Films available from the RAI
The Royal Anthropological Institute has a dedicated film department and maintains an extensive catalogue of films available to rent or buy. We currently have several films in the catalogue and are working to acquire more.
Sermiligaaq 65°54’N, 36°22’W
64 minutes / Colour / 2008
Directed by
Anni Seitz, Sophie Elixhauser
Anthropologist Sophie Elixhauser
Country of production Germany
Sermiligaaq 65°54’N, 36°22’W (Trailer) by Anni Seitz and Sophie Elixhauser from Anni Seitz on Vimeo.
Buy film
The people of East Greenland inhabit a small string of coastal land at the edge of the biggest island of the world. Long winters have always shaped daily life here, a life that has gone within a few generations from earth house to modernity, complete with helicopters, satellite TV and alcohol. This documentary shows us East Greenland today, the village in summer and winter, the family between seal hunting and computer games. It lets us experience in clear and poetical scenes normality in an extraordinary world, quietly observing events, faces, gestures that combine to form a portrait that is at the same time strange and strangely familiar.
Are you Listening!
90 minutes / Colour / 2012
Directed by Kamar Ahmad Simon
Country of production Bangladesh
By the coastal belts of Bangladesh, in a small village named Sutarkhali, Rakhi, 27, lives with her husband Soumen, 32, and their 6 year-old son Rahul. Fighting against all the odds of the woods, along with around a 100 families, they have cultivated the land for generations. On May 25, 2009 when Rahul was only 4 years old, a tidal surge hit the coastal belts of Bangladesh. For Rakhi, Soumen and Rahul, life is not the same anymore. ‘Are You Listening!’ is about Rakhi’s hope to ensure a dignified future for her son Rahul. It’s about her jobless husband Soumen’s frustration for failing to provide for his family, and about a community’s struggle to get back the land they have lost.
Other films
Kivalina
64 minutes/2016/Savor Terra Films
Directed by Gina Abatemarco
The tiny Alaskan island of Kivalina lies 80 miles above the Arctic Circle and is home to 400 Iñupiaq Eskimos whose ties to the region date back centuries. Here, food is central to community, and a spirit of collaboration presides. Family members gather to prepare caribou meat on their living room floor, and villagers broadcast news about a recent walrus catch over a loudspeaker, encouraging anyone who wants fresh meat to show up with a bag. But thinning ice, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion endanger this traditional way of life—hunting is growing harder, and Kivalina is disappearing into the Arctic Ocean. This quiet depiction of a community at a crossroads takes us from a teen dance night to church service to public meetings with U.S. government officials, who for decades have reneged on promises to relocate the village. By turns intimate and cinematic, Kivalina conveys the heart of a persevering people connected to their land and to each other.
KIVALINA – trailer from Gina Abatemarco on Vimeo.
The Anthropologist
78 minutes/2015
Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger of Ironbound Films.
THE ANTHROPOLOGIST examines climate change like no other film before. The fate of the planet is considered from the perspective of American teenager Katie Crate. Over the course of five years, she travels alongside her mother Susie, an anthropologist studying the impact of climate change on indigenous communities. Their journey parallels that of renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead, who for decades sought to understand how global change affects remote cultures.
The Age of Stupid
2009 / Spanner Films
Directed by Fanny Armstrong
The Age of Stupid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off) as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Age of Stupid: Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer from SPANNER FILMS on Vimeo.
There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho
2010, Director: Briar March
www.thereoncewasanisland.com
What if you had to leave your home forever? Takuu, a tiny atoll in Papua New Guinea, contains the last Polynesian culture of its kind. Facing escalating climate-related impacts, including a terrifying flood, community members Teloo, Endar, and Satty, take us on an intimate journey to the core of their lives and dreams. Will they relocate to war-ravaged Bougainville – becoming environmental refugees – or fight to stay? Two visiting scientists investigate on the island, leading audience and community to a greater understanding of climate change.
Trailer for There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho from On The Level Productions on Vimeo.
Thank you for the rain
Kisilu Musya and Julia Dahr /2017
http://thankyoufortherain.com/
Five years ago Kisilu, a Kenyan farmer, started to use his camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the damages of climate change. When a violent storm throws him and a Norwegian filmmaker together we see him transform from a father, to community leader to an activist on the global stage. Thank You For The Rain addresses a range of issues linked to climate change, including climate justice, urbanization, gender equality, education, access to water, climate refugees, and adaptation.