This paper shows the main stages in the history of visual recording of the Ob-Ugrian (Khanty and Mansi) traditional culture. Films recorded in the mid-20th to early 21st centuries are presented, and a list is given of the national and foreign film directors and researchers involved in this field. The films and other research materials (including field materials collected by the author) are analyzed to conclude that there is a need for further visual recordings of the Ob-Ugrian cultural tradition and for studying the collected materials as a separate object of research. The cases of the ethnos’s visual self-documentation are also treated as a subject of special research. Rationale is provided for classifying the recordings of Ob-Ugrian bear fests and the films based on these recordings as a separate category.