[Commlist] ethnographic documentary festival - RAI Film Festival

    The *RAI Film Festival
    <https://raifilm.org.uk/festivals/2025/>* celebrates its 40th
    anniversary this year – making it one of the longest-running and
    largest ethnographic documentary festivals in the world. The event
    takes place this week (!) from *11 to 15 June at Watershed and
    Arnolfini in Bristol*. An *online* version will follow, running from
    *16 June to 16 July*, available *worldwide* (with a few exceptions).
    Organised by the *Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain
    and Ireland* since 1985, this edition features *94 films from 36
    countries*, including *14 World Premieres and 39 UK premieres*,
    spanning a wide spectrum of productions, from observational
    documentary and essay film to radical experimentations and
    community-rooted collaborations. In addition to our *seven
    competition awards*, we present* four special strands* that delve
    into core thematic concerns. The activities also include filmmaker
    Q&As, in-depth panel discussions, seminars, and a workshop, all
    contributing to a rich, diverse, and thought-provoking experience.
    *Please find some highlights at the end of this message.*
    This year’s curatorial theme *Looking Back, Looking Forward* invites
    us to reflect on the rich legacy of visual anthropology and
    documentary film, as well as the evolving possibilities of the
    discipline today. We look to the past with critical insight, while
    turning toward the future with curiosity and urgency. How are
    contemporary filmmakers reworking narratives, innovating cinematic
    language, and revisiting archives to respond to the complexities of
    the present? Two decades on, we ask again: where have we come from —
    and where are we going next?

    You can find all the details here:
    https://raifilm.org.uk/festivals/2025/
    <https://raifilm.org.uk/festivals/2025/>

    It's possible to buy passes as well as individual tickets. We can
    also discuss bundle tickets for universities at a *discounted rate*.
    Please write to (_film /at/ therai.org.uk) <mailto:(film /at/ therai.org.uk)>_ to
    learn more.

    ***

    *FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
    *
    *The Lifetime Achievement Award* is presented to *Melissa
    Llewelyn-Davies *(1945–2025), a pioneering feminist anthropologist
    and filmmaker who has left behind an extraordinary legacy that
    continues to shape the fields of ethnographic film and visual
    anthropology. A tribute will include the special screening of */The
    Women’s Olamal /*and a panel discussion on her legacy convened by
    Michael Stewart, Angela Torresan and André Singer.

    This year’s opening film and *President’s Award* recipient is */God
    Is a Woman /*(dir. Andrés Peyrot, 2023), screening as a UK premiere
    following its acclaimed debut at the Venice Film Festival. This
    poignant, multi-layered documentary follows the journey of the
    indigenous Kuna community in Panama as they recover a lost 1970s
    film made about them, and unfolds into a powerful meditation on
    cultural memory and the right of indigenous peoples to reclaim their
    image. The director will be in attendance for a Q&A hosted by Lorena
    Pino.

    The debates proposed by */God Is a Woman/*//will be strongly
    explored in two specially curated strands: *Echoes from the
    Archive* and *Decolonial Revisions*. The former tackles the power
    and politics of archival film, bringing among its unmissable events
    the world premiere of */The Queen of the Hills/* (1988-2025), by
    David & Judith MacDougall, and a *workshop* convened by the duo Toma
    Serban Peiu and Luiza Parvu. The latter showcases foregrounding
    films that challenge colonial narratives, such as */A Century After
    Nanook/* (2025), where the director Kirk French revisits Inukjuak, a
    hundred years after Robert Flaherty’s 1922 referential film */Nanook
    of the North/*.

    The RAIFF will also welcome *Bruce Parry* in conversation with the
    Chair of the RAI Film Committee Judith Aston. A filmmaker known for
    his immersive documentaries with Indigenous peoples, Parry
    will reflect on his BBC series */Tribe/*, questioning how television
    can adapt — ethically and creatively — to changing times, and what
    lessons can be drawn from engagement with multifarious ways of
    living and storytelling.

    The vast array of contemporary documentary filmmaking goes from the
    festival-favourite */Avant-Drag!/* (Fil Ieropoulos, 2023, Greece) to
    the captivating hidden gem */Broken Bones/* (Alireza Memariani,
    2023, Iran), in addition to the impressive debut by Georgian
    filmmaker Elene Mikaberidze */Blueberry Dreams/* (2024) and the
    playful*Canuto’s Transformation* (Ariel Duarte Ortega & Ernesto de
    Carvalho, 2023, Brazil).
    Stories that focus on different ways of perceiving the world
    constitute another strong topic across the programme. Multiple
    titles engage with challenging conventional methodologies of
    storytelling and sensorial cinema such as *Dysfluent
    Journeys* (Cathy Soreny & Stories Beyond Words Collective, 2024) and
    *When the Crows Walk Home* (Rosa Prosser, 2023).

    Check the full programme here:
    https://raifilm.org.uk/festivals/2025/

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