Documentary Educational Resources - By Title / C / All Films

Co-Husband

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:51:34 GMT

Co-husband is a portrait of the practice of fraternal polyandry in the communities of the indigenous Humlo people in the Humla district of Nepal. Told from the perspective of the wives and husbands as well as the members of the community who reject this model, the film explores the economic, cultural and emotional dimensions of this custom and the social consequences for those who don’t practice it.

This family structure is closely related to the caravan trade, when men were absent for long periods of time– traveling for up to eight months at a time to transport salt from Tibet and rice from the Achham region. On the one hand, this limited their time together at home, and on the other, from an economic perspective, it allowed them to share resources, reduce land division and have a larger support system, which enabled them to prosper economically. However, with the continuing decline in this form of work and the rise in unemployment, everyday life has changed and individual needs have shifted, which raises the question of whether polyandry will continue to be practiced.

Nepalese filmmaker Ganesh Panday’s documentary invites a dialogue about how different a household and a family can look, what economic considerations go into such a structure, how to define a ‘successful’ household and what role love plays in marriage.

“A deeply human and visually stunning exploration of love, duty, and family in the high Himalayas, offering a rare glimpse into the intimate rhythms of fraternal polyandry. More than an ethnographic study, it’s a moving portrait of resilience and connection that expands our understanding of what kinship can mean in South Asia and in the world.” – Prof. Harjant Gill, President, Society for Visual Anthropology

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Short Film, Society of Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, USA, 2023

Bronze Award, Meihodo Int'l Youth Visual Media Festival, Japan, 2023

Best Documentary Film, Gateway Int'l Film Festival, Canada, 2023

Best Int'l Documentary Film, Cobb Inte'l Film Festival, USA, 2022

London Mountain Film Festival, UK, 2023

Best Documentary Film, Shimla Int'l Film Festival, India, 2021

Best Documentary Film, Nepal-Africa Film Festival, Nepal, 2021

29th Int'l Festival of Mountain Films Poprad, Slovakia, 2021

Best Documentary Film, Nepal Int'l Film Festival (NIFF), Nepal, 2020

Grand Prix Award, Kansk Int'l Video Festival, Russia, 2020

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Cruces

Wed, 5 Jun 2024 18:06:15 GMT

Cruces
Buy Now: $295.00

Cruces is an experiential expedition into the geographies and stories of immigrants from Latin America as they journey to reach US soil. By weaving together oral histories and images of the landscape, the film highlights the constitutive elements of transit, such as trains and rivers, and the obstacles migrants face, such as forests, deserts, and border regimes.

Recorded in 2019 and early 2020, this multi-vocal ethnography conveys a collective view of the multiple stories of journey and arrival. Enhanced by an immersive soundtrack and an experimental narrative, Cruces offers a raw exploration of the terrain and testimonies constituting one of our age's most defining, challenging, and politicized phenomena.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
The Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, UK, 2023

Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece, 2022

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, USA, 2022
Mimesis Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2022

Bogoshorts Film Festival,Colombia, 2021

Multimedia Anthropology Showcase in Madrid (MAAM), Spain, 2021

VI Mexican Congress of Anthropology and Ethnology Film Festival, Mexico, 2020
VI Latin American Anthropology Congress Film Festival, Uruguay, 2020

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Cool Running

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 16:12:20 GMT

Cool Running
Buy Now: $340.00

In Accra, Ghana, por por (pronounced paw paw) is a unique music made from squeeze-bulb honk horns. Originally a fixture on colonial-era wooden lorries, these horns were subsequently repurposed by drivers in the township of La as musical instruments for union driver funerals.

Drawing from five years of research and work with the Drivers Union, filmmaker Steven Feld and photographer/oral historian Nii Yemo Nunu take readers into the stories of the drivers, their vehicles and the invention of por por music through photographs and text, including complementary historical essays and a classic black and white photograph section by German photographer Hannah Schreckenbach. Additionally, Nunu and Feld collected, transcribed, and translated twenty-five video interviews with elder drivers. These interviews formed the basis of The Story of Por Por, one of five films in Feld’s Jazz Cosmopolitanism series.

