Advertising Missionaries - Follows the mission of one theater company to bring the consumer revolution to the people of the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Al Otro Lado (To the Other Side) - An aspiring corrido composer faces two life-changing choices: to traffic drugs or unlawfully cross the border into the United States. Directed by Natalia Almada.
Alabba - An exploration of the fascinating history of Santeria.
All Restrictions End - Reflections on Islam and clothing, Iranian cinema, Persian painting and more characterize this thought-provoking artistic documentary.
All Water Has a Perfect Memory - A poignant experimental documentary that explores the effects of tragedy and remembrance on a bi-cultural family.
Artists & Love: Gerda Taro and Robert Capa - Capa and Taro were the perfect combination of two politically active people, united by photography. It’s also the tale of unbridled love that did not withstand the ravages of war.
Artists & Love: Lee Miller and Man Ray - Man Ray and Lee Miller is the story of a passionate love affair which revealed the talents of an artist who was overlooked by the public for too long.
A Better Life - Returning to Todos Santos after 30 years, a look at the profound economic and social changes that have transformed this Guatemalan Mayan village.
Boyamba Belgique - The day before Congo gained independence, the sabre of the Belgian king Baudouin was stolen by a young Congolese. Fifty years later the filmmakers search for him, and discover the meaning of his act.
Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan - The first film about the Kyrgyz tradition of bride kidnapping takes viewers inside families, to talk with kidnapped brides who have managed to escape as well as those who are making homes with their new husbands.
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Café - This intimate documentary follows an indigenous Mexican family through one critical year of life.
Can't Do It In Europe - Some people travel to Bolivia to go down the dangerous silver mines, to see the medieval work conditions. Are they crawling through the contaminated tunnels to learn about a foreign culture, or to escape boredom?
Cinema Novo - An intricately edited documentary composed of film clips from the major works of the Brazilian "Cinema Novo" movement and period interviews with its leading filmmakers.
Congo in Four Acts - A quartet of short films (on one dvd) that lay bare the reality of everyday life in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Delphine's Prayers - A portait of Delphine, a Cameroonian woman who turned to prostitution to support her family.
A Distant Thud in the Jungle - In Papua New Guinea, local tribes are caught in a cycle of poverty due to oil companies looking for new fields and tourists in search of exoticism.
Division of Hearts - Ordinary people from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh recount their tumultuous experiences after the 1947 British subdivision of colonial India.
Dreaming of a Tree House - An exploration of the design and philosophy behind a 20 year-old experimental, ecological collective housing project in the center of Berlin.
Dreams Rewired - Tilda Swinton's narration and a treasure trove of rare archival footage trace the origins of today's hyper-connected world.
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East Punk Memories - Punks who struggled with Hungary's communist regime discuss their experiences, music and mohawks.
Egg Cream - The beloved chocolate soda drink, born in immigrant neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th century, is explored in this short film about a simple beverage and its meaning to generations of Jewish Americans.
Eight Films by Jean Rouch - Eight of the legendary filmmaker’s key works in a 4-disc boxset, with a 24-page booklet and bonus film about Rouch in Africa. Newly restored!
Eternity Has No Door of Escape - A history of "outsider art" or "art brut" spontaneously produced by self-taught creators on the fringes of society.
Everything Must Come to Light - This documentary focuses on the lives of three dynamic lesbians sangomas (traditional healers) living in Soweto, South Africa.
Everything's Fine - Seydou Konaté is a doctor in a remote area in Mali. But he is at the center of a global issue: bringing quality health care to rural people left behind by development.
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The Film of Her - A Library of Congress clerk tries to save early cinematic treasures in Bill Morrison's doc-fiction hybrid. Music by Henryk Gorecki & Bill Frisell.
For the Best and for the Onion! - A verite documentary that captures the rhythms of agricultural life in Niger, and how the vagaries of market price and harvest can affect the most intimate personal decisions.
Forever - A poignant tour of the importance of art in the lives of visitors to the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the final resting place for legendary writers, composers, painters and other artists from around the world.
