannibal Tours’, ‘Man Without Pigs’, and others. It also covers the work of indigenous Papua New Guinea filmmakers and their own experience making sense of film and culture.
That high lonesome sound [videorecording] / Shanachie Entertainment Corp. [Newton, NJ] : Shanachie, c2002.
Shot in the 1960s, the three films released on this video capture the vanishing landscape of traditional music in America and the source of its power. The High Lonesome Sound focuses on Roscoe Holcomb, a singer guitarist from Eastern Kentucky. The End of an Old Song is a portrait of Dillard Chandler, one of the last unaccompanied ballad singers from the mountains of Ashville, NC. Sarah and Maybelle highlights two of the original Carter Family members who are reunited to talk about the Bristol, Tenn. recording session which launched their career and helpedgive birth to the country music industry. Woven into the documentary is rare footage.
To taste a hundred herbs : gods, ancestors and medicine in a Chinese village. Philadelphia : Long Bow Group, c1986. VHS
Part of the series One Village in China. This is the third fiilm in a trilogy (“Long Bow Trilogy), which includes Small happiness and All under heaven.
Tree of iron/ directed by Peter O’Neill and Frank Muhly, Jr. [S. l. : Foundation for African Prehistory & Archaeology] ; Watertown, MA : Documentary Educational Resources, 1988. VHS.
This is one of the few films to document archaeological work on ancient civilizations in Africa. It also deals with an important subject, African iron smelting, and presents convincing evidence for early indigenous technologies far more complex than previously expected. The Tree of Iron is set in Tanzania, East Africa, on the western shores of Lake Victoria, where Haya people have lived for centuries. The film follows the work of Peter Schmidt, an archaeologist and historian whose two decades of study in the region have revealed ancient 2000+ year old iron industrial sites, as well as oral traditions that illustrate the role of iron in agriculture, political power, and mythology.
Trobriand cricket [videorecording] : an ingenious response to colonialism / director and anthropologist, Jerry W. Leach ; film-maker, Gary Kildea ; produced by Office of Information, Government of Papua New Guinea. [Berkeley, CA] : Berkeley Media, [2004?], c1976.
Shows how the Trobriand Islanders have transformed the British game of cricket over the last seventy years into a unique Trobriand sport and a colorful ritual expressing their own cultural values.
A wife among wives / produced and directed by David and Judith MacDougall. Berkeley, CA : Berkley Media, [2004?]
An ethnographic documentary on the Turkana of northern Kenya. Examinies the views of the Turkana, especially Turkana women, on marriage.
NEW Winiama masks from the village of Ouri, Burkina Faso/ by Christopher Roy. [United States?] : Christopher D. Roy, c2006.
The Winiama people in the rural village of Ouri, in Burkina Faso, perform to reenact the encounters between the village ancestors and the spirits of the wilderness. This video emphasizes performance. There are lots of long takes of individual mask’s performances from start to finish, with musical accompaniment, crowd reaction. Among the spirit characters that perform are the bush-buffalo, monkey, chameleon, female bush spirit, mosque, church, and the dangerous curved horn masks
A world of differences : understanding cross-cultural communication / The Nonverbal Workshop ; created & produced by Dane Archer ; directed & photographed by Jon Silver. Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, c1997. VHS
Gestures from different cultures around the world are explored. People from many nations are shown performing all kinds of gestures and the different gestures that there are. Also explored are the meaning, function and origin of gestures.
Yaaba Soore : the path of the ancestors ; The dance of the spirits : mask styles and performance in the Upper Volta / written by Christopher Roy ; produced by the University of Iowa Video Center. [Iowa City] : University of Iowa, 1986-1988.
Shows African masks from Burkina Faso in West Africa as they are used in ritual dances and explains their significance within the cultures.
Yoruba performance / by Henry John Drewal. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland State University Instructional Media Services, 1990. VHS
West African rituals and dances photographed on location.
Yoruba ritual : a companion video / produced by Margaret Thompson Drewal. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1992. VHS
Zan Boko = Homeland / un film de Gaston J.M. Kaboré ; scénario et réalisation, Gaston J.M. Kaboré. San Francisco, CA : California Newsreel, c1987. VHS
Zan boko means “the place where the placenta is buried” and symbolizes the continuity between past and present in African village societies. The film tells the story of one village swallowed up by one of Africa’s large cities and the change from agrarian society to a mass media culture.
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