Anthropological Films
List activity
4.1K views
• 18 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
34 titles
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorPeter CohenStarsJan HolmquistVladimir LeninTrofim LysenkoHomo Sapiens 1900 is a stunning exploration of the history of eugenics, race hygiene and the quest to improve the human race. Emerging at the turn of the century, eugenic movements spawned government sanctioned research projects
- DirectorMarlon RiggsStarsBarbara T. ChristianGeorge FredericksonLarry C. LevineThis documentary traces the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice.
- DirectorBent HamerStarsTomas NorströmJoachim CalmeyerBjørn FlobergA scientific observer's job of observing an old cantankerous single man's kitchen habits is complicated by his growing friendship with him.
- DirectorMatthew BarneyStarsMatthew BarneyBjörkShigeru AkahoriThe film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto.
- DirectorToshifumi MatsushitaStarsChristian HuayguaLuis MamaníFaniy MosquesKunturi is a 13-year old boy living a traditional life with his family near Uyuni, a salt lake. They cut bricks of salt by hand, which they use to exchange for other products of the the Andes. One spring, his father takes him on his first caravan. That travel will teach him who he is as a young boy and a Quechua. By the end, he discovers what his grandfather means by "the gift of Pachamama".
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsLorenzo CianiCorinna RombiNikolas GrassoOn one day in October 2013, thousands of Italians record video of their lives, collected by the director to this kaleidoscopic portrait of a troubled but vibrant country.
- DirectorLucien Castaing-TaylorVerena ParavelStarsBrian JannelleAdrian GuilletteArthur SmithA documentary shot in the North Atlantic and focused on the commercial fishing industry.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogHerzog's documentary of the Wodaabe people of the Sahara/Sahel region. Particular attention is given to the tribe's spectacular courtship rituals and 'beauty pageants', where eligible young men strive to outshine each other and attract mates by means of lavish makeup, posturing and facial movements.
- DirectorStephanie SprayPacho VelezStarsChabbi Lal GandharbaAnish GandharbaBindu GayekA documentary about a group of pilgrims who travel to Nepal to worship at the legendary Manakamana temple.
- DirectorTe-Sheng WeiStarsMasanobu AndôJun'ichi HarutaSabu KawaharaAn indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them.
- DirectorGregg ChampionStarsKimberly Williams-PaisleyTammy BlanchardFay MastersonWhen a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others in a Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting in October of 2006, the world media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. Through the eyes of a grieving mother, Ida Graber, and other devastated families, this movie explores the Amish's astonishing reaction to the horrific shootings - of forgiveness and compassion.
- DirectorMark HallIn this meticulously researched documentary, filmmaker Mark Hall traces the origins of sushi in Japan to its status today as a cuisine that has spawned a lucrative worldwide industry.
- DirectorFarida PachaStarsChhanabhai Bababhai PagiDevuben Chhanabhai PagiGuhabhai Lakshmanbhai RathodYear after year, for an endless eight months, thousands of families move to a desert in India to extract salt from the burning earth. Every monsoon their salt fields are washed away, as the desert turns into sea.
- DirectorTamdin DorjeA young photographer and his assistant suggest to Tibetan nomads to take their picture. Against diverse and more or less exotic backgrounds, families appear to the photographer. Through these shots, the photographer will weave unique links with each of the various villagers.
- DirectorMatthias von GuntenStarsRasmus AvikeLars JeremiassenPatrick MalakiWhen the ice melts in Thule, Tuvalu drowns in the ocean. A touching portrait of people whose joint fates are intimately linked though they live at two completely distant corners of the world.
- DirectorChun-hsiu HungThe fate of horseshoe crabs, a 200-million-year-old species, today clearly rests with humans--a species less than one in a thousand their own age. The ideological impasse between Nationalists on Taiwan and Communists on Mainland China during much of latter twentieth century imposed more than 4 decades of martial rule on front line islands such as Kin-men. Kin-men's martial controls during this period decisively saved the horseshoe crab habitats and preserved the synergy between Kin-men fishermen and their sea. Today, the former enemies are now business partner and Kin-men is being retooled for tourism and investment. But at what cost to Kin-men's ancient horseshoe crabs, its rich fishing grounds, and its people?
