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Anthropology (2/6)
Ethnographic documentaries about people, cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, Papua New Guinea, Okinawa, India, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Sardinia, and Australia.
EVER THE LAND
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 93 min
EVER THE LAND explores the bond between people and their land through the landmark design and construction of a unique "Living Building" by one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most passionately independent Maori tribes, Ngai Tuhoe. more
EXILE AND THE KINGDOM
1993 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 110 min
The experiences of a community of Aboriginal people from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. The re-release of the award-winning feature documentary from 1993, made with the YINDJIBARNDI, NGARLUMA, BANYJIMA and GURRAMA people of Roebourne, Western Australia. more
FAMILIAR PLACES [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1980 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 50 min
Mapping traditional clan country in north Queensland. more
GANDHI'S CHILDREN
2008 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 185 min
GANDHI'S CHILDREN is an award-winning film by David MacDougall about abandoned or orphaned boys living in a charitable Home in one of the poorer quarters of New Delhi, India, building a society of their own within the institutional environment. more
GOGODALA: A Cultural Revival?
1976 (G) 58 min
The stormy history of the Gogodala people earlier this century, and the attempts in the 1970s to revive their culture, form the basis for this superbly photographed film by Chris Owen. more
GOOD-BYE OLD MAN [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1977 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 66 min
A Tiwi Island Bereavement Ceremony. more
HATOMA FILMS, THE
1983 (G) 119 min
NOW DIGITALLY REMASTERED - A series of four films by Australian filmmaker Solrun Hoaas, about the tiny depopulated island of Hatoma, in Okinawa, Southern Japan. more
HERE'S MY HAND: A testimony to an Aboriginal Memorial
1988 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
A film by Michael Edols. Available on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand as part of the ASPECTS OF A LIFE collection. more
HILLMEN, THE - a Soccer Fable
1996 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
A story about cross-cultural relationships, the generation gap and what it's like to lose. ... A film by Steve Thomas. WINNER! BEST TV DOCUMENTARY in the AFI Awards,1996. more
HOLDING TIGHTLY - Custom and Healing in Timor-Leste
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 30 min
Holding Tightly observes seven approaches to healing in remote, rural and urban parts of the Baucau municipality in Timor-Leste, spanning contexts and experiences from the armed resistance era to the independence period. A film by Lisa Palmer and Susanna Barnes. more
HOMELAND STORY
2019 (M) 84 min
An intimate portrait of Donydji, an Indigenous Homeland community in north-east Arnhem Land. The film charts their struggle from the 1960s to the present day to overcome the corrosive effects of government policy and pressure from mining interests, and to remain on their land. more
HOUSE-OPENING, THE [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1980 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 42 min
"House-opening" ceremonies in a contemporary Aboriginal community combine elements of Aboriginal, Torres Strait and European cultures in dealing with death. A film by Judith MacDougall. more
HOW THE WEST WAS LOST
1987 (G) 72 min
NOW RESTORED FROM ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES! The story of the 1946 Aboriginal Pastoral Workers' Strike that has never officially ended. An event more important than the Eureka Stockade but never recorded in written histories - the passive resistance by 800 Aboriginal station workers against the appalling living and working... more
JAPARTA - a Journey to the Gurindji Way
2025 (G) 99 min
The story of a Japanese scholar, Minoru Hokari, who, before his death in 2004 at the age of 32, achieved work which today commands an ever-widening audience. It is a story of cross-cultural understanding, how Gurindji Elders in the Northern Territory tasked Minoru to relay stories from their culture to a wider world. A... more
JOURNEY WEST (BUWARRALA ARYAH)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
In the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, Aboriginal Elders lead their community on a traditional walk across Country to re-connect children and youth to their culture. more
KARLU KARLU: Devil's Marbles [from the CAAMA Collection]
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 21 min
Stories of Karlu Karlu and its handback by the government to the traditional owners. more
KORIAM'S LAW
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 110 min
In Koriam's Law Australian anthropologist Andrew Lattas meets his match in philosopher-informant Peter Avarea of Matong village, Pomio, Papua New Guinea. Driven by their feisty dialogue and with access to sacred ceremonies, the film patiently goes about making sense of that mysterious Pacific phenomenon, the "cargo-cult". more
KOTLA WALKS - performing locality
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 92 min
This film tells the story of the residents of Kotla Mubarakpur, an 'urban village' in South Delhi, focusing on the family of Sarita and Raman Bhardwaj, their friends and neighbours. more
LAKE OF SCARS, THE
2022 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 95 min
A documentary exploring the beautiful, mysterious scarred trees, middens and stone scatters at Lake Boort and surrounds in Victoria, and the story of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, who are working against the clock to preserve and promote what they can. A film presented by the late, great Uncle Jack Charles, more