Aka and Daffla Dances
1934 · 11m · Documentary
A stunning display by Nyishi tribesmen from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh, north-eastern India.
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By the River
2021
Varanasi is the Indian city where Hindus go to die. Stretching along the Ganges, Varanasi holds great spiritual significance because Hindu scriptutres say that anyone who dies there will attain moksha—liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Berlin-based director Dan Braga Ulvestad captures life and death in India’s heartland in this moving documentary filled with exquisite cinematic moments. By the River starts its narrative journey with the city’s “death hotels,” dedicated apartments where people wait to die, sometimes for decades, so they can be cremated on the banks of the Ganges.
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Fascinating India
2014 · ★ 8.2
"Fascinating India" spreads an impressive panorama of India’s historical and contemporary world. The film presents the most important cities, royal residences and temple precincts. It follows the trail of different religious denominations, which have influenced India up to the present day. Simon Busch and Alexander Sass travelled for months through the north of the Indian subcontinent to discover what is hidden under India’s exotic and enigmatic surface, and to show what is rarely revealed to foreigners. The film deals with daily life in India. In Varanasi, people burn their dead to ashes. At the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious gathering of the world, 35 million pilgrims bathe in holy River Ganges. This is the first time India is presented in such an alluring and engaging fashion on screen.
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Kathak: The Dance of Storytellers
2024
Toronto-based, award-winning dancer, teacher, and choreographer Joanna De Souza takes us through her journey as a non-South Asian dancer in the classical dance form of Kathak.
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Freedom for the Wolf
2017 · ★ 10
The Real Story of Fake Democracy. Filmed over three years in five countries, FREEDOM FOR THE WOLF is an epic investigation into the new regime of illiberal democracy. From the young students of Hong Kong, to a rapper in post-Arab Spring Tunisia and the viral comedians of Bollywood, we discover how people from every corner of the globe are fighting the same struggle. They are fighting against elected leaders who trample on human rights, minorities, and their political opponents.
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Orphans of Tibet
2010
Each year, groups of Tibetan children secretly flee their homeland over the Himalayas to reach schools in India founded by the government in exile. Entrusted to smugglers, they are risking their lives by illegally crossing the great Himalayan range, a towering rampart between Tibet and India. The director will take us in the Mussorie school, in North India, where two thousand four hundred children have been rescued. They have left behind their family childhood and are now considered as orphans. We will discover the itineraries of Sonam, aged nine, and Dholma, the little new girl of the school. Here in India, they are taught about Tibetan culture and will find out about the history of their country and their ancestors. Sonam and Dholma's story is that of thousands of Tibetan children. Are they orphans of a lost country or bearers of hope who will save an endangered culture?
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Palna's Daughters
2007 · ★ 6
A film about memory, identity and the overwhelming power of love. One-year-old Devi was found starving at a railway station in Delhi. The police took her to Palna, an orphanage, where she lived for a year. When Devi learned to talk she often wanted to talk about Amma, her first mother. In the film, the 6-year-old Devi journeys to her own past, as her family adopts another daughter from Palna, a baby sister for Devi.
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Procession at Gangtok
1940
Traditional games, dancing and music among the people of Sikkim - in vivid colour.
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Edward Prince of Wales' Tour of India: Calcutta and Delhi
1921
The future Edward VIII opens a durbar and enjoys a day at the races before inspecting the fire brigade in Calcutta.
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Wonderful Temples of India
1916
A Christian take on 'Edenless' India, where heathens are unafraid of snakes, and build 'interesting' temples to their gods.
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Benares Chungking Ichang
1916
Arresting early film images of both northern India and central and south western China.
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Delhi Durbar Dawns
1912
Dignitaries including the Nizam of Hyderabad gather to celebrate the Durbar in honour of George V, who arrives by boat in Bombay.
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