Current Films

Taking as an exam­ple the life in a Kirghiz­ian vil­lage high in the moun­tains the film’ s authors are trying to find and con­firm poet­i­cal­ly the eter­nal, unal­ter­able foun­da­tions of … read more

Every­day life of Sam­bu­ru war­riors in their vil­lage in north­ern Kenya: look­ing after the herds, singing women, cel­e­brat­ing a ritual as pro­mo­tion to the status of war­riors. But today’s war­riors … read more

Daily life in the largest public hos­pi­tal in the Repub­lic of Guinea, Donka Hos­pi­tal in Conakry. For six weeks the film­mak­er fol­lows the progress of patients, their fam­i­lies, doc­tors and … read more

It is the story of nomads, shaman­ism and Bud­dhism, stones and spir­its as told through the Kagai-ool family. The par­ents live alone in a yurt, moving between the steppe and … read more

Inca de Oro, a small town in north­ern Chile on the edge of the desert, exact­ly in line with the tropic of Capri­corn. Today, 600 towns people still earn their … read more

The shoot­ing took place in the Saging Hills in Upper Myan­mar, which is twelve miles west across the Irrawad­dy River from the ancient cap­i­tal Man­dalay. Over 10000 monks and nuns … read more

Awara soup is a sort of stew with some oil from the Awara, the fruit of an ordi­nary palm in Guyana. The soup is cooked by the Cre­oles on Easter … read more

RASKOLS is a crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed doc­u­men­tary about the crim­i­nal phe­nom­e­non known as raskolism and its under­ly­ing human rights issues in Papua New Guinea. The film looks at the vio­lent behav­iour … read more

The eating and sleep­ing room of a family, a cow with her head stuck in a milk churn, the wash­ing of a person’s hair, a hungry and tired child in … read more

In early 1989 the Big Men of Birap Vil­lage decid­ed to hold a »Sins­ing Tum­buan« or Mask Dance cer­e­mo­ny at the begin­ning of the dry season of the fol­low­ing year, to end the mourn­ing for three deceased vil­lage elders. The Sings­ing took place in May 1990. This video doc­u­men­tary (three parts in all) por­trays the prepa­ra­tion and per­for­mance of the dance cer­e­mo­ny, illus­trat­ing how such cer­e­monies as the Mask Dance bind the com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er in mutual coop­er­a­tion and inter­de­pen­dence, bridge gender and gen­er­a­tion gaps, and add ‘spice’ to a basi­cal­ly ardu­ous and rou­tine existence. 

This film was made at the request of the chief of the Mask dance cer­e­mo­ny. It was realised with the active par­tic­i­pa­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty. The 170 min. ver­sion is the cul­tur­al his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ment of the cer­e­mo­ny in its entire­ty. It con­tains mate­r­i­al regard­ed as ‘cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive’ in Melane­sian cul­tures. It is the wish of the chief of the Mask Dance cer­e­mo­ny that this ver­sion be made avail­able to people of other coun­tries who wish to acquire a true under­stand­ing of his cul­ture. (There is a short­er 50 min. TV-ver­sion which excludes cer­tain sacred and secret ele­ments for a larger audience.)