Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Health & Medicine / Disability / All Films

Wawan's Prayer

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:39:30 GMT

Wawan is an autistic boy from Banjarmasin, Indonesia. Struggling to meet his needs at home, his parents make the difficult decision to send him to a brand new school on another island to receive specialized education and therapeutic support. Together Wawan and his teacher, Yasin, learn how to build an inclusive community for youth on the spectrum that accommodates their differences and celebrates their abilities. As the school grows, Wawan matures into a young man respected for his skill in prayer recitation.

This film is sold as a part of a set which also includes All God's Children.

Selected Screenings & Awards

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Toronto, 2023

German Int'l Ethnographic Film Festival, Göttingen, Germany, 2022

SEAxSEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film & Literature Festival, Seattle, USA 2022

Quarter Finalist, Reel-Abilities Film Festival: New York, New York, USA 2022

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All God's Children

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:39:29 GMT

All God's Children
Buy Now: $460.00

Well over half a million children in Indonesia are on the autism spectrum and have varying difficulty with social interaction and communication, as well as uneven access to resources, education and services. “All God’s Children” tells the story of Idris, a nonverbal autistic teenager living in rural Central Java. Idris’s mother, Isti, struggles to understand Idris and meet their basic needs, especially since the two moved away from Idris’s neurotypical twin brother and biological father over thirteen years ago. Shot over the course of five years, the film follows Idris and Isti to traditional healers, biomedical treatment centers, specialized schools, activist organizations, and community gatherings as they seek the acceptance and support they long for. As the family ultimately finds new avenues to healing and hope, the film also tells a story of how grassroots disability awareness movements, local cultural models of inclusion, and religious principles can unite to better support all members of a community.

This film is sold as a part of a set which also includes Wawan's Prayer.

“All God's Children promotes an awareness of grassroots disability in Indonesia. The film itself has a lot of heart. It’s very empathetic and kind to its interlocutors. We also want to recognize the film for its exceptional technical achievements. Its editing, it’s really truly exceptionally edited. And the long term ethnographic research that went into making it, which is evident in the final outcome. The film is a wonderful example of ethnographic storytelling.” – RAI Film Festival, Werbner Award committee

Selected Screenings & Awards

Commendation – Werbner Award, Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival, USA, 2023

Best Ethnographic Film, New York International Film Awards, New York, 2021

Finalist - Best Documentary Film, 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival, Bali, Indonesia, 2021

Golden Door International Film Festival, New Jersey, 2022
Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Vancouver, BC, 2019

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Khalfan and Zanzibar

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:13:00 GMT

Khalfan and Zanzibar
Buy Now: $295.00

Khalfan and Zanzibar is an anthropological documentary shot on digital video — a new departure for the filmmakers, who previously worked exclusively with 16-mm film. Three separate topics are woven together in this innovative project: 1) the life and work of Khalfan Hemed Khalfan, founder of Zanzibar's Association of the Disabled; 2) scenes from the lives of Zanzibar's disabled — job skill training, a class for deaf children, a soccer scrimmage; 3) the history and culture of Zanzibar.

This video is a study of Mr. Khalfan Hamid Khalfan and the handicapped people's organization Mr. Khalfan founded and continues to run. Mr. Khalfan, a charismatic figure well known in Zanzibar, is himself wheelchair-bound and oversees the tasks of representing, training, and helping handicapped people throughout the island state. Mr. Khalfan coordinates the efforts of donor agencies, state and federal governments, politicians and development experts, but he is not paid by the government and does not belong to any political party. For many years a high school principal, he looks on his work as primarily an educational one, "raising consciousness" about the needs and potential contributions of people with handicaps.

Not a portrait film pure and simple, Khalfan and Zanzibar's differentiation is to place the protagonist in Zanzibar culture, history, ethnicity, religion and everyday life. It intersperses interviews, scenes of Mr. Khalfan's daily chores at work and at home, handicapped people at work and leisure activities, and footage of Zanzibar (with innovative use of superimposed texts discussing history, ethnicity, politics, and Islam). The challenge of the video is to integrate, through visual form and style, the diverse materials mentioned above, in a single unfolding film structure.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Certificate of Merit, INTERCOM Competitions of the Chicago International Film Festival, 2000

Best International Documentary, Brooklyn Film Festival, 2000

Academic Look International Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, New York, 2000

Center for Cross Cultural Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 2000

Seagull Media Centre, Kolkata, India, 2001

Dialektus Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary, 2002

5th World Congress of Anthropological Sciences, Florence, Italy, 2003

Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London

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A Life Without Words

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

A Life Without Words
Buy Now: $320.00

What would life be like without language? For too many deaf people raised in rural outposts, access to a sign-language community is denied and they are condemned to a life without words.