Future of Mud - This is the story of Komusa Tenapo, master mason and heir to the secrets of Djenne architecture, the traditional use of mud in Malian buildings.
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Ghost Town - A remote village in southwest China is haunted by traces of its cultural past while its residents piece together their existence.
Gringo Trails - A global survey of the impacts on cultures, economies, and the environment of the most powerful globalizing force of our time: tourism.
The Grocer's Son, the Mayor, the Village and the World - A group of people have gathered in what used to be the village grocery store. Among the vineyards in rural France, they are trying to start a platform for broadcasting documentary films.
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Hamou-Beya, Sand Fishers - For generations the Bozo people of Mali lived along the banks of the Niger river, fishing for their livelihood. But now...
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror - After a century of films that caricatured, sidelined, and finally embraced them, this film traces a secret history of Black Americans and their connection to the horror-film genre.
The Human Pyramid - At a lycée on the Ivory coast, Jean Rouch meets with white colonial French high school students and their black African classmates (all non-actors) and persuades them to improvise a drama.
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Ice - An innovative independent thriller, shot in New York City, which centers on a revolutionary group plotting to attack a fascistic political regime.
Inside Out - Transsexuals in Iran. Intimate conversations with doctors, religious authorities, and transsexuals about the mind/body conflict, Islamic interpretations, and the impact of sex-change treatments on their lives.
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J'y Crois - I Believe In It - A beautifully composed political documentary investigating the decentralization process in Mali.
Jaguar - In Jean Rouch's collaborative ethnofiction, three Nigerien men journey to Accra for work.
Jamilia - The film, set in Kyrgyzstan, is a search for Jamilia, the title character in the novella by Chinghiz Aitmatov about a young woman who rebels against the rules of Kyrgyz society.
A documentary about Jean Rouch, his films, and his influence on African cinema.
Journey to the West - Six countries in 10 days! A group of Chinese tourists visits Europe at whirlwind speed.
Justice at Agadez - Agadez, Niger: Alongside the laws of the state, another judicial system exists. The living heritage of the Muslim tradition.
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Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation - The two South African artists speak frankly about their work, their studio practice, their inspirations, and the challenges of success.
Las Leonas - Following the lives of immigrant women on a soccer team in Rome.
The Last Angel of History - An engaging and searing examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology. (from the Jan., 1998 Catalog Supplement)
Le Joli Mai - Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's legendary portrait of Paris and Parisians at the close of the Algerian war.
The Life and Times of Sara Baartman - Kidnapped from South Africa in 1810 and "exhibited" around Great Britain, Sara Baartman was treated as a scientific curiosity.
The Lion Hunters - Jean Rouch's self-reflexive depiction of lion hunting among the Songhay people of Niger, and the social structure that underlies it.
Little By Little - Jean Rouch brings his Nigerien collaborators to France to perform a reverse ethnography of late-1960s Parisian life.
Living Memory - About Mali's ancient culture, and this culture's position in the country today. Exposes tensions in a society assailed by modernization, Islam and global tourism, yet confident that it will maintain its own distinctive character.
Lomax the Songhunter - Alan Lomax (1915-2002) traveled the world with his recording equipment, capturing folk songs.
The Loving Story - Oscar-shortlist selection, this is the definitive account of Loving v. Virginia, the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage.
The Mad Masters - Jean Rouch's essential and controversial work is a classic of ethnographic cinema.
Madam Phung's Last Journey - Madam Phung and her transgender singers travel around Vietnam, sparking fascination and hostility from the local people.
Magic Radio - In Niger, where more than 80% of the population is illiterate, radio is the main means of mass communication.
Mali Blues - Four dynamic Malian musicians use their music to stand up to religious extremism.
Malick Sidibé - Short but sweet look at the work of the renowned African artist whose photographs have documented social and cultural changes in Mali over a forty-year period.
Mambar Pierrette - Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Rosine Mbakam's narrative film debut about a seamstress facing a series of misfortunes.
Mammy Water - A gentle portrait by Jean Rouch of the spiritual traditions of a fishing village in the Gulf of Guinea.
