Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Food Ways & Subsistence / Herding & Pastoralism / All Films

Faces of Change: Afghanistan

Fri, 7 Sep 2018 09:20:00 GMT

Faces of Change: Afghanistan
Buy Now: $495.00

Shot in 1972, these five films present a portrait of Afghan life in the last months before the Russian invasion.The films capture the daily economic and social exchanges in the market town of Aq Kapruk, an area inhabited by Tajik and other Central Asian peoples, 320 miles northwest of Kabul.

Situated along Balkh River, this agricultural community depended primly on wheat farming and a pastoral economy. These films offer a window into an Afghanistan on the cusp of change, and serve as a record of the culture and life ways of its rural people.

"These five films portray different aspects of technology, economic arrangements and social life in the village of Aq Kupruk in northern Afghanistan. The area is hilly, intensely arid, the elevation is about 2000 feet, the population consists mainly of Tajikagriculturalists. There is a substantial bazaar at Aq Kupruk and the valley lies on the migration track of Pushtun pastoral nomads. Clearly the area comprises the three main segments of Afghan society: the bazaar sector, the farmers, and the nomads."
— Asen Balikci, American Anthropologist, 1977

Films in the Afghanistan series

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.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Faces of Change: Kenya

Fri, 7 Sep 2018 09:20:00 GMT

Faces of Change: Kenya
Buy Now: $495.00

The Boran are desert pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia who traditionally followed the rains in search for grass and water. Since the 1960s many Boran have elected to settle in a few market towns, such as Marsabit, the district capital in northern Kenya. Those who settle are in contrast to those who pursue the traditional lifestyle, particularly in terms of work, education, and social interaction with the outside world. Since 2015, the region has been on the western fringe of the on-going conflict between Kenya and the Al Shaba movement in Somalia. The films provide a backdrop to the harsh realities of this region of Kenya and the lifestyles of the residents.

"The core of this series is Kenya Boran 1 and 2, each designed to stand alone, but which together complement one another in a most useful and informative fashion. Their common subject matter is the development problems posed for rural Boran herdsmen and their families by the encroachment upon their once-isolated grazing lands of a growing town (Marsabit) and a major road (the new Nairobi-Addis Ababa Highway). These are shown in Kenya Boran 1, as two fathers and their sons discuss difficult choices between old and new ways of responding to the complexity of changes occurring around them, each emphasizing different aspects of the problem and different strategies for confronting them which, in turn, promote view speculation as to the appropriateness and the outcome of their divergent ways of dealing with change.Kenya Boran 2 expands upon these themes by focusing on the life of Peter Boru, a 16 year old former herdsboy who has gone to the government boarding school in the town; his expression of his hopes, fears and aspirations is adroitly contrasted both with those of his unschooled neighbors in the rural cattle camps and with the bleak employment opportunities facing him in the modern sector, in the course of which some of the difficulties of existing national educational practices in promoting development are isolated and explored.The hallmark of both films is their earnest commitment to permitting the Boran to define the issues that confront them in their own vernacular terms, expertly subtitled without the imposition of directed interpretative commentary… The overall result is a series of remarkably intimate and realistic scenes, attractively films with an absence of conspicuous staging or obvious show-biz; indeed, they move with a natural rhythm and pace that engenders an authentic sense of the problems, and of the sorts of ideas and feelings that individual Boran bring to bear in deciding on appropriate response to change.The prevailing tone of both films is their seriousness and deliberate instructional intent to provoke analytic responses from viewers. Their principal value lies in presenting the evidence in such a fashion as to force viewers to arrive at their own conslusions about the course of action that seems most appropriate based on the film/essay evidence." — Alan Jacobs, Western Michigan University, American Anthropologist, 1977

Films in the Kenya series

Boran Herdsmen

Boran Women
Harambee: Pull Together
Kenya Boran

About the Faces of Change Collection

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.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

A Kalahari Family

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

A Kalahari Family
Buy Now: $1,200.00

A Kalahari Family is a five-part, six-hour series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/'hoansi of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. These once independent hunter-gatherers experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and the chaos of war. Then as hope for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid grows, Ju/'hoansi fight to establish farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. Through depiction of their efforts of the Ju/hoansi to participate as farmers in the contemporary economy and advocate for their rights to do so, the series challenges stereotypes of primitive and unchanging "bushmen."

"There are two kinds of films. Films that show us in skins are lies. Films that show the truth show us with cattle, with farms, with our own water, making our own plans." —Oma Tsamkxao

"The old life was too thin. We wanted foods that made us strong. We wanted clothes like other people... A new life called us to Tjum!kui." —Oma Tsamkxao

"We heard stories about whites killing Ju/'hoansi. We were traveling to find bush foods when /Ui Legs told us white people had come. He said you would return to look for us and stay a long time. We were afraid you would capture or kill us. I'm glad you whites were different." —Oma Tsamkxao

John Marshall's documentary shows the objective story of one Namibian family and testifies to the challenges and the effects of changing times on the entire nation. This not only supports the constructive political revelations preached by our first president but is a touching testimony seen from within and without our society how it changes without reflection to its past history sacrificing part of its capacity to the demands put to them by the fast changing environment making it impossible to keep up and adjust. There is no progress possible if any help from the outside does not generate capacity building from within. This documentary shows that listening to the local voices and capacity building is the only answer to sustainable development. Such help is this documentary, so that each Namibian irrespective of any rank should be obliged to see it several times and keep it for generations to come. This is part of our invisible history innocently captured to testify in vision what has so far been invisible to the naked eye.

