Alongside organising the biennial RAI FILM Festival dedicated to spotlighting the best of contemporary ethnographic filmmaking, the RAI maintains one of the world’s most significant collections of ethnographic film and video. This includes a major reference archive and an actively expanding film collection that supports research, teaching, and public engagement.
Since the mid-1980s, the RAI has also operated an international distribution service, widening access to ethnographic films across higher and further education worldwide.
The collection spans landmark British television series such as Disappearing World and Strangers Abroad, alongside classic and contemporary international ethnographic cinema. It features substantial bodies of work by leading filmmakers including David & Judith MacDougall, Gary Kildea, Kim Longinotto, John Baily, and Timothy Asch, as well as important collections of student and staff films from British visual anthropology departments.
The Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) is the world’s longest-established scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology (the study of humankind) in its broadest and most inclusive sense. The Institute is a non-profit, registered charity with a particular commitment to promoting public understanding of anthropology and its contribution to public affairs. It publishes journals, has a privileged link with the British Museum’s Anthropology Library, has an extensive photographic collection, gives awards for outstanding scholarship, organises lectures and meetings, and manages several trust funds for research. RAI FILM is the cinema section of the RAI.
Address:
50 Fitzroy Street
London
W1T 5BT
Website: raifilm.org.uk/Email: film@therai.org.ukPhone: 020 7387 0455
Access: The distribution catalogue (digital), the DVD library, and many reference films from the archive are available for preview. Some titles have restricted access and can only be viewed by special arrangement and at the discretion of the Film Officer.
The RAI film archive collects moving images relating to visual anthropology and ethnographic documentary film in general. It aims to act as repository and reference collection of ethnographic film & footage material in coordination with other partner institutions.
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