The deluxe, hardback edition of Cool Running features over two hundred captioned photographs, a CD titled Klebo! that features the La Drivers Union por por Group performing their songs, and a DVD with two documentary films: The Story of Por Por and M.V. Labadi.

“In all, this package offers a captivating introduction to por por and its cultural context of driving in Accra…On its own, it stands as a testament to the dynamic interplay of Ga drivers and musicians in La, including the ways in which foreign technologies become integrated into local cultural practice…will be a valuable resource for educators as well as scholars of Ghana, Africa, music, sound studies, technology and society, labor, and transportation.” - Paul Schauert, The Journal of African History

Praise for Jazz Cosmopolitanism:

“The chapters in which Feld listens and retells the stories of these mercurial musicians are compelling, and throw up original and profound material. Feld is brilliant at articulating the multiple overlapping narratives and experiences that both obfuscate and animate diasporic dialogues, and in that process his book attains its own world-historical significance.” – Tony Herrington, The Wire

“[A] vital statement about the infinitely nuanced nature of cultural exchange between Africa and America, and how our fullest understanding of jazz history might be furthered by enquiries like this.” – Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise

“Jazz Cosmopolitanism is a lively and important book, one that uses the vehicles of dialogue and sound to unearth the complex cultural and political dynamics that connect a group of urban Africans to the diaspora and wider world. It is a fun, invigorating, and worthwhile read that continues to resonate when finally put down. I highly recommend picking it up.” – Nate Plageman, Journal of African History

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Ciao Babylon

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 06:43:00 GMT

Ciao Babylon
Buy Now: $320.00

Ciao Babylon takes us to New York where Dan Kaufman is committed to preserving endangered languages. The film also follows Giancarlo Malchiodi from Brooklyn to the Swiss Alps on his way to rediscover his mother tongue Romanish, a language that may die out within a few decades. Experts believe that by the end of the century half of the 6,500 languages spoken today will have vanished; and with every language dies a unique way of perceiving the world. Ciao Babylon calls attention to this dramatic development.

In New York City roughly 800 languages are spoken, more than in any other city. In order to uncover these linguistic treasures and record the diverse range of idioms, linguist Dan Kaufman established the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA). Amalia Malchiodi is an ELA regular who records stories in an old Romontsch Sursilvan dialect. Her son Giancarlo spoke perfect Romansh as a boy, but later, as he says, decided out of youthful exuberance to only speak English. He now regrets that he is no longer proficient in the language of his forefathers. This is why he has started to relearn the language and eventually embarks on a trip with Amalia to Sagogn, his mother’s hometown. There they meet a Portuguese family whose children are growing up with the Romansh language, which they are learning with relative ease given its similarity to their mother tongue. As a result, the many Portuguese immigrants in Grisons are becoming the new hope for the preservation of Romansh in Switzerland.

Precisely these kinds of surprising, unpredictable twists in the evolution of languages are fascinating to Dan Kaufman. He says that no one can predict which languages will still be spoken in 200 years and which ones will only survive in the archives of the ELA.

"One of the film’s strengths is its glimpse on historical language survival. Where the film shines, is in exploring the individual reactions to language death and those fighting to preserve language at individual and/or community levels."
-Amanda Jo Melchor, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Texas A&M University, Kingsville

SELECTED SCREENINGS

Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 2018

Shanghai International Film and TV Festival, China, 2018

Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland, 2018

Le Grand Bivouac festival du film documentaire & du livre, France, 2019

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Crying Earth Rise Up

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 14:04:00 GMT

Crying Earth Rise Up
Buy Now: $320.00

Crying Earth Rise Up tells the story of Debra White Plume and Elisha Yellow Thunder’s parallel search for answers to the question: Why are there high levels of radiation in our drinking water and how can we protect our families and community against this threat?

