The City of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh State, in North Central India.
On the Ganges River.
The Holy City of Varanasi vibrates between carnival and the mystical, all along the river banks of the Ganges, the reality one encounters moves between the hyper real of human activity which evaporates into the vapors of the ethereal magic of mystic practices imbued with the history of this ancient city…
Experience ranges between life and death, the cycle of becoming, history and the metaphysical…
Our short film on the Ganges attempts to capture the carnival activity of city life as it flows between the mercurial magic realisms at the rivers edge, every day life passing by the history, the ancient ritual practices at the edge of the Ganges in Varanasi are personified here.
The Ganges at Varanasi is like no other place on the planet; you are caught in the on rush of sight sound, smell and emotions that tests the visitor against the realities of encounter with India. In Varanasi everything is a paradox…
The city of Varanasi is an important holy city to Hindu Jains and Buddhists with near by Sarnath the site of the Buddha’s first teaching.
Varanasi is a significant site to a variety of modern day spiritual seekers, tourists and the millions of pilgrims who visit Varanasi.
Varanasi is thought to be one of the world’s oldest cities, it is the holiest city of the Hindus and there are about 1,500 temples, palaces, and shrines.
For the uninitiated visitor to Varanasi there is a lot to take in and the environment challenges all the senses… Varanasi is the site of the holy cow wandering the streets and the naked sadhu mixed in with mobiles and the internet cafés…
There are an abundant numbers of retreat centers for all those experimenting with various forms of altered states of mind and being… The city is the penultimate expression of the Indian imagination totally vivid in it Technicolor realties.
In Varanasi everything get amplified, all experiences are magnified and fused in a mystical carnival, an etheric body of experience.
Our short film was shot as one day, one sequence to record the core experience of one day in Varanasi at the Ganges river edge…
The most famous Hindu temples are the Golden temple, dedicated to Shiva, and the Durga temple with its swarms of sacred monkeys but few Hindu Temples date back further than the 17th cent., as the Muslim invasions destroyed many.
The banks of the Ganges are one bordered of city life; lined by ghats, or flights of steps, that Hindus descend in order to bathe in the sacred river.
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