Markie in Milwaukee - A 7-foot-tall Midwestern evangelical minister struggles with transgender identity under pressures from a conservative church, community, wife and children.
Matter Out of Place - Nikolaus Geyrhalter follows waste to the shores, mountains, and ocean floor.
Metal and Melancholy - Roving the city of Lima, Peru, Heddy Honigmann meets teachers, actors, professionals, civil servants and many others who have turned to taxi driving to earn enough to get by.
Middletown - This classic series, created by Emmy and Academy Award winner Peter Davis, explores both the continuity and the change embodied in the people and institutions of one Midwestern community: Muncie, Indiana.
Milestones - A lilting, free-associative masterpiece that follows dozens of characters as they try to reconcile their ideals with the realities of American life.
Moi, Un Noir - In this landmark documentary, Jean Rouch collaborates with his subjects to produce a complex portrait of Nigerien migrants in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire.
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Nefertiti's Daughters - Female street artists are on the front lines in the fight for freedom in Egypt today.
One evening in the 1980s, Qiu Fu, a leading clown-role actor in 20th-century Sichuan opera, is killed in an accident and must reluctantly set off for the Ghost City.
Northern Light - A beautiful and candid portrait of the American working class experience set against the backdrop of a town's snowmobile race.
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Of Shadows - Set in China’s Loess Plateau, Of Shadows captures the liveliness and resilience of a local traveling group of shadow-play artists.
Our Newspaper - A couple starts their own newspaper in rural Russia... which lands them in danger.
Outerborough - A trolley traveling over the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899 helped create the footage underlying Bill Morrison's neo-travelogue. Music by Todd Reynolds.
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Paris Calligrammes - Artist and filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger resurrects the old Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Latin Quarter of 1960s Paris.
Paul Gauguin - Paul Gauguin's life, from Brittany to Tahiti, is illustrated by his paintings and extracts from his diary.
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Red Persimmons - A visually elegant paean to the cultivation and harvesting of the sweet red fruit, and the disappearance of a traditional way of life in rural Japan.
Release - Al Capone's release from prison is eagerly awaited by a crowd in Bill Morrison's split-screen panorama. Music by Vijay Iyer.
The Return of Sara Baartman - After years of unsettling negotiation with France, South Africa finally welcomes home the remains of Sara Baartman in an historic event of repatriation.
Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind - Chronicles Ruth Stone's heroic life story as a poet, mother, and teacher, leaving no question as to why she became both a Vermont and national treasure.
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Saints and Spirits - Explores the personal dimensions of Islam during three religious events in Morocco.
Sankara's Orphans - In 1986, 600 orphans and rural children from Burkina-Faso were sent to Cuba with the mission of learning a trade so they could come back and develop their country, which was undergoing a Revolution. But after the assassination in 1987 of the country's president and the end of the Cold War, how were they to return?
School of Babel - Welcome to a unique Parisian program for immigrant children from all over the world.
Spears From All Sides - Continuing the story started in TRINKETS AND BEADS (1995), in Ecuador, the Waorani people resist the destruction of one of most remote and beautiful areas of the world.
Stolen Land - Illustrates the decades-long often violent resistance movement of the indigenous Nasa people of Colombia over rights to their native land.
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Ta'ang - The daily life of Ta'ang refugees, a Burmese ethnic minority who are caught between a civil war and the Chinese border.
Todos Santos: The Survivors - Demonstrates how the political turmoil of the 1980s affected this once quiet Guatemalan village.
Togoland Projections - A film director shows long forgotten, historical footage of Togo to modern day audiences.
Travels in the Congo - In 1925, novice French filmmaker Marc Allégret headed to equatorial Africa, on a journey to film the people of the Congo region.
Trinkets and Beads - The oil company MAXUS and Huaroni Indians of the Amazon.
Trouble Sleep - A freewheeling urban portrait of two young men in Nigeria.
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What If Babel Was Just a Myth? - The societies that populate the heart of the African continent form such a mosaic that it is not uncommon to meet villagers speaking six to seven languages. But how much longer will this last?
Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam - When two American sisters travel north from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, conversations with Vietnamese strangers and friends reveal to them the flip side of a shared history.