White Plume, a Lakota elder, views nearby uranium mining operations as one source of water contamination and as an encroachment on the water rights of the Lakota Nation. She takes action as the lead plaintiff in a case challenging uranium mining on tribal land, and as an organizer working to motivate her community to protect treaty territory from exploitation of their natural resources by corporate interests.

Yellow Thunder seeks answers in the earth itself. During her pregnancy, she unknowingly drank contaminated water and her daughter, Laila, was born with severe medical anomalies. Laila and family await a kidney transplant. When Yellow Thunder can take time away from caring for Laila, she maps ore outcroppings on the Pine Ridge Reservation in search of uranium and the origins of the contamination.

Meanwhile, community members from the mining town of Crawford, NE, Lakota health and environmental agencies, an organic rancher and project manager of a proposed uranium mine, lawyers involved in White Plume’s case, natural resources officials, a nuclear energy expert, farmers and ranchers, all grapple with the prospect of license renewal at the Crow Butte mine in Nebraska and the proposed expansion of mining operations to three additional mines in northwest Nebraska and western South Dakota.

Observational footage, ruggedly beautiful Great Plains vistas, sit-down interviews, illustrations, and animated graphics combine to address the controversy surrounding the existing and proposed uranium mining operations over the High Plains/Ogallala aquifer. Native actress Tantoo Cardinal narrates the film, supporting its structure, ensuring clarity and acting as a reliable guide for the audience through the story.

The film addresses the direct relationship between water and life itself, and the tragic irony that what is sacred may also be poisoning, even as nuclear power companies insist on the environmental safety of their industry’s practices and townspeople point to the mine’s essential role in fueling the local economy. Through characters who oppose and support the expansion of uranium mining over the High Plains/Ogallala aquifer (the largest fresh water underground source in North America), audiences engage with the important and timely issue of preserving and protecting the land and water.

Native communities are commonly involved in debates about land use and environmental stewardship, particularly in the west, because of the historical exploitation of natural resources found on treaty land, Native religious beliefs that bind the people to nature, the Native philosophy of “seven generations” that mirrors the concept of sustainable ecological practices, etc. Crying Earth Rise Up acknowledges the centrality of Native involvement in opposing the particular practice of uranium mining and suggests Native communities’ wider spread contribution to a variety of other conversations related to environmental protection (although not always noted by mainstream media, e.g. the recent blocking of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline).

SELECTED AWRDS AND SCREENINGS

Winner, John Michaels Award, Big Muddy Film Festival, 2015

Athens International Film Festival, 2015

Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, 2015

Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival, 2016

One Earth Film Festival, 2017

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Coffee Futures

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 09:18:00 GMT

Coffee Futures
Buy Now: $295.00

Coffee Futures weaves individual fortunes with the story of Turkey's decades-long attempts to become a member of the European Union. Promises and predictions made by politicians, both foreign and domestic, are juxtaposed with the rhetorics and practices of coffee fortune telling.

The widespread custom of coffee fortune telling in Turkey is an everyday communication tool. Coffee fortunes are a way of dealing with hopes, fears and worries, as well as a method of indirectly voicing matters usually left unspoken. Like any language, this narrative form has its protocols, rules and tropes; yet each fortune bears distinct marks of the teller's personal style and the individual fortune seeker's condition.

Thus, the filmmaker sets out to seek her fortune and flip her cup for a couple dozen people, both friends and strangers. These amateur fortune tellers all read her individual fortune as they might any other day, except that she also asks for their opinions on the future of Turkey and Europe.

July 31, 2009 marked the 50th year anniversary of Turkey's application to apply to the elusive European Union (maiden name: European Economic Community). On this seemingly endless path, Turkey's future is continually invoked and described, yet not quite within reach. Touching upon the psychology of collective waiting and anticipating a national future, Coffee Futures attempts to render the emotional texture of a society whose fate has been nationally and internationally debated - often in relation to its "Europeanness" - for a long, long time.

