Festival Aims

The principal aims of the Festival include:

  • providing a high-profile international forum to increase the accessibility of anthropological films to academic, media professionals and the public
  • screening outstanding recent works in ethnographic film and related documentary genres and unreleased or rare films
  • showcasing the work of young filmmakers in these genres
  • exploring new trends and their influence upon one another and on visual anthropology
  • providing a marketing platform for international and British productions
  • building connections and promoting discussion across the global community of visual anthropology
  • promoting cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue through ethnographic film
  • contributing to intercultural dialogue and raising awareness of, and within, local communities.
A special objective of the 11th edition is to bring together not only academic anthropologists and professional film-makers from all over the world, but also tourism scholars and experts, and members of the public, particularly from Leeds, Bradford and the Northeast of England.

About this Festival

Sponsored by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain & Ireland (RAI) since 1985, it is an itinerant festival that moves biennially from one university host to another, in association with local community and cultural organisations.

The festival was held from Wednesday July 1st to Saturday July 4th 2009, and included over 50 hours of screenings of new films, a major international conference, and a targeted selection of events focusing on anthropological ethics in filmmaking, youth participatory film, and archiving ethnographic film.

Read more about the RAI 2009 festival

Our Sponsors

The Festival gratefully acknowledges sponsorship from: