Lightning struck the hut of a Fulani shepherd near a village of settled fishermen, Ganghel, in Niger. A yenendi, a purification ceremony to obtain "water from the sky but not fire from the sky", is organized, with Sorko priests, ritual musicians and dancers, and the faithful from Niamey. The musicians call on Dongo, god of storms, and his brother Kirey, god of lightning. To the rhythm of the orchestra, a man goes into a trance, becoming Dongo's horse and at the same time the riding genie. Then a woman is possessed by Kirey. When the riding gods have mastered their horses, the gods visit the men. Dongo purifies the lightning-struck land and the oldest fisherman prepares the purification vessel, addressing Dongo.

AMIN portrays Qashqai musician Amin Aghaie, a young modern nomad and his family who despite facing s...

In the Darhat valley in northern Mongolia, the horses of nomadic tribes are stolen by bandits who th...

The people of Unamenshipu (La Romaine), an Innu community in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, are see...

This intimate ethnographic study of Voudoun dances and rituals was shot by Maya Deren during her yea...
Rites and operation of the circumcision of thirty Songhai children on the Niger. Material of this fi...

On the night of 3 August 1996 a school of striped dolphins ran ashore near the village of Tuo on Nga...

Portrays the Nuer, Nilotic herdsmen of the Nile basin. Shows how their daily lives revolve about the...

Shigeki, one of the Ainu people of northern Japan, follows the traditions of his ancestors and teach...

Robert J. Flaherty’s follow-up to Nanook of the North shifts from the Arctic to the South Seas, port...

Forest of Bliss is an unsparing yet redemptive account of the inevitable griefs, religious passions ...

As retailers, wholesalers, and negotiators, Asante women of Ghana dominate the huge Kumasi Central M...

The story of a poor girl who leaves her starving family and sheep for a more prosperous village. Her...

For months filmmaker Thierry Knauff lived with the Cameroonian tribe, the Baka. This is his document...

Remember the culture clash in THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY? This time it's real. One of the most ancient c...

The title of this film translates literally as 'to put on a hori,' a hori being the Songhay term for...

This documentary started as part of a photography project about the indigenous Ainu population in no...

A synaesthetic portrait made between French Polynesia and Brittany, Color-blind follows the restless...