Movies: Ethnographical

Early Mondo film featuring primitive rituals, animals being butchered, unusual birth defects, and a legit trepanation scene....

An experimental ethnographic documentary that criticizes the colonizer view of anthropology....

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This first co-production of the Soviet and Indian cinematographers is dedicated to the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin who in 1466-1472 blazed the trade way from Europe to India. The film is based on Nikitin’s travel notes. Starring in the film are pop...

A group of people setting out to find a previously assumed land and upon reaching it, not knowing how to deal with the customs of the place, have to deal with all the consequences....

Travellers, nomads and salesmen make their way along a dam next to the Nile....

The film was made on the basis of the literary version of events in the life of the famous Russian ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler who studied the indigenous population of South-East Asia, Australia and Oceania....

Shot with stunning elegance and clarity, NAKED SPACES explores the rhythm and ritual of life in the rural environments of six West African countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkino Faso, Togo, Benin and Senegal). The nonlinear structure of NAKED SPACES ch...

Remember the culture clash in THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY? This time it's real. One of the most ancient cultures on our planet is undergoing a major change. The Ju/Hoansi Bushmen in Namibia are not allowed to hunt anymore and need to converge with our so ...

“The picture [shows] a number of Esquimaux picking nickels from cracks in a board with their dog whips, in which sport they are very expert. In the background will be seen one of their "Topeks," a sealskin tent in which they live during their short s...

An ethnographic film that documents the efforts of four !Kung men (also known as Ju/'hoansi or Bushmen) to hunt a giraffe in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia. The footage was shot by John Marshall during a Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody sponsored expediti...

Short ethnographic documentary showing a leopard dance based upon footage shot by director Luc de Heusch in Congo in 1954 reassembled by Damien Mottier (Université Paris Nanterre) and Grace Winter (CINEMATEK)....

About the "concheros", dancers in México City that keep aztec traditions alive....

David and Judith MacDougall are exploring the marriage rituals and roles of Turkana women in this ethnographic documentary. The film's biggest part is taken up by talks between the Turkana people. As one of the first ethnographic documentaries "A Wif...

This documentary looks at the stories of a few people in Aspen Colorado and how they contribute to the community....

A short film set in the mountainous province of Svaneti, documents the performance of polyphonic men’s funerary laments common to the region....

A young woman in traditional Japanese attire fixes her hair and kimono while her servants assist her....

A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many f...

The film tells two parallel stories. One, set in the present, tells of a pagent about the conquest of America, while the other, set in the 15th century, tells of a group of conquistadors coming ashore searching for gold. The film takes place in an un...

“One of the principal features at the Pan-American Exposition is the Alaskan or Esquimaux Village. In this most interesting exhibit, scenes are enacted just as they take place in the far away frozen North. In this subject we depict a large number of ...