The people and their labor are bound to the land in the cycle of activities to the sowing to the harvesting of wheat. Without narration or subtitles, the film conveys a sense of unity between the people and the land. Filmed in the Balkh Province, an area inhabited by Tajik and other Central Asian peoples. The town of Aq Kupruk is approximately 320 miles northwest of Kabul. The theme of the film focuses on rural economics. The film and accompaning instructor notes focus on herding, and fishing under diverse environmental conditions. The impact of technological change, human adaptation, and governmental extension of market systems are parallel themes.
Gathering inspiration from the world around him, Claes Oldenburg has dedicated his career to giving objects life. What many would see only as their mundane, everyday tools Oldenburg sees as an opportunity for art. His famed large scale sculptures stand with such stature and force that the viewer has no choice but to become involved with the piece.
COCHENGO MIRANDA is a portrait of a farmer and his family living in the Pampas region of Central Argentina. Made by Jorge Preloran, Argentina's best-known documentary filmmaker, the film is an example of his unique genre of ethnobiography, in which the story of an individual reveals larger truths about a culture and way of life.
This film explores the pressures experienced by Aboriginal women living in the city, and the effect that these pressures also have on their men and their children. In spite of all life's difficulties, the women seem to survive the urban environment better than the men. Their humour, intelligence and resilience in the face of adversity shines through.
One of Curtis Levy’s finest documentaries, Sons of Namatjira, follows Keith and his wife, Isabel, and other relatives, in their interactions with the wider world including art galleries in town and bus-loads of middle-aged tourists from the big cities. The film highlights communication difficulties between black and white, and in Levy’s terms, becomes “a parable of black-white relations in Australia”.
Walrus as well as whales are hunted by the Eskimos of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. As the film opens, an old man tells of the dangers of moving ice, how people used to drift on such ice and never return. A cluster of men stand on a snowy rooftop, scanning the sea ice for walrus, when one spots a skin boat in distress far out on the ice. The crew had not come home the night before, and now were drifting toward Siberia. Long ago, there was nothing that could have been done to save them. Today, the men call the Coast Guard. The next day, preparations for another walrus hunt are made. The hunters load the boat and travel fifty miles out to sea, where they spot two walrus sunning themselves on an ice floe. "Don't move," one hunter tells the camera. The walrus are shot, admired, butchered on the ice, and loaded onto the boat. Back in the village, the meat is cut again and hung to dry.
The Ax Fight (1975) is an ethnographic film by anthropologist and filmmaker Tim Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon about a conflict in a Yanomami village called Mishimishimabowei-teri, in southern Venezuela. It is best known as an iconic and idiosyncratic ethnographic film about the Yanomamo and is frequently shown in classroom settings.
Fighting for Our Lives is a 1975 documentary film produced and directed by Glen Pearcy. The film documents the striking of California grape workers from Coachella to Fresno as they negotiate for a United Farm Workers (UFW) contract in 1973. The film also depicts their non-violent struggle against police brutality on the picket lines. It was nominated for the 1976 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Primate sees realist documentarian Frederick Wiseman hone his lens on the inmates of the Yerkes Primate Research Centre. A representative scientist explains the aims and outcomes of the organisation, describing the mating habits and relationships of the animals.
The people portrayed in this film are called Hamar. They dwell in the thorny scrubland of southwestern Ethiopia, about one hundred miles north of Lake Rudolph, Africa's great inland sea. They are isolated by some distant choice that now limits their movement and defines their condition. At least until recently, it has resulted in their retaining a highly traditional way of life. Hamar women eagerly accept their ritual whipping when boys come of age. Part of that tradition was the open, even flamboyant, observance of male supremacy. In their isolation, they seemed to have refined this not uncommon principle of social organization into a remarkably pure state. Hamar men are masters and their women are slaves. The film tries to disclose the effect on mood and behavior of lives governed by the idea of sexual inequality.
One of the few ethnographic films in which the anthropologist appears as one of the subjects - a lively introduction to the nature of fieldwork. Napoleon Chagnon, who lived among the Yanomamo for 36 months over a period of eight years, is shown in various roles as "fieldworker": entering a village armed with arrows and adorned with feathers; sharing coffee with the shaman Dedeheiwa who recounts the myth of fire; dispensing eyedrops to a baby and accepting in turn a shaman's cure for his own illness; collecting voluminous genealogies; making tapes, maps, Polaroid photos; and attempting to analyze such patterns as YÄ…nomamö village fission, migration, and aggression.
The hopes, fears, and aspirations of adolescence are expressed in the close friendship of two Afghan boys. As their acceptance of the filmmakers leads them to express their feelings more and more openly, the film grows rich in fact and themes of universal concern. Filmed in the Balkh Province, an area inhabited by Tajik and other Central Asian peoples. The town of Aq Kupruk is approximately 320 miles northwest of Kabul.
Three women, varying in ages and therefore perspective, agree that life on a small Chinese island in Hong Kong waters, is better for them now than in the past. They are treated equal to the men in the rigors of manual labor and now participate fully in the island's decision-making and economic life.
A Chinese Farm Wife gives us a peek into the life of Mrs. Li, a Taiwanese woman whose husband is a salaried factory worker. Along with the help of her eldest daughter and her neighbors, Mrs. Li runs their 3-acre farm, cultivating crops of tobacco and rice. She also supervises the children's education and manages the household, and is a full participant in community activities.
Held in 1972 at 533 N. Mariposa Street, Los Angeles was one of the most important cultural events in the United States: "Womanhouse," a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro.
Generally regarded as Australia's finest railway film and winner of many awards the world over, A Steam Train Passes is a nostalgic, imaginative essay on one of the majestic C38 class steam locomotives, 3801. The locomotive has recently returned to service and is currently operating out of the NSW Rail Museum at Thirlmere, south of Sydney.
A short documentary film by ethnographic filmmaker Tim Asch that shows young members of the Yanomamo Indian tribe sharpening their arrow-shooting skills.
An old Bolivian man nears the end of his life. He has property and status, but not contentment. Believing himself posessed by evil spirits, he opens his heart to reveal his anguish. His personal tragedy brings us close to every man's confrontation with the unknown, old age, and death.