Attention has been recently brought to the stunningly beautiful documentary entitled SAMSARA. Samsara actually means ‘continuous flow’ in Tibetan, and refers to the repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. The film, which debuted in 2012, was shot on seventy-millimeter film, over a five year period, and in twenty-five different countries. It documents the beauty and horror in our world, and at times, the beauty within the horror.
Such is the case with the recent clip of the film which went viral online. The film has no narrator or commentary at all. The visual imagery is meant to speak for itself. In the six minute clip, which has been cited as ‘quite possibly the most eye opening six minutes ever on film’, we delve into the world of mass factory farming.
In those six minutes, we are shown scene after scene of monotonous, and often grotesque practices which are used in order to prepare meat for human consumption. The slow pan, and long shots tell viewers we aren’t allowed to look away. The film is not meant to quickly show us what is going on around the world, but to allow us to feel, if even for a short period of time, what being in that moment might actually be like.
The creators of SAMSARA, Baraka and Samsara, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, had this to say about the attention the clip has been getting:
“We are happy this clip has struck a chord with so many people, and we hope that the interest in this clip will lead viewers to see SAMSARA in its entirety. This clip represents only 6 minutes from a 102 minute long film, which was photographed in 25 countries and explores many other diverse aspects of the human experience. We would love for viewers to experience SAMSARA as a whole.”
Unfortunately, with a price tag of around $4 million, the film only grossed just over half of the filming budget. Hopefully though, with this renewed interest in the film, movie-goers and fans of the obscure will take the time to find it in theaters or legally download and watch this film.
One viewer on IMBD had this to say about the film,
“For the first 10 minutes I thought it was a mistake to buy the ticket. It was first time for me seeing a documentary without commentary. The images are so beautiful and interesting, but I expected that I would get bored in a few minutes. And in fact I did. But after a while, somehow I gradually got absorbed in the movie again. Watching gorgeous images lead me to a kind of meditation. And in the end I ended up impressed. Watching this you will experience something different from an ordinary documentary.”
So if you are looking for something different then what you normally would watch, and are interested in seeing how visual imagery can affect our emotions and consciousness, then take a look at this film.
SAMSARA: The Power of the Visual
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