“Perhaps one way to cope with the never-ending European torture is to start enjoying it. Zeynep Gürsel's film is a big step in that direction. I never thought the EU process could be so funny! ” — Haluk Sahin Director, Department of Television News and Programming, Istanbul Bilgi University, Columnist, Radikal newspaper
“With wonderful subtlety and grace Zeynep Gürsel employs the traditional narrative of coffee-grounds reading to talk about the future of Turkey vis-à-vis the European Union. What is even more central to Coffee Futures is the bricolage of types, a broad canvas of Turkish citizens all united by the same custom, telling the future through their particular emotional and social approach. This is a timely, provocative and artful project. ” — Karen Barkey Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
“Coffee Futures is a delightful, engaging and brilliant short film about Turkey's ambivalent relationship with the European Union. Along the way, filmmaker and anthropologist Zeynep Gürsel introduces us to everyday Turkish culture and society. Gürsel deftly weaves together parallel narratives about personal fortunes in love and marriage and the future of Turkish-EU relations. This film is sure to both amuse and enlighten students about the problematic 'courtship' between Turkey and the EU. ” — Melani Cammett Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University
“This is a small but beautiful film - a highlight of the festival.” — Daniel Fisher, "Review of the Film Program at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Anthropological Society, December 9-11, 2009", Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 27, Issue 1

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Neighboring Nations Award, Cairo Documentary Festival, 2011
Best Documentary Short, MiradasDoc Festival, Spain, 2010
Audience Award - Short Film, IF Istanbul Independent Film Festival, 2010
EurActiv Award for Debating Europe Nationally, Special Jury Award for Originality, Brussels, 2009
Audience Award, Ann Arbor Film Festival, MI, 2010
Intimate Lens Ethnographic Film Festival, Italy, 2013
Festival of Visual Anthropology ASPEKTY, Poland, 2012
SVA Ethnographic Film Festival, USA, 2012
32nd Nordic Anthropological Film Association (NAFA) Film Festival, Norway, 2012
9th International Film Festival - The Heart of Slavonia, Croatia, 2012
South East European Film Festival, USA, 2012
Addis International Film Festival, 2011
A Film For Peace Festival, 2011
Athens, Ohio International Film Festival, 2011
Days of Ethnographic Cinema, 2011
Durango Independent Film Festival, Colorado, 2010
Filmmor Women's Film Festival, Turkey, 2010
Free Range Film Festival, 2010

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A Chinese Farm Wife

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

A Chinese Farm Wife
Buy Now: $340.00

A Chinese Farm Wife gives us a peek into the life of Mrs. Li, a Taiwanese woman whose husband is a salaried factory worker. Along with the help of her eldest daughter and her neighbors, Mrs. Li runs their 3-acre farm, cultivating crops of tobacco and rice. She also supervises the children's education and manages the household, and is a full participant in community activities.

Films in the Taiwan series

A Chinese Farm Wife
People are Many, Fields are Small
The Rural Cooperative
They Call Him "Ah Kung"
Wet Culture Rice

About the Faces of Change Collection

Faces of Change is comprised of 25 films that examine five cultures selected for their distinct geographic locations: starting with the China Coast at sea level and moving up to Taiwan, then to Afghanistan, Kenya and finally to the mountains of Bolivia. Each location is examined through five themes: Rural Society, Education, Rural Economy, Women, and Beliefs.

This innovative collection of 16mm films and videos was funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by Norman Miller and directed by some of the finest ethnographic filmmakers of its time.

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A Country Auction

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

A Country Auction
Buy Now: $320.00

A Country Auction Film Project, based on the ethnographic research of Robert Aibel, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby, consists of a trio of films covering a period of almost 30 years.

In 1983 three ethnographers and a documentary filmmaker collaboratively produced two films – A Country Auction and Can I Get A Quarter? – that documented ethnographic research conducted on estate sales held in a rural Central Pennsylvania community. Over the next 25 years, these films were screened in numerous film festivals, broadcast on public television, and reviewed in academic journals.

The consensus among the filmmakers was that few people appeared to comprehend their intentions in producing the films. In 2008 they decided to return to the community where A Country Auction was filmed and hold an anniversary screening. In addition, the four filmmakers came together for a critical discussion about the successes and failures of the original Auction film. This discussion became the basis of a third film, Reflexive Musings: A Country Auction Study Film.

Films on this DVD

A Country Auction: The Paul V. Leitzel Estate Sale (58 min, 1983)

Produced and Directed by Bob Aibel, Ben Levin, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby An ethnographic film about an estate auction in a rural community in Pennsylvania. It examines the personal, social and economic processes involved when a family dissolves their homestead. The film portrays the auction process as integral to the social life of the community and as a method for a family and community to deal with the death of one of their members.

Can I Get a Quarter? (6 min, 1983)

Produced and Directed by Bob Aibel, Ben Levin, Chris Musello and Jay Ruby A short observation of the auction of objects that remained unsold after the all day sale of the real estate and possessions of Paul Leitzel as shown in the film, A Country Auction.

Reflexive Musings: A Country Auction Study Film (47 min, 2012)

Produced and Directed by Milton Machuca and Jay Ruby A uniquely reflexive examination of the successes and failures of A Country Auction as an anthropological film. The four producers take part in a prolonged critical discussion of the original film.

Film Festivals

Gottingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2014

EASA Biennial Conference, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, 2014
Viscult, Joensuu, Finland, 2010

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A Curing Ceremony

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

A Curing Ceremony
Buy Now: $545.00

Sha//ge, a very young woman about to have her first child, falls ill, probably with malaria. /Ti!kay, a relative and healer, enters a mild trance, without the stimulus of dancing, in an attempt to cure her. Sha//ge lives but the baby is stillborn. Part of the !Kung Series.

This film is available as part of the !Kung ShortFilms set. This collection combines fourteen of Marshall's short !Kung films onto two remastered/re-authored DVDs, complete with a full-color booklet containing photos, writings, and additional information about the series.

DiscOne:
A Curing Ceremony (bw) (9:00)
Group of Women (6:00)
A Joking Relationship (13:00)
N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (bw)(20:00)
N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game (15:00)
The Lion Game (5:00)
An Argument About a Marriage (18:00)
Men Bathing (14:00)

DiscTwo:
Playing with Scorpions (5:00)
A Rite of Passage (15:00)
Debe's Tantrum (9:00)
The Wasp Nest (13:00)
The Meat Fight (14:00)
Baobab Play (8:00)

Orthography Note
The group of people depicted in these films are the Ju/'hoansi, speakers of the Ju/'hoan language. Ju/'hoan is part of the !Kung language group; the term !Kung was previously used by the Marshall family and others to refer to Ju/'hoansi. Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work. The films and their related printed materials also employ antiquated spellings of names and places. For current Ju/'hoan orthography, please see the Ju/'hoan - English Dictionary, compiled by Patrick Dickens and the Ju/'hoan Peoples Literacy Committee.

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Candles for New Years

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Candles for New Years
Buy Now: $295.00

For 200 years, groups of Lahu have been migrating from southwestern China into the highlands of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle" region. Though they share much with other migrants in the ethnic patchwork of the region, the Lahu maintain a vigorous sense of themselves as a distinct people. New Years is their prime time for celebrating what it means to be Lahu. Candles For New Years is the first visual portrait of Lahu life prepared for English-speaking viewers. Anthropologist Jacquetta Hill has followed for more than a decade the fate of a group of Lahu who cleared the forest and built a community north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. In this film, she describes the Lahu New Year as celebrated by the community: the elaborate preparations to appease the spirits they rely upon to bring them good fortune, the dancing & feasting and the mingling with friends and relatives from sister villages.

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