We owe enormous gratitude to the Marshall family for this valuable contribution to the History and welfare of our nation.
— Levi Namaseb, Namibian Visiting Scholar, University of Toronto

Films in the A Kalahari Family series:

Part One: A Far Country
Part Two: End Of the Road
Part Three: Real Water
Part Four: Standing Tall
Part Five: Death By Myth

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Environmental TV Series, FICA - International Festival of Environmental Film & Video, Brazil, 2003

Special Prize: Homage to the Films of John Marshall; Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 2003

Grand Jury Award (Best in World Cinema), DC Independent Film Festival, Washington DC, 2003

Basil Wright Film Prize, RAI Ethnographic Film Festival, England, 2003

Beeld Voor Beeld, Ethnographic Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2003

Jury Award, Athens Film Festival, 2003

Best Film - Jury Award, XII International Festival of Ethnographical Films, Nuoro, Italy, 2004

Planet In Focus Film Festival, Toronto, 2003

Margaret Mead International Film Festival, NYC, 2002

Sithengi International Film Festival, Capetown, 2002

African Film Festival, Seattle, 2003

Boston Premiere, Museum of Fine Arts, 2003

Archaeology Channel Film Festival, Oregon, 2003

Beeld Voor Beeld, Ethnographic Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2003

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA, 2004

Göttingen International Film Festival, Germany, 2004

Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Greece, 2005

Ecocinema Festival, Athens, Greece, 2005

This film is part of the !Kung Series.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Close Encounters of No Kind

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Close Encounters of No Kind
Buy Now: $320.00

Close Encounters of No Kind follows the Rabari, camel and sheep herders of Saurastra, India. Their nomadic lifestyle requires them to move herds of sheep and camels across the Saurastrian landscape to seek grazing and water. This practice has been going on for hundreds of years and during that time the Rabari have developed close working relationships with many groups and deeply adverse relations with other groups.

Traveling with the Rabari through the region of Jhalavad for a period of two months as they drift eastwards on their out migration, the film consists of a series of conversations with different caste groups about the Rabari way of life and their relations with the Rabari. It is a culture of tension and distrust; all of the interdependent caste groups are wary of the Rabari and of each other. While there are no actual encounters between the groups in the film, they accuse each other of inappropriate conduct and irresponsible character in their conversations with the filmmaker. He is not spared either; they accuse him of profiteering from this filmic exploration.

This film is then a traverse of two landscapes: the physical arid region of Jhalavad and the internal and imagined world of Rabari intercaste relations with Hindu and Muslims castes who are their partners in life. The film addresses issues related to social relations, pastoralism, ecology and land resource management. It would be useful for ethnographic and documentary film classes where the approach for conversational engagement as a tool for understanding social dynamics is prioritized and where new presentation of subtitling to differentiate different voices in group conversations is presented.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Dodoth Morning

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Dodoth Morning
Buy Now: $295.00

Dodoth Morning was the first film by the pioneering filmmaker, Timothy Asch who is best known for his collaborations with anthropologists such as Napoleon Chagnon, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch, and E. Douglas Lewis. Shot in northeast Uganda in 1961, a year when too much rain threatened to rot the millet the Dodoth people grew to supplement their diet. Primarily a pastoral people, the Dodoth depended on their herds of oxen for food and to determine wealth. With minimal narration the film opens in early morning and follows a headman, his four wives and family through daily tasks. Tension builds and breaks out in a domestic argument between father and son. This video copy was made from the recently discovered and only edited 16mm print known to exist. Tim Asch's work with the Yanomami in Venezuela and with indigenous peoples throughout Indonesia have been used for teaching, shown in festivals and won awards worldwide. DER is pleased to be able to offer this historically significant film to researchers, educators and film historians. Useful for teaching Anthropology, Pastoralism, Film History, Africa, Gender and Kinship.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Duka's Dilemma

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Duka's Dilemma
Buy Now: $320.00

Duka is a married woman and mother of five young children, living in Hamar, Southern Ethiopia. Ever since her husband married a beautiful, young, second wife, Duka has been in a state of emotional turmoil. Among the Hamar, who live with herds and cultivate small fields of sorghum in their remote, bush-covered country, men are allowed to marry more than one wife, but only a few men ever do so. Duka wonders why her husband married again; did he find her too old, or was he turned off because of her chronic malaria? Also, she doesn't know what to make of the new wife who is silent and never expresses her feelings except in rage? And on top of this, her mother-in-law keeps making trouble and is angry with her son for marrying a second wife behind her back. Personal and intimate, the film follows the drama of this family in crisis, the high points of which are the birth of the new wife's child, and nine months later, a heated dispute between the mother-in-law and her son, which leads to the building of a new house. Duka, her husband, her mother-in-law and the second wife voice their different points of view as events proceed and the crisis finally gets resolved. The language of the film is Hamar, and is translated by subtitles. There is no need for extra commentary from the filmmakers, whose presence and close relationship to the people are always evident.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day
Buy Now: $340.00

