Documentary Educational Resources | Ethnographic, Documentary, and Non-fiction Films from Around the World

COVID-19 Update

To protect our community, the DER staff will be working remotely until further notice. We will do our best to continue meeting the needs of filmmakers, educators, students, and others during this challenging time. READ MORE

NEW RELEASE

My Rembetika Blues

Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music born of exile and the streets, developing its roots from the mass migration of people in the early twentieth century. Filmmaker M. Zournazi traces the journey of her forebears from Smyrna in Turkey to Sydney Australia but discovers more than family history – she finds out how music connects people during times of struggle and crises.
READ MORE
EVENTS

Archival Legacies of the Yanomamö Series

DER co-hosted a panel at the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival focused on the technical and aesthetic issues underlying film preservation and digital restoration and exploring the value of these films for the Yanomamö and anthropologists interested in more equitable collaborations.
READ MORE
NEW RELEASE

Wax Print

Curious about the origins of the bold patterned fabrics she’d always had around her growing up, filmmaker Aiwan Obinyan sets off on a journey of discovery. From the villages of Indonesia to the cotton fields of America; from European industrial mills to the bustling markets and sewing schools of West Africa, she uncovers the fascinating story of how one fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom.
READ MORE
RESOURCES

Indigenous Studies Film Initiative

Our Indigenous Studies Film Initiative is a commitment to decolonize and indigenize the DER film collection and improve access to our catalogue for Indigenous audiences through the creation of an interactive map, application of reparative language to subject categories, and outreach and collaboration with communities depicted in our collection.
READ MORE
FILMMAKER INTERVIEWS

Mixing Time and Space: A Conversation with Steven Feld

Steven Feld’s “Voices of the Rainforest” provides viewers extraordinary access to the complex human and non-human soundscape of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest. Alice Apley “sat down” with Steve and, over email, discussed the making of the film.
READ MORE
EVENTS

DER50: Tim Asch Symposium at USC

In November 2018, the USC School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California held a day-long symposium on the work of Timothy Asch, an event which also helped celebrate DER’s 50^thanniversary.
READ MORE
EVENTS

The Cinema of Patience: Reflecting on N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman

As part of DER’s 50^th Anniversary celebrations, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University hosted a film screening & panel discussion on N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman.
READ MORE
NEWS

DER Featured in WBUR's The ARTery

A recent feature in WBUR’S The ARTery takes a look back at 50 years of DER’s history and reflects on the influence its founders have had on documentary cinema.
READ MORE