2011 PROGRAMME

Around the World in 90 Films

Plan your days! Explore the full film and sessions programme with prize screenings, workshops, special events. Consult the interactive map of film locations in 38 countries.
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FILM PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Royal Anthropological Institute is pleased to announce that the following Film Prizes have been awarded at the 12th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, London, 23rd - 26th June 2011.

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FORMER RAI FESTIVALS

11th RAI Film Festival, 2009
CTCC, Leeds Metropolitan University

10th RAI Film Festival, 2007
GCVA, The University of Manchester

7th RAI Film Festival, 2000
SOAS, University of London

Drugs and Prayers (Drugs & Prayers - Indian Psychiatry in the Realm of Saints) #176

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15:00 hrs, Thursday 23rd June, Roberts G06
 
 
 
Director / Anthropologist: Helene Basu
Year of Release: 2010
Duration: 55 mins
Country of Production: Germany
Location: Gujarat, India (Sufi shrine)
Language: Hindi, Gujarati (English sub)
 

 

 
The Sufi shrine of Mira Datar in North Gujarat is a large pilgrimage centre specialising in healing possession madness/mental illness. It has become a site of experimenting with new forms of community care in the mental health sector. The film documents exchanges between different actors at the shrine (patients-psychiatrists, psychiatrists-ritual specialists, patients/pilgrims-ritual specialists), listens to the stories of afflicted persons and presents diverse views on the presumed causes of mental illness as well as on the benefit or non-benefit of medicine and/or ritual practices as perceived by patients and their relatives.