Documentaries - Ethnographic Films
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- DirectorTimothy AschNapoleon A. ChagnonA documentary in which an ax fight breaks out during a dispute between tribes in a Yanomami village.
- DirectorEdgar MorinJean RouchStarsAngeloNadine BallotCatherineA documentary about the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians, done in the style of cinéma vérité.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsOumarou GandaGambiPetit Touré"I, a Negro" depicts young Nigerien immigrants who left their country to find work in the Ivory Coast, in the Treichville quarter of Abidjan, the capital. These immigrants live in squalor in Treichville, envious of the bordering quarters of The Plateau (the business and industrial district) and the old African quarter of Adjame. The film traces a week in these immigrants' lives, blurring the line between their characters' routines and their own. Every morning, Tarzan, Eddy Constantine and Edward G. Robinson seek work in Treichville in hopes of getting the 20 francs that a bowl of soup costs them. They perform menial jobs as dockers carrying sacks and handy labor shipping supplies to Europe. At night, they drink away their sorrows in bars while dreaming about their idealized lives as their "movie" alter-egos, alternatively as an FBI Agent, a womanizing bachelor, a successful boxer, and even able to stand up to the white colonialists that seduce away their women. These dream-like sequences are shot in a poetic mode. Each day is introduced by an interstitial voice of god omniscient narration from Jean Rouch, providing a universal thematic distance to the movie's events. The film is book-ended by a narration directed at both Petit Jules and the audience from Edward G. Robinson fondly looking back on his childhood in Niger and concluding that his life is worthy of his dreams.
- DirectorJoris PostemaStarsMugabo BaritegeraGanza BurokoGaïus KoweneBased on the struggle of young people in Goma (Northeastern Congo) against the prevailing Western reporting about war and misery, Stop Filming Us investigates how these Western stereotypes are the result of a skewed balance of power. Stop Filming Us creates a cinematic dialogue between Western perceptions and the Congolese experience of reality. While the Congolese perspective becomes increasingly clearer in the film, questions arise about the perspective of the film itself; is a white director able to make a film about the new Congolese image or is it primarily a story created by his own Western perspective?
- DirectorJRAgnès VardaStarsAgnès VardaJRJeannine CarpentierDirector Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorKimon TsakirisStarsGiannis AntonopoulosSpyros BilionisGiorgos BousbourasWith a view to the elections, the mayor of the Greek city of Sugartown has promised women to his people. But where can he get them? Sugartown numbers 12,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are bachelors. The women move away in droves to work or get married in the big city. "No marriages, no christening ceremonies, just funerals," the local priest complains. Fortunately, the borders with Eastern Europe have opened up in recent years. There, many women are longing for a new future with a foreign man. After considering Ukraine and Moldavia, the gentlemen of Sugartown decide to head for the Russian city of Klin. A Greek businessman operating in Russia has lined it all up for them. Meanwhile, the Greek men prepare themselves at home: they buy new clothes, go to the barber, get some physical exercise and rehearse the phrase "I love you" in Russian. Nevertheless, the language barrier still gets in the way when the men and women try to get to know each other. The Russian-Orthodox priest, who had expected to make a nice little profit, also threatens to throw a monkey wrench in the works. Still, the ladies pay a return visit to Sugartown, where it doesn't take them long to understand why these men have so much trouble finding wives.
- DirectorEva StefaniThe film depicts the life at the Larissa Railway station in Athens in the spring of 1995. The camera focuses on the station's 'tenants', Antonia, Florakis and George.
- DirectorDaniel RoherStarsAlexei NavalnyYulia NavalnayaChristo GrozevFollows the man who survived an assassination attempt by poisoning with a lethal nerve agent in August 2020. During his months-long recovery he makes shocking discoveries about the attempt on his life and decides to return home.
- DirectorMahdi FleifelA conversation between two friends about the effectiveness and implications of publicly supporting the cultural boycott of Israel. One friend is wracked with worry having signed a petition asking Radiohead not to play Tel Aviv, the other is more sanguine. Their conversation offers a glimpse of what it is to be a Palestinian in today's world.
- DirectorEva StefaniStarsDimitra KanellopoulouThe life of Dimitra K, a sex worker and a sindicalist in Greece. We see episodes from her life at the brothel she runs and her life with her 17 dogs
- DirectorAndrea ArnoldStarsLin GallagherA close-up portrait of the daily lives of two cows.
- DirectorBill Ross IVTurner RossStarsPeter ElwellMichael MartinShay WalkerA look at the final moments of a Las Vegas dive bar called 'The Roaring 20s'.
- DirectorPaloma Sermon-DaïStarsDamien SamediYsma Sermon-DaïLeonard CohenThis documentary about addiction is seen through the eyes of a mother and her son.
- StarsAgnès VardaSandrine BonnaireHervé ChandèsAgnès Varda, photographer, installation artist and pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague, is an institution of French cinema. Taking a seat on a theatre stage, she uses photos and film excerpts to provide an insight into her unorthodox oeuvre.
- DirectorThanos AnastopoulosDavide Del DeganL'ULTIMA SPIAGGIA (The Last resort) describes the life and tells the stories of beach-goers revolving around a very popular beach located in Trieste, in the Northeast of Italy, where a wall still separates men from women. A film about boundaries, identities and discrimination. A tragicomedy on human nature.
- DirectorDimitris KoutsiabasakosStarsKostas AnastasiouNikos AnastasiouSofia AnastasiouA 'road-movie' documentary about Pindus Mountains and their people.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsTerence DaviesGeorge HarrisonJack HawkinsA filmmaker looks at the history and transformation of his birthplace, Liverpool, England.
- DirectorDennis O'RourkeWhen tourists journey to the furthermost reaches of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, is it the indigenous tribespeople or the white visitors who are the cultural oddity? This film explores the difference (and the surprising similarities) that emerge when "civilized" and "primitive" people meet. With dry humor and acute observation CANNIBAL TOURS explodes cultural assumptions as it provides a pointed look at a fabulous phenomenon.
- DirectorDennis O'RourkeCunnamulla, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane, is the end of the railway line. In the months leading up to a scorching Christmas in the bush, there's a lot more going on than the annual lizard race. Here, Aboriginal and white Australians live together but apart. Creativity struggles against indifference, eccentricity against conformity.
- DirectorChris PaineStarsMartin SheenTom HanksMel GibsonA documentary that investigates the birth and death of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and sustainable living in the future.