The largest act of faith in history.
The Kumbh Mela is a great roving Hindu spiritual festival that has moved around India for more than four thousand years, erecting temporary cities along the Ganges River.
22 Apr 2017
A Suitable Girl follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. The film examines the women's complex relationship with marriage, family, and society.
02 Feb 1931
Amateur shots of pilgrims and temples at Haridwar, followed by rural scenes and the Gorrie family at home.
03 Feb 1928
Documentary detailing a farmer’s visit to the market in Rawalpindi.
02 Mar 1925
Snapshots of colonial life around Tamil Nadu, plus a visit to the Toda tribe.
10 Jan 1922
Richly detailed record of the Prince of Wales' Indian tour.
01 Oct 1922
The future Edward VIII visits Malakand, Kapurthala and opens the Royal Military College at Dehra Dun
01 May 2017
A sex columnist gains popularity even while a ban on comprehensive sex education in schools is adopted by approximately a third of India’s states.
15 May 2014
"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.
31 Dec 2007
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.
12 Jun 2017
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.
11 Nov 1910
A demonstration of sport and fitness by members of the Indian Army.
02 Jul 1938
Indian elephants in action as working animals and in hunting.
31 May 1935
Amateur footage of the devastation caused by one of South Asia's worst earthquakes.
01 Sep 2020
Jugaad is a Hindi word that can be translated as "innovative or effective solution that bends the rules". It refers to the extreme capacity developed by Mumbai's inhabitants to adapt and get around any type of constraint or obstacle posed by the city's urban structure. In a relatively small piece of land where 21 million people live today, the inhabitants of Mumbai demonstrate great creativity when it comes to managing the spaces (for sale, for prayer, for traffic) and the flows that cross them every day. Without using language, Hong Kong artist Chak Hin Leung brings together in this video a dozen unique situations in which people, animals, vehicles and natural elements intermingle and brush up against each other, without ever colliding.
01 May 1940
Life in the bustling Punjabi city of Rawalpindi before partition.
05 Dec 1905
An elephantine spectacle, likely part of the celebrations for the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to India.
02 Apr 1940
Traditional games, dancing and music among the people of Sikkim - in vivid colour.
01 Jun 1904
Salvation Army General Commissioner Edward Higgins features in the this film of a brass band parade through a village.
01 Dec 1921
The future Edward VIII opens a durbar and enjoys a day at the races before inspecting the fire brigade in Calcutta.
02 Apr 1916
A Christian take on 'Edenless' India, where heathens are unafraid of snakes, and build 'interesting' temples to their gods.