- DirectorEliza KubarskaWalking Under Water will take us under the waves to walk with the last compressor divers from the Badjao tribe in Mabul Island.
- DirectorJames Der DerianDavid UdrisMichael Udris'Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies. Facing long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military adopts a controversial new program, 'Human Terrain Systems', to make cultural awareness a key element of its counterinsurgency strategy. Designed to embed social scientists with combat troops, the program swiftly comes under attack by academic critics who consider it misguided and unethical to gather intelligence and target potential enemies for the military. Gaining rare access to war-games in the Mojave Desert and training exercises at Quantico and Fort Leavenworth, 'Human Terrain' takes the viewer into the heart of the war machine and the shadowy collaboration between American academics and the armed services. The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team. After working as a humanitarian activist and winning a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford, Michael Bhatia returned to Brown University to conduct research on military cultural awareness. A year later, he left to embed as a Human Terrain member with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. On May 7, 2008, en route to mediate an inter-tribal dispute, his Humvee hit a roadside bomb and Bhatia was killed along with two other soldiers. Asking what happens when war becomes academic and academics go to war, the two stories merge in tragedy.
- DirectorMartin ButlerBentley DeanStarsMungau DainMarie WawaMarceline RofitSet on a remote Pacific island, covered in rain forest and dominated by an active volcano, this heartfelt story, enacted by the Yakel tribe, tells of a sister's loyalty, a forbidden love affair and the pact between the old ways and the new.
- DirectorRodrigo CortésStarsLeonardo SbaragliaChete LeraMiryam GallegoA black comedy chronicling the fate of the biggest gameshow prize in history.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsNicolas CageAdam BeachPeter StormareTwo U.S. Marines in World War II are assigned to protect Navajo Marines, who use their native language as an unbreakable radio cypher.
- DirectorJoachim TrierStarsJesse EisenbergGabriel ByrneIsabelle HuppertThe fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer.
- DirectorBill BennettStarsRufus SewellMartin DonovanMaya StangeTwo married anthropologists go to an island off of Papua New Guinea for field research.
- DirectorEryk RochaStarsEvo Morales
- DirectorClive MaltbyStarsWilliam H. CalvinLuigi Luca Cavalli-SforzaNina JablonskiTraces the expansion of the human race from central Africa to Asia to the edge of South America.
- DirectorSeth KramerDaniel A. MillerJeremy NewbergerStarsMary Catherine BatesonSusan CrateMargaret MeadTHE ANTHROPOLOGIST considers the fate of the planet from the perspective of an American teenager. Over five years, she travels alongside her mother, an anthropologist studying the impact of climate change on indigenous communities.
- DirectorMarcus LindeenStarsDaniel Giménez CachoFe SeymourMaria BjörnstamIn 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment studying the sociology of violence, aggression and sexual attraction in human behavior. Although the project became known in the press as 'The Sex Raft', nobody expected what ultimately took place on that three month journey. Through extraordinary archive material and a reunion of the surviving members of the expedition on a full scale replica of the raft, this film tells the hidden story behind what has been described as 'one of the strangest group experiments of all time.'
- DirectorJennifer BaichwalEdward BurtynskyNicholas de PencierStarsYoussef Suleiman MohammedAlicia VikanderFilmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.
- DirectorSabrina McCormickSoopum SohnStarsSam LiljaGretchen MolTim Blake NelsonWhen Belo Monte dam displaces an indigenous girl, she must rely on a white man to save her people - although he is the key to their destruction.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage AwashimaA Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
- DirectorHayao MiyazakiStarsYôji MatsudaYuriko IshidaYûko TanakaOn a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.
- DirectorVinicius ToroStarsLucas Augusto MartimSamara Cristina Pará Mirim O. MartimMonique Ramos Ara Poty MattosPara'í tells the story of a Guarani girl who, by chance, finds a traditional cob of Guarani corn, which she had never seen before. She is fascinated by the beauty of multicolored seeds. During his quest to plant corn seeds, Para'i begins to question his place in the world. Para'i organizes a travel to his grandfather's village, where they are fighting to get a more protected area of the forest.
- CreatorSterlin HarjoTaika WaititiStarsD'Pharaoh Woon-A-TaiDevery JacobsPaulina AlexisComedy series about four Native American teenagers growing up on a reservation in eastern Oklahoma.