White Balls on Walls - Go behind-the-scenes as the staff at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Musuem strives to diversify their art collection, where 90% of the art was made by white men.
Winter Nomads - Modern-day shepards Pascal and Carole bring 800 sheep on a snow-covered odyssey.
The World According to Russia Today - The channel Russia Today was launched in 2005 to bring the Russian perspective on world events to a global audience.
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Xu Bing: Phoenix - Documents the process of creating Xu Bing's monumental bird sculpture through to its installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA).
More Films & DVDs for Cultural Anthropology
Arab Diaries - A five-part documentary series that presents a fresh, insightful picture of contemporary life across the Arab world.
Awakening from Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997 - Documents the power to transform pain into action and to lift the veil of repression that has gripped a generation of young people orphaned by Argentina's 'Dirty War.'
Bruly Bouabré's Alphabet - In the 1950's, Ivory Coast artist Bruly Bouabré created hundreds of pictograms based on one-syllable words in his language, Bété.
Celso and Cora - A young couple and their two children living in a squatter settlement in the Philippines' capital, Manila.
The Cow Jumped Over the Moon - The story of Fulani cattle herders in West Africa using U.S. satellite imaging technology to find grazing and water for their herds during drought.
Cracks in the Mask - A Torres Strait Islander sets out on a voyage of discovery to the great museums of Europe where his cultural heritage now lies.
Disco and Atomic War - The Soviet regime in Estonia went head to head with J.R. Ewing and the heroes of Western television...and lost.
The Dreamers of Arnhem Land - The two Aboriginal elders who set out to save their community from cultural extinction by combining traditional knowledge and contemporary scientific expertise.
Elsewhere - An epic journey through voices and sounds from elsewhere. Landscapes, outlooks on the world, outlooks on life: Desert, snow, valley, jungle, ice, rainforest. An homage to humanity at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Five Centuries Later - Examines the current status of Central American aboriginal civilizations, five hundred years after they were "conquered" by European invaders.
From Opium to Chrysanthemums - The Hmong, in Southeast Asia and America - struggling to preserve essential aspects of their culture, while coping with the enormous changes forced upon them.
The Invisible Frame - A filmic journey starring Tilda Swinton as she traces the former Berlin Wall via bicycle.
Mabo - Life of an Island Man - Traces the story of the life of an extraordinary man, one whose struggle for land rights, and his remarkable life in general, had a profound effect on indigenous rights in Australia.
Mayan Voices: American Lives - Contrasts the experiences of Mayan families who came to Indiantown, Florida as refugees fleeing the violence in Guatemala in the early 1980s, with the struggles of those continuing to arrive in search of better lives.
The Passion of María Elena - Following the hit-and-run death of her son, Maria Elena, a young woman from Mexico's Raramuri community, embarks upon an eye-opening journey from grief to unexpected spiritual resolution.
The Pirates of Bubuan - Shohei Imamura's look at rival gangs of pirates in the Philippines.
Red Hat - Where Are You Going? - An examination of the socio-political role of the Mossi chiefs in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.
Since the Company Came - In the Solomon Islands extensive logging forces the Haporai people to confront social, cultural and ecological disintegration.
Stories of Honor and Shame - Through a series of remarkable personal accounts, fifteen women reveal their roles in the patriarchal Islamic society of the Gaza Strip where men dictate most aspects of life.
The Sugar Curtain - An intimate portrait by Camila Guzmán Urzúa about growing up in Cuba during the "golden years" of the Cuban Revolution.
Tambogrande - Follows the efforts of a small Peruvian town over five years as they fight government efforts to sell the mineral rights under their homes to a multi-national mining company.
Taxi to Timbuktu - Men from Mali seek work in New York, Paris, and Tokyo.
The Tombstone Opening - The Torres Strait Islanders are Australia's 'other' Indigenous minority, Melanesians living on islands north of Cape York and now scattered all across Australia.
Winds of Memory - Filmed over three years, WINDS OF MEMORY reveals Mayan life and culture in Guatemala today, five centuries after the "discovery" of America.
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