Royal Anthropological Institute
As well as organising the biennial Festival of Ethnographic Film, the RAI manages one of the most comprehensive film and video libraries in the world, and a fast-growing film archive with reference copies. Since the mid-1980s, it has run an international video sales service in order to widen the distribution of ethnographic films within higher and further education.
It includes important British television series (such as Disappearing World and Strangers Abroad), classical and new international ethnographic films, or collections by acclaimed international filmmakers (such as David & Judith MacDougall, Gary Kildea, Kim Longinotto, John Baily, Timothy Asch) as well as collections of student and staff films from British Visual Anthropology departments.
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The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (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. It has a particular commitment to promoting the public understanding of anthropology, and the contribution of anthropology to public affairs. Central to this commitment, and a core activity of the RAI has been the promotion of visual anthropology (and ethnographic film in particular) as a means of dialogue between academic anthropologists, visual media professionals, and the general public. The RAI Collection comprises the Institute‘s manuscript, archive, photographic and film holdings, now brought together to form a unique integrated resource for research and consultation.
Address:
50 Fitzroy Street
London
W1T 5BT
Email: film@therai.org.uk
Phone: 020 7387 0455
Access: All titles from the RAI Video Library, the DVD sales collection, and many reference films from the archive (including all RAI Film Festival submissions since 2003) 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.