Recent videos of interest

Ethnography

• An ecology of mind: a daughter's portrait of Gregory Bateson
  An Ecology of Mind is a film portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, systems theorist, and filmmaker, produced and directed by his daughter, Nora Bateson
• Araya
  Originally produced in 1959. Explored is a day in the lives of three families living in Araya, an arid peninsula in Venezuela. For centuries since its discovery by the Spanish, the region's salt was collected and stacked into radiant white pyramids. Captured are the breathtaking and unforgettable images from the salineros toiling to build the mountains of salt, a fisherman hauling in huge teeming nets, and a young girl and her grandmother laying 'flowers' of shells on windswept graves.
• Cultural anthropology: our diverse world
  DVD only. A 17-part cultural anthropology 'course' on DVD.] Takes a cross-cultural approach to diverse subject areas, including subsistence patterns, political organization, the family, social organization, economics, kinship, language, the arts, and religion.
• Okimah
  Originally released in 1998. Follows Cree hunters on the most important event of the season, the annual goose hunt. Okimah is at once a homage to generations of Cree hunters, a loving look at a cultural tradition and a plea for responsible stewardship of our resources.
• People of the seal. Eskimo summer + Eskimo winter
  An examination of the lives of the Netsilik Eskimos of the Canadian Artic, their work and play, and the ways in which they cope with the frigid climate of the north during the winters. In this 1971 video, we accompany one family on their journey inland from the ice, where they spent their winter. Then we join them as they build a new kayak, lay in a supply of fish, and hunt caribou.
• Savage memory: how do we remember our dead?
  In 1915, Bronislaw Malinowski set out to document the 'exotic' practices of a small group of islanders off the coast of Papua New Guinea. With extensive data on sex, magic and spirits of the dead, his work set the stage for anthropologists for decades to come and brought him fame as one of the founding fathers of anthropology. Four generations and almost one hundred years later, his great grandson travels to the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea and looks at the very controversial legacy Malinowski left ...
• Song of Eskasoni
  Produced in 1993. The village of Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island is the home of Micmac poet Rita Joe. The revival of Native traditions and spirituality in Eskasoni inspires much of her writing.
• Sweetgrass
  An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, and vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.
• The sacred science
  Follows eight people from the developed world with a variety of common and serious ailments who embark on a challenging, one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Working with a handful of shamans experienced in the harvesting and preparation of traditional plant medicines, as well as ritual exercises, these men and women seek to overcome Parkinson's disease, cancer, alcoholism, diabetes and depression.
• The spirit of ethnography
  Originally produced in 1974. Takes a humorous look at the field of cultural anthropology. Chronicles the field research of a fictitious ethnographer embarking on his first field experience.
• The washing of tears
  The Mowachaht, whale hunters and fishermen who had lived at Friendly Cove for thousands of years are uprooted from their homeland and move to Vancouver Island, to a new site under the walls of a pulp mill. They suffered extremes of pollution, violence, alcohol abuse ... Then in the 1990's, in defiance of the agony of their history and to overcome the grief of the present, the Mowachaht and their neighbors the Muchalaht revived their songs and dances and by reclaiming their culture, rediscover their pride.
• Urban elder
  Originally produced in 1997. Cree Indian Vern Harper tells how he reaches into the past to integrate traditional native culture into city life, including the tradition of elder. Follows Vern to sweat lodge purification ceremony, ballet rehearsal of his daughter, healing ceremony, political march and counseling sessions with native prisoners at Warkworth Federal Prison.
• Val: an Oak Park story
  For thirty plus years Val has offered her customers an incredible array of recorded music from classical to rap, both new and used. In addition, the collective knowledge of Val and her staff makes it possible to carry on an informed conversation about music and recordings. Val's Halla has become part of the disappearing commercial landscape of small businesses run by knowledgeable people interested in what they sell. In this film, Val talks about the changing role of the record store and muses about what Oak ...
• Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasca
  Explores the mystery of ayahuasca shamanism, offering insights into the nature of spirituality, mystical experience and self-healing through a heightened state of consciousness.