35mm Restored Print!
Banned for over thirty years, this portrait of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, nestled between Tibet and Nepal, is one of the most remarkable documentaries on Himalayan culture ever made. Worried that the sovereignty of his kingdom was under threat from both China and India, Sikkim’s ruler commissioned Ray to create a document of his people, culture, and landscape; before the film was completed, however, Sikkim had been annexed by India, the kingdom relabeled a province, and the film suddenly shelved. Now nearly four decades later, what we see onscreen—mountain orchids, waterfalls, and snow-capped peaks, along with the faces of children, the tasks of adults, and the rituals of the court—is a time capsule of what once was. (The film also captures the relationship between the ruler and his American wife, a New Yorker famed as “the Grace Kelly of the Himalayas.”) One of Ray’s rarest works, filled with a quiet purity and a playful inquisitiveness, this essential depiction of Himalayan culture was thought lost (or destroyed) until 2003, when a print was found at the British Film Institute; it was finally screened in 2008.
• Written by Ray. Photographed by Soumendu Roy. (55 mins, Color, 35mm, From Academy Film Archive, permission Ugyen Chopel)
Followed by THE INNER EYE (1972). Ray’s documentary on the celebrated blind artist Binod Behari Mukherjee. (20 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, From Academy Film Archive, permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
BALA (1976). A documentary on the famous prima ballerina Balasaraswati. (31 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, courtesy Academy Film Archive)
Total running time: 106 mins
show less
Banned for over thirty years, this portrait of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, nestled between Tibet and Nepal, is one of the most remarkable documentaries on Himalayan culture ever made. Worried that the sovereignty of his kingdom was under threat from both China and India, Sikkim’s ruler commissioned Ray to create a document of his people, culture, and landscape; before the film was completed, however, Sikkim had been annexed by India, the kingdom relabeled a province, and the film suddenly shelved. Now nearly four decades later, what we see onscreen—mountain orchids, waterfalls, and snow-capped peaks, along with the faces of children, the tasks of adults, and the rituals of the court—is a time capsule of what once was. (The film also captures the relationship between the ruler and his American wife, a New Yorker famed as “the Grace Kelly of the Himalayas.”) One of Ray’s rarest works, filled with a quiet purity and a playful inquisitiveness, this essential depiction of Himalayan culture was thought lost (or destroyed) until 2003, when a print was found at the British Film Institute; it was finally screened in 2008.
• Written by Ray. Photographed by Soumendu Roy. (55 mins, Color, 35mm, From Academy Film Archive, permission Ugyen Chopel)
Followed by THE INNER EYE (1972). Ray’s documentary on the celebrated blind artist Binod Behari Mukherjee. (20 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, From Academy Film Archive, permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
BALA (1976). A documentary on the famous prima ballerina Balasaraswati. (31 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, courtesy Academy Film Archive)
Total running time: 106 mins
35mm Restored Print!
Banned for over thirty years, this portrait of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, nestled between Tibet and Nepal, is one of the most remarkable documentaries on Himalayan culture ever made. Worried that the sovereignty of his kingdom was under threat from both China and India, Sikkim’s ruler commissioned Ray to create a document of his people, culture, and landscape; before the film was completed, however, Sikkim had been annexed by India, the kingdom relabeled a province, and the film suddenly shelved. Now nearly four decades later, what we see onscreen—mountain orchids, waterfalls, and snow-capped peaks, along with the faces of children, the tasks of adults, and the rituals of the court—is a time capsule of what once was. (The film also captures the relationship between the ruler and his American wife, a New Yorker famed as “the Grace Kelly of the Himalayas.”) One of Ray’s rarest works, filled with a quiet purity and a playful inquisitiveness, this essential depiction of Himalayan culture was thought lost (or destroyed) until 2003, when a print was found at the British Film Institute; it was finally screened in 2008.
• Written by Ray. Photographed by Soumendu Roy. (55 mins, Color, 35mm, From Academy Film Archive, permission Ugyen Chopel)
Followed by THE INNER EYE (1972). Ray’s documentary on the celebrated blind artist Binod Behari Mukherjee. (20 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, From Academy Film Archive, permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
BALA (1976). A documentary on the famous prima ballerina Balasaraswati. (31 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, courtesy Academy Film Archive)
Total running time: 106 mins
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Banned for over thirty years, this portrait of the remote Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, nestled between Tibet and Nepal, is one of the most remarkable documentaries on Himalayan culture ever made. Worried that the sovereignty of his kingdom was under threat from both China and India, Sikkim’s ruler commissioned Ray to create a document of his people, culture, and landscape; before the film was completed, however, Sikkim had been annexed by India, the kingdom relabeled a province, and the film suddenly shelved. Now nearly four decades later, what we see onscreen—mountain orchids, waterfalls, and snow-capped peaks, along with the faces of children, the tasks of adults, and the rituals of the court—is a time capsule of what once was. (The film also captures the relationship between the ruler and his American wife, a New Yorker famed as “the Grace Kelly of the Himalayas.”) One of Ray’s rarest works, filled with a quiet purity and a playful inquisitiveness, this essential depiction of Himalayan culture was thought lost (or destroyed) until 2003, when a print was found at the British Film Institute; it was finally screened in 2008.
• Written by Ray. Photographed by Soumendu Roy. (55 mins, Color, 35mm, From Academy Film Archive, permission Ugyen Chopel)
Followed by THE INNER EYE (1972). Ray’s documentary on the celebrated blind artist Binod Behari Mukherjee. (20 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, From Academy Film Archive, permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
BALA (1976). A documentary on the famous prima ballerina Balasaraswati. (31 mins, In English and Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, courtesy Academy Film Archive)
Total running time: 106 mins
show less
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