Such injustice deserves our attention and is explored with care in this haunting story of two deaf siblings, Dulce Maria (28) and Francisco (22), who have been raised their entire lives without access to any written, spoken, or signed language on a farm in northern Nicaragua. They are visited by a Deaf sign-language teacher who works for a local NGO and is determined to teach the siblings their first words. As the two begin their awakening to language, their resistance is clear, but so is their marvel at the teacher and this process.

Their stories are interwoven with the economic and familial history of their family. As we enter their isolated world, uncomfortable questions arise about education, psychology, language, ethics, class, and NGO work. With an unsettling mix of tragedy and hope, this moving work avoids hard and fast answers to the challenging questions it poses.

“The film, flowing with sublime images, is as poignant as it is captivating. We follow the awakening of Dulce Maria and Francisco with our heart hurting and a tight smile on our lips. Their "lives without words" reveal more than thousands of books. Not to be missed for anything.” — La Dépêche du Midi

“A masterpiece of aesthetic images and a plea for language as a fundamental human right.” — DOK.fest Munich

“A film of beautiful images and deep pain. It delves into
the world of rural Latin America with a view that is neither anthropological nor paternalistic.” — El Otro Cine

“It makes you think about how extraordinary it is to have language… It's beautifully done.” — Faye Ginsburg, anthropologist

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Winner, Best Documentary, Maine Deaf Festival, USA, 2014

Winner, Best Film, CINEDEAF Rome International Deaf Film Festival, Italy, 2013

Winner, Margaret Mead Filmmakers Award, Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 2012

Winner, Prix Documentaire, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, France, 2012

Winner, Prix Lycéen, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, France, 2012

Special Mention - Emerging International Filmmaker, Open City London Documentary Film Festival, U.K., 2012

Eyes and Lenses Film Festival, Poland, 2014

Maine Deaf Film Festival, USA, 2014

ETHNOCINECA, Austria, 2014

Days of Ethnographic Film, Slovenia, 2014

The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, USA, 2014

CINEDEAF Rome International Deaf Film Festival, Italy, 2013

HumanDOC International Film Festival, Poland, 2013

Intimate Lens Ethnographic Film Festival, Italy, 2013

Havana Film Festival, Cuba, 2012

DOK.fest International Documentary Film Festival, Germany, 2012

Istanbul International Film Festival, Turkey, 2012

Douarnenez Film Festival, France, 2012

Beeld voor Beeld Film Festival, Netherlands, 2012

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Lost and Found

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Lost and Found
Buy Now: $295.00

The legacy of the governmental policies concerning population growth and the family under the Communist rule in Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu were devasting. This documentary presents an uncompromising look at the situation of scores of thousands of children in the state orphanages today. Winner of 20 international awards, Lost and Found is an excellent film for the study of recent eastern European history, politics and their effects on health and human welfare.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

CINE Golden Eagle Award, 1992

Silver Medal, Chicago International Film Festival

Bronze Apple, National Educational Film Festival

Emmy Nomination

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The Lost Water

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Lost Water
Buy Now: $295.00

73% of the total salt production in India comes from Gujarat State, almost 60% of which comes from Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat. The government of Gujarat has consistently ignored the LRK area. The salt workers of LRK, known as Agariyas, are predominantly from the Koli and Chuvaliya Koli tribes. As bonded laborers, they are not only victims of wage discrimination, they are endure serious physical and mental health hazards due to the dangerous nature of their work. Kharaghoda village itself is home to 437 widows. Working in extreme temperatures without any protective gear, many Agariyas suffer major health complications, including blindness and skin damage due to unprotected exposure to salt. Living in abject poverty, Agariyas now face water scarcity as well as malnutrition since green vegetables are not available in this area. The LRK area has recently been designated as a wildlife sanctuary for the threatened Indian Wild Donkey, making salt workers and salt production in LRK now illegal. Agariyas have been forced by government authorities to look outside the LRK for work, now struggling for both their ancestors' land and their livelihood.

