1. Lords of the Forest (Les Seigneurs de la forêt)
Documentary about the inhabitants, both human and animal, of the Belgian Congo. Released in 1958.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
2. Ether Reveries (Suite for Thérèse Rivière no.2)
Drawing together footage, photographs and texts from archival sources as well as the artist’s personal collection of materials, Yto Barrada’s new film is as much a poetic enigma as it is a portrait of identity. Ether Reveries takes as its starting point the work and life of Thérèse Rivière , a French anthropologist whose remarkable working life was cut short following her confinement in psychiatric institutions.
3. Forest of the Dancing Spirits (De dansande andarnas skog)
“In the beginning, women lived apart, unaware of the existence of men. Until one day, when the first woman, Toli, who was brave and adventurous traveled deep into the forest. Toli discovered solitary creatures with big muscles who knew how to climb trees and harvest wild honey. When Toli tasted their honey, she thought they should all live together….” That is how one of the creation stories of the Aka people from the tropical rainforest of the Congo Basin goes. Akaya, Kengole, Dibota and their friends and family are hunters-gatherers who guide us through their world. They explain their origins, myths, and the very spiritual meaning of life.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
4. The Peacekeepers
With unprecedented access to the UN Department of Peacekeeping, The Peacekeepers provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the struggle to save "a failed state" The film follows the determined and often desperate maneuvers to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo . Focusing on the UN mission, the film cuts back and forth between the UN headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the "Crisis Room" as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. In the background, but often impinging on peacekeeping decisions, are the painful memory of Rwanda, the worsening crisis in Iraq, global terrorism, and American hegemony in world affairs.
5. Danse d'hommes
African men dance, sing and play instruments.
It has an average vote of 4.3 on TMDB.
6. Japan in Feast (Japan I Fest)
An actuality film showing a Buddhist festival in Kyoto. The procession includes Buddhist monks, geishas, and others dressed coordinately to the Japanese tradition.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
7. Kongoveteranerna (Kongoveteranerna)
Over 6,000 men served and 19 fell in the Congo Battalion , Sweden's most dramatic and contentious UN operation. Many of the participants have borne the experience as a lifelong, well-hidden trauma. A visit to the Congo after fifty years causes some of them to finally open up and tell the things that they haven't even been able to say to their closest family.
8. L'île de Pâques (L'île de Pâques)
The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work. The film, directed with melodramatic gusto and featuring a full orchestral score by Maurice Jaubert , shows islanders, the monuments, and a public dance. A theme of decay and decadence characterizes the film, the motif portrayed gruesomely by extensive close-ups of the inhabitants of the leper colony there at the time. The film suited a romantic image of a mysterious lost civilization, the survivors eking out a pitiful existence on a barren rock.
9. Carving Thy Faith (Pag-ukit sa Paniniwala)
A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconographies, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes production processes before becoming a spiritual object of devotion. - A sculpture believed to have been imported in town during Spanish colonial conquest, locally known as Mahal na Señor Sepulcro, is celebrating its 500 years. Meanwhile, composed of non-actors, Senakulo re-enacts the sufferings and death of Jesus. As the local community yearly unites to commemorate the Passion of Christ, a laborious journey unfolds following local craftsmen in transforming blocks of wood into a larger than life Jesus crucified on a 12-ft cross.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
10. Divoké kmeny Etiopie (Divoké kmeny Etiopie)
(Divoké kmeny Etiopie)
11. The Hunters
An ethnographic film that documents the efforts of four !Kung men to hunt a giraffe in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia. The footage was shot by John Marshall during a Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody sponsored expedition in 1952–53. In addition to the giraffe hunt, the film shows other aspects of !Kung life at that time, including family relationships, socializing and storytelling, and the hard work of gathering plant foods and hunting for small game.
It has an average vote of 6.083 on TMDB.
12. Hope Has A Name
In urban America, the bush of Africa, the war zone of the Congo, and in closed nations there are women who are living outside their own cultures, society, and comfort level to care for orphans, build schools, liberate addicts, feed the poor, and love the broken. These ordinary women are reaching into hopeless situations of people and creating hope.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
13. Melodies of the mountains (Мелодии гор)
Film about the singing and dancing culture of the Ingush people
14. Kwaheri
Early Mondo film featuring primitive rituals, animals being butchered, unusual birth defects, and a legit trepanation scene.
It has an average vote of 5.1 on TMDB.
15. Africa Addio (Africa Addio)
A documentary about the end of the colonial era in Africa, portraying acts of animal poaching, violence, executions, and tribal slaughter.
It has an average vote of 6.306 on TMDB.
16. Prince
A man performs the same ritual every day: he cleans his shoes, dresses up in his shiny blue suit, wears his white gloves and grey hat, and spends his time walking around Brazzaville. His presence generates an absurd apparition in the urban chaos of the city, which reflects the imaginary produced by one of the upmost icons of pop culture.
17. Folia no Morro
An ethnographic documentary following the Folia de Reis party that is celebrated every year at Morro de Santa Marta on Rio de Janeiro.
18. Congo
An experimental ethnographic documentary that criticizes the colonizer view of anthropology.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
19. Coeur noir, homme blanc (Coeur noir, homme blanc)
(Coeur noir, homme blanc)
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
20. Himalayan Herders
John Bishop and Naomi Bishop present a portrait a peculiar life style of the Himalayan indigenous Sherpa people in their documentary , the Himalayan Herders. The 76 minutes long film is about the diverse culture and life style of herders community near Mt. Everest region of Nepal.The film was made in 1997 as a part of Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology Series.