The idea of a list of such films is an excellent one.

A wonderful classic is "The God with a Green Face" which centers upon a Kathakali performance of the Ramayana in Kerala. Besides providing many insights into the training and techniques of this performance tradition, the film provides one of the most compelling representations of bhakti on the visual record, especially in the look on the face of the young tabla player in the course of the performance. Unfortunately, copies of the film are now scarce (and in bad shape) and something needs to be done to digitize a decent copy before they have all disappeared. (Sorry to say I do not have one.) Many years ago I successfully tracked down the man who made the film, but he had no copies and no longer knew where any might be.

Jim Fitzgerald

--
James L. Fitzgerald
Das Professor of Sanskrit
Department of Classics
Brown University



On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Vanessa Sasson, Dr. <vanessa.sasson@mcgill.ca> wrote:

Dear colleagues,

 

I am looking for a few new film recommendations for my Introduction to Hinduism course. I am embarrassed to admit that I still use the “Long Search Series” (which I love dearly), but our institutional copy is nearing the end of its life and I am certain that much better films have been produced since the 1970’s! I don’t use films very much and Hinduism is not actually my specialty, so I am very much out of the loop on this topic. The H-Buddhism list recently had a wonderful online conversation about good films to use for Buddhism courses and we compiled an extensive list of useful resources. I am hoping a similar phenomenon might take place here. I would be happy to compile all the recommendations that circulate as a result of this query and send them to the list.

 

Sincerely,

 

Vanessa R. Sasson

Religious Studies

Marianopolis College