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Olivia and Tim

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

Olivia and Tim
Buy Now: $320.00

Olivia Breitha is a seventy-five year old woman who was diagnosed with leprosy in 1934 and exiled to the Kalaupapa Settlement on Molokai, Hawaii. Cured of active disease since the early 1950s, she has remained in the place which is now her home. Tim Baker is a thirty-two-year-old gay man, living in Honolulu who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989.

Olivia And Tim is an affecting portrait of two individuals who have overcome the stigma of their afflictions to achieve a life-affirming place in their respective worlds. The film records their meetings as they share stories and make telling observations on the treatment society gives to people with disabling conditions.

As Tim observes, "The disease is secondary. What Olivia and I have in common is: we both live life, and we tell it like it is."

"...A moving, sometimes funny, often inspiring documentary"
— Richard Tillotson, Program Editor, Hawai'i International Film Festival

"Ley and Vandervoort's treatment of a special friendship is one that fills me with hope...as it defines a new kind of odd couple."
— Gus Van Sant, Festival Judge, Northwest Film and Video Festival

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Peter, Donald, Willie, Pat

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:58:00 GMT

Peter, Donald, Willie, Pat
Buy Now: $320.00

Peter, Donald, Willie, Pat is a portrait of four homeless men who live in a shelter in Boston. The tape follows them through their routine at the shelter, and documents their lives on the streets.

Peter is an ex-hippie who collects trash to sell at flea markets. Donald served ten years at Leavenworth on a bank robbery charge. Pat was sexually abused as a child, and has been in and out of foster homes for the last thirteen years. Willie came to the shelter to recover because he lost six of his fingers after spending the night in a snowbank.

The film reveals the complexity and diversity of these men's lives; how in some ways they have been victims, yet in other cases they have succeeded in exploiting the "system." The film is not judgmental. It simply shows how these four men have become members of a new class of survivors.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Outstanding Social Documentary, New England Film Festival

First Place, Athens Intn'l Film Festival

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Prison Pups

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:58:00 GMT

Prison Pups
Buy Now: $320.00

Prison Pups follows four inmates as they raise and train service dogs for the handicapped and hearing impaired. At Concord Farm, a minimum-security facility in Massachusetts, these inmates learn to take on the responsibility of a puppy and find in themselves not only a sense of confidence but also a capacity for nurturing and affection. The experience is profound as they become empowered by their role as trainers.

"Prison Pups is an engaging documentary that portrays the benefits of this program for both inmates and NEADS clients. The first person interviews make it clear that prison life is hard, but that the program enhances not only the life of the disabled, but enriches the lives of the prisoners as well. As the prisoners interact with and talk about "their" dogs, and with the NEADS staff and clients, they seem not only humane, but more human, in contrast to typical media presentations. Prison Pups is highly recommended for junior high through adult level audiences."
— Pamela White, MLS, Health Science Libraries, University of Rochester

"Prison Pups, like other Dungan Bouvrie films, explores its subject matter from a cultural perspective, while using a method of filming which Dungan Bouvrie describes as "ethnographic." This technique is based on the filmmaker spending extended periods of time with each film's subjects, while keeping a discreetly low profile and respectful demeanor.
— Lesley Today, Lesley University

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Regent Theater, Arlington, MA, 2008

Breckenridge Film Fest, Breckenridge, CO, 2007

Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA, 2007

Somerville Community Access TV (SCAT), 2007

Plymouth Independent Film Festival, MA, 2007

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There's No Hole in My Head

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

There's No Hole in My Head
Buy Now: $275.00

In 2007, aged 54, Abby Hale was diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's. As a mom and medical practitioner, Abby eloquently shares with grace and insight what she has both gained and lost as a result of this harsh and cruel disease.

This film allows us a rare glimpse into a world that is becoming increasingly common in our society, but is rarely discussed in such an honest and open way.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Davis Feminist Film Festival, California, 2013

Pride of the Ocean, 2011

Cineslam, 2011

Image+Nation, Montreal, 2011

15th Annual Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 2011

Mazer Lesbian Archive Film Screening, LA, 2011

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