Every Day is Not a Feast Day is a chronicle of the daily life in Ano Ravenia, a mountain village in Greece. Although the village appears to be virtually self-sufficient, the truth is that its economical, social, and family life depends on the outer world to a great extent. Like many mountain villages, Ano Ravenia, has been progressively deserted by it most active population. The film shows the painful transformation from the holiday feasts and the temporary return of those who have left to live elsewhere to the monotony and calm of daily life. Without any commentary, the film respects the daily pace of the villagers.

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Dhiava: The Autumn Journey

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dhiava: The Autumn Journey
Buy Now: $320.00

The film takes place in the Pindos Mountains in North Western Greece. We meet two brothers, Tsiogas and Steryios Anthoulis with their flocks of sheep on the mountains, then the third brother Vassilis in the village of Samarina. It is the time of the festival of 15th of August and the village is packed with returning families and relations celebrating their culture and roots. They are all Vlachs, who speak a language closely related to Romanian. We return in October for the Dhiava, the autumn journey.

Tim Salmon, who also narrates the film, travels with the Anthoulis brothers on foot as they bring their flocks of sheep down from the Pindos Mountains to the plains of Thessaly, a journey of a 150 kilometers which takes about 10 days. The shepherds are helped by hired men; mostly illegal Albanian immigrants like Leonidas, whose story we hear at the campfire. We also meet Thodorakis, a Greek born Vlach shepherd who spent 40 years trapped in Albania by the former communist regime. Tsiogas and Vassilis tell through interview the history of the Dhiava and its significance for them today, in a Greece that is changing rapidly.

The journey is the last remaining part of the tradition of transhumance that used to be commonplace all over Europe. A large group of illegal Albanian immigrants turn up and Tsiogas holds them up at gunpoint to search them. There have been many thefts recently and the immigrants are always suspected. The traditional route takes the flocks cross country, over mountain ranges and through remnants of the great oak forests that used to cover this region. Wolves are still common here and a constant problem for the shepherds. The route continues along a dangerous stretch of main highway and with two thousand sheep, thirty cows, goats and packhorses to protect, the shepherds have a busy time. It is in this scene that we feel the crush of time and the pressure to change established traditions for more modern ones. Most shepherds now ship their flocks by truck rather than taking them on the arduous journey down from the mountains. Tsiogas and Vassilis tell us why it is still worth doing the Dhiava on foot. We can understand his position after having experienced the journey through the vehicle of film.

The film was produced by the makers of several programs featured in the BBC's anthropological series "Under the Sun". It is observational and participatory, a valuable tool for teaching anthropology, cultural change and for understanding the relationship between the Greek Vlachs, Romania and the Albanians before the recent collapse of Yugoslavia and the conflict in Kosovo.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Herdsmen

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Herdsmen
Buy Now: $320.00

A small film crew tracks a Kazak family in Xinjiang, China's western-most province, from spring to winter. Unlike the people of Kazakstan, who grew into a nation of farmers and workers, the Kazaks retained their nomadic life and a close bond with nature.

The Kazaks are a small minority among many more tenacious peoples of Xinjiang. To exist they went their way among the mountains and plateaus of the most remote region in the most desolate part of China. The crew follows a typical nomadic family with eleven children as the family travel wherever there is grass for their animals. They endure incredible hardships, sometimes going several days without food. In spite of this they have moments of joy and beauty, believing that nature will support them and that they will survive.

The filmmakers' four-year-long effort shooting the film is part of a recent rise in Chinese filmmakers' documenting their country's ethnic diversity. Although it takes a classic ethnographic, observational approach, the film is stunning in its cinematic, epic style. Richly informative for teaching anthropology, Asian Studies, nomadic cultures and kinship.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.

Himalayan Herders

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Himalayan Herders
Buy Now: $320.00

Himalayan Herders is an intimate portrait of a temple-village in the Yolmo valley of Central Nepal where Tibetan Buddhists consult shamans, married life begins by kidnapping the bride, and the nearest road is a two-day walk away. The community drama of marriage, death, and rituals is juxtaposed with the rich texture of daily life, both in the village and the surrounding mountains and forest where these pastoralists herd zomo, a cross between a cow and a yak, which thrives in middle altitude pastures between 8,000 and 14,000 feet. Cultural change, in the form of a government primary school, incorporation into a national park, and circular migration for wage labor outside Nepal, is discussed by residents in interviews.

A twenty-five-year-long collaboration between an ethnographer and a documentary filmmaker, the film provides rich material for examining gender, cultural change, religion, pastoralism, South Asia, and the cultural ecology and economics of mountain populations. An ethnography, Himalayan Herders, published by Harcourt Brace in fall 1997 as part of the Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology Series, provides a companion volume to the film.

Visit Herding & Pastoralism to see additional products in this category.