Elemental Productions

05/18/2026

Director Robert Lemelson will be in Hong Kong next weekend for a weekend with 9 film screenings and a talk on multimodality May 22-25th. Hosted by Thy Lab (Chinese: 旲堂), an independent art space in Hong Kong with a focus on visual research, film, performance art, and educational programs and The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學 - CUHK Anthropology Department.

本週末開辦印尼電影專修課，由加州大學洛杉磯分校博士羅伯特·萊梅爾森親授，現場備有豐富印尼特色美食，歡迎同好共聚交流！

A weekend of visual psychological anthropology with nine film screenings and a masterclass on multimodality in Anthropology with a focus on mental health, cu...

05/15/2026

We are pleased to announce that our documentary, The Sacrifice, will be screening on May 17th at 11:50am at German International Ethnographic Film Festival Watch trailer: https://youtu.be/L4-HcR7PrSA Learn more: www.gieff.de/17-05-2026.html

05/04/2026

We would like to invite everyone in Los Angeles to attend the first traveling RAI Film Festival at UCLA this week on May 7-8, 2026 at UCLA's Kaufman Hall, Dance Theater, Room 200. This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required.

The RAI Film Festival is held in the UK every two years and showcases cutting edge ethnographic films and documentaries from across the world. The RAI Film Festival at UCLA will present a shorter program curated from the 2025 RAI Festival offerings. On view will be two feature films and four short film collections exploring community and memory, climate change and activism, ethnomusicology, healthcare and healing, agriculture and labor, and identity and social conflict. ​

Some directors will be in attendance and there will be discussion after the films. To find out more visit raifilmfestivalatucla.com

12/29/2025

In discussions about these uncertain political times, you may have heard a number of different terms: Fascism. Totalitarianism. Authoritarianism. But what exactly do these terms mean–and how do people resist?

Check out the first videos on Authoritarianism in our AnthroDorphins series on power and control, we'll turn to anthropology to help us understand these terms. While political scientists and historians can explain systems and events, anthropologists can address the cultural aspects of political change–outlining the cultural mechanisms autocrats exploit to establish power and the ways everyday people can fight back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNS9cx1U1JM

11/19/2025

What is an ethnographic film? Would you ever want to watch one? You will after watching our AnthroDorphins video on the History of Ethnographic Filmmaking Part 1, where anthropologist Robert Lemelson tracks the history of anthropology’s debatably most underrated and misunderstood subfield. As you learn more about the past and present of visual anthropology, you’ll see clips from classic works of ethnographic film and documentary including Nanook of the North, Trance and Dance in Bali, and The Ax Fight. You’ll also meet some of the most influential early filmmakers in the field such as Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Rouch, John Marshall, Robert Gardner, and Tim Asch.

What is an ethnographic film? Would you ever want to watch one? You will after watching this video, where anthropologist Robert Lemelson tracks the history o...

10/02/2025

For our Indonesian members, take a look at this online library related to issues around the 1965 mass-killings

kebenaran dan kemanusiaan tak bisa dibungkam

10/02/2025

Let's not forget history lest it repeat itself. Check out the latest issue of Inside Indonesia which seeks to preserve memories of the 1965 Indonesian genocide where over half a million suspected communists were killed after 60 years have passed https://www.insideindonesia.org/sixty-years-on-from-the-1965-indonesian-genocide. Watch our doc 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLT6G8FD3E4 and read a book by historian Geoffrey Robinson: https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Season-Indonesian-Massacres-Humanity/dp/0691161380 to learn more.

In one of the largest unknown mass-killings of the 20th century, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were secretly and systematically killed in 1965 whe...

09/15/2025

Anthropology can be fun, exciting, and change the world. We celebrate the life of the "Indiana Jones" of ancient wines, the "alcohol archaelogist", Patrick McGovern, aged 80, who used residues from pot shards to create ancient ales and wines using chromatography and mass spectrometry. What does anthropology have to say about substance use?

Watch our AnthroDorphins Substance Use videos to discover the cultural histories of substances like cannabis, co***ne, he**in, psychedelics, alcohol, caffeine and to***co and learn how different peoples have used them to enhance daily function, heighten festivity, mark ritual–and even heal their bodies and minds. Plus, you can learn about early anthropological interest in psychedelics–did Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson really trip?

Are human beings made to do drugs? Anthropologist Rob Lemelson will take you on a journey exploring the normative use of substances in human societies around...