Manakamana is a feature documentary film codirected by pacho velez and stephanie spray. To optimize your experience with your screen reading software, please use our website, which has the same tickets as our fandango. The start of the sundance film festival is when film festivals traditionally reboot. The individual top tens of 2014 features roger ebert. Joe berlingers crude, and michael moores sicko, fahrenheit 911, a musical concert michael wadleighs woodstock, a. Dec 12, 2014 directed by stephanie spray, pacho velez. I thought 2014 was an exceptional year for animation.
This sample features short pieces from several of these rides. Her film manakamana codirected with pacho velez won numerous awards, including a golden leopard at locarno, and had a long theatrical run in the us. Dec 11, 2014 thats what i thought during the first scenes of manakamana. In manakamana, pilgrimages by cable car to a hindu site. If that were the case, jeanluc godards astonishing goodbye to language, which i traveled to madison, wisconsin to see in 3d in november, would have unquestionably been number one.
With chabbi lal gandharba, anish gandharba, bindu gayek, narayan gayek. He teaches film at seattle university and is approved as a candidate in the fulbright specialist program. The documentary manakamana consists of 11 uncut shots each 10 to 11 minutes long, or a 400foot roll of 16millimeter film taken in a cable car in nepal. Watch italian films and help us support hospitals in lombardy. As with the richest structural films, manakamana is a kind of head movie that viewers are invited to complete as they watch. For centuries, devoted followers had to undertake an arduous multiday trek to reach the shrine of the wishfulfilling goddess manakamana. Manakamana, which shows us six consecutive rides up the mountain followed by five down, is attuned to the rhythms and tonal shifts within and across the episodes. Writing a documentary can challenge traditional narrative conventions as seen in stephanie spray and pacho velezs film manakamana. This is not a list of the best new movies i saw in 2014. Manakamana by jonathan romney on april 17, 2014 opened in 1998, the manakamana cablecar system in chitwan, nepal, rises to a top station at 1,302 meters, near the site of the temple of the hindu goddess bhagwati. It is composed of eleven cable car rides to the temple of the hindu goddess manakamana. High above a jungle in nepal, pilgrims make an ancient journey by cable car to worship manakamana. Stephanie spray and pacho velezs literally transporting filmshot inside a. Manakamana premiered at the locarno film festival, where it won a golden leopard.
From the producers of leviathan, comes a stunning new journey, an exhilarating documentary that takes place entirely in the sky. Not rated 1h 58min documentary 12 december 2014 uk. High above nepals lush, mountainous landscape, a cable car carries pilgrims, villagers and the occasional american tourist to an ancient hindu temple. Awardwinning cinematic and ethnographic triumph points a 16mm camera at the people and animals in cable cars high above the nepalese jungle, on their way to the ancient temple of manakamana. Manakamana is a record of this circuitry, an index of faces seen in the act of seeing, thrust into the vacancy of a nature that scrolls by like some uncanny rear projection from an old hollywood film. It may strike some as claustrophobically dull, but for me each ride and the film as a whole felt like a refuge.
You put a camera and a microphone in a cable car and record what happens in it for two hours as the car goes up and down the hills to and from the manakamana temple in nepal, carrying pilgrims, and some tourists, and some goats, to and. The result is a loving, contemplative and humorous film. Like a lot of structuralist films, manakamana has a little trouble. Working within a 5by5foot glass and metal box, spray and velez have made an endlessly suggestive film that both describes and transcends the bounds of time and space.
Stephanie spray and pacho velezs film runs in real time as pilgrims rumble. Repetitive structure notwithstanding, the film cycles through a playful variety of registers, from comedy to suspense to psychological drama. Then the films seemingly idiotic idea begins to seem holyidiotic. The entrance to the temple has digressed from its silver door frame and the wood frames are also decaying. Manakamana was produced by lucien castaingtaylor and verena paravel, the directors of leviathan. Gorkha manakamana jhyappai maya lai halum biru lama binita gurung him samjhauta digital. Manakamana ride along with the pilgrims by robert roten, film critic. Given that it is scheduled to open at the siskel center in january, goodbye to language will almost certainly be topping my list of the best films of 2015. Manakamana temple is situated at about 0 meters at a top of a hill surround by a small village community. We are also entranced by the journey of two accomplished musicians who. The changing modes of distribution of recent years, and the increased number of films being released, has meant.
Manakamana is a 20 documentary film directed by stephanie spray and pacho velez of the. A documentary can portray, for example, social or political issues louis malles and the pursuit of happiness, gods country. A kind of head movie that viewers are invited to complete as they. We decided at the outset that the units of the film would be uncut 1011 minute shots lasting the. Also sign me up for fanmail to get updates on all things movies. I cant recall another film where a scene showing goats was so revelatory, so weird, so funny and sad. Manakamana is a 20 documentary film directed by stephanie spray and pacho velez of the sensory ethnography lab at harvard university. It is an experimental documentary about pilgrims traveling on the manakamana cable car between cheres, chitwan and the manakamana temple in nepal. Filmed entirely inside the narrow confines of a cable car, high above a jungle in nepal that transports villagers to an ancient mountaintop temple, manakamana is an acute ethnographic. Patagonia park is a portrait of labor driving the worlds most ambitious contemporary public park project. Dec 11, 2014 t he nepalese temple of manakamana sits 1,300 metres above sea level. Even though 2014 was the year of the horse, there werent any horserelated movies that id put on my list. The exhibition is made of up fifty large photographs, a fifteen minute looped video of global mask dance rituals with the accompanying drum music, an introductory essay by pico iyer, the renowned travel writer, and rich ethnographic captions by noted anthropologist robert welsch, phd. But here they are in manakamana, a foursome of goats, tied so that.
The 20 documentary film manakamana documents various groups of individuals riding the cable car. January 7, 2015 this experimental film has a pretty simple premise. A twohour documentary following a cable car up and down a nepalese hillside doesnt make for. After 2 hours, manakamana ended and i was forced to deboard the cable car, far from ready to depart the experience. I dont want to spoil the premise, but lets just say that a vast majority of people will hate this film and probably dip out 510 minutes in. Thats what i thought during the first scenes of manakamana. Writing a documentary film with no rules script magazine. After the disastrous 1934 nepalbihar earthquake, manakamanas southwest portion began to tilt. Winner of the filmmakers of the present prize at the 20 locarno film festival.
In 2014 he ended a 10year run as the curator of the magic lantern filmdiscussion program at the frye art museum. It is about 9 km northeast of the town of mugling and at about 90 km west from kathmandu and east from pokhara. Apr 18, 2014 the documentary manakamana consists of 11 uncut shots each 10 to 11 minutes long, or a 400foot roll of 16millimeter film taken in a cable car in nepal. T he nepalese temple of manakamana sits 1,300 metres above sea level. High above nepal, cable cars transport visitors to an ancient hindu temple, the site of a shrine to the wishfulfilling goddess manakamana. A purifying moviegoing experience, manakamana consists of a series of single takes, each about 10 minutes long and focusing on the passengers of a cable car as it travels up or down a mountain in nepal. Yet even those seduced by the aural and visual assault of the earlier film may find the new one a tough sit.
The final film has only eleven shots but it took us eighteen months of editing to arrive at it, which works out to our deciding on one shot every forty days or so. Filmed in 16mm and comprised of 11 rides each a single take corresponds to the length of a roll of film, manakamana is a tender, ephemeral character study. Manakamana 2014 high above nepal, cable cars transport visitors to an ancient hindu temple, the site of a shrine to the wishfulfilling goddess manakamana. Opened in 1998, the manakamana cablecar system in chitwan, nepal. Official website manakamana on imdb manakamana at rotten tomatoes manakamana at metacritic. Manakamana is a structurally formal, but groundbreaking documentary which requires a. It has the sort of simplicity that makes you realize how much density there is in the average movie and how empty so many of. We decided at the outset that the units of the film would be uncut 1011 minute shots lasting the length of an entire 400 magazine of 16 mm film.
A documentary about a group of pilgrims who travel to nepal to worship at the legendary manakamana temple. These are people who have 10 minutes to do little but sit no one pulls out a mobile phone. Nov 10, 2014 manakamana is available on dvd and on demand. Until 15 years ago, they would have also just completed a threehour hike, uphill. Best films of 2014 white city cinema a film blog with. The name manakamana originates from two words, mana meaning heart and kamana meaning wish.
Riverrun international film festival usa 12 april 2014 art of the real usa 18 april 2014 new york city, new york usa 25 april 2014 san francisco international film festival australia 10 june 2014 sydney film festival usa 21 june 2014 oak cliff film festival new zealand 22 july 2014 new zealand international film festival poland 27. We finally got to see the much anticipated the tale of princess kaguya from studio ghibli and song of the sea from the cartoon saloon. The film picks up speed and eventually launches into full scale sensory input, complete with music and slapstick comedy. Aug 19, 2014 writing a documentary can challenge traditional narrative conventions as seen in stephanie spray and pacho velezs film manakamana. The passengers dont always get to complete their conversations before the. A new wave of films comes in with the new year and festival films that have been trotting around the globe throughout 2014, especially the last three months of the year, will fall by the wayside. The films name comes from the temple situated at the top. Highway hypnosis, cinema verite, and the warm fuzzies of peoplewatching converge in this intoxicatingly ambient, humming rumble of a film. Venerated since the 17th century, it is believed that goddess manakamana grants the wishes of all. Little replay value here, but, upon first viewing, manakamana makes for a tranceinducing, indescribably moving and undeniably human documentary. See more ideas about movies, movies to watch and new movies. An endlessly suggestive film that both describes and transcends the bounds of time and space. This film is now in the permanent collection at moma.