Ravi Shankar

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. Alone, his wife, Sarbojaya, looks after her rebellious daughter, Durga, and her young son, Apu, as well as Harihar's elderly aunt Indir. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life, while their parents suffer the daily indignities heaped upon them.

An experiment on a simpleton turns him into a genius. When he discovers what has been done to him he struggles with whether or not what was done to him was right.

Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.

Apu, now a jobless ex-student dreaming vaguely of a future as a writer, is invited to join an old college friend on a trip up-country to a village wedding.

Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.

Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.

A hotel receptionist and a flamboyant married businessman start having an illicit affair which ends abruptly. Things take an unexpected turn when she decides to re-enter his life hell bent on marrying him

Arne Sucksdorff’s ethnographic feature documents the life and rituals of the Muria people in the Bastar jungle of central India, focusing on their traditions, music, and relationship to the natural environment. Presented with Sucksdorff’s lyrical visual style, the film was selected for the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

Rahmat, a middle-aged fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini who reminds him of his own daughter back in Afghanistan. One day Rehmat receives news of his daughter’s illness and decides to return to Afghanistan. But before he goes a violent fight with a customer leads to Rehmat killing him. He gets out of prison ten years later. Based on a Rabindranath Tagore story.

It is a 2014 Tamil movie

Wealthy landlord Sarkar decides to direct all waste into the village to make space for his real estate project. However, the poor villagers agitate against his plan and the protest is led by Balraj.

Based on plays by Bhattacharya and the story Annadata by Krishan Chander. A film about the famine that swept through Indian villages in the final years of the war for independence. After natural disasters (floods and droughts), villagers seek refuge in the city.

Experimental movie, where a man comes home and experiences LSD. His kaleidoscopic visions follow, with readings inspired by the Tibethan Book of the Dead.

A farmer and a weaver who have both been liberated from enslavement struggle to survive in an arid, desert landscape. To secure basic necessities, they cast their lot with a merchant, who is a man of suspicious intent but provides for them nonetheless. Things change dramatically, however, when their camp is visited by a woman.

"...I was playing it at the Cinematheque, and it got a lot of word of mouth in town. Everybody liked it because we used this really neat trick to put these images on Pat Barrington’s body as she was doing a belly dance. It was just perfect, and it was an the height of the LSD period and all the hippies loved it." - Ed DePriest

Swapna Niye is a 1966 Indian Bengali film, directed by Purnendu Patri.

A middle-aged bank clerk happens on a stone with alchemical properties, allowing him to turn steel into gold.

An abridged version of the film “Ravi Shankar”, a film portrait of the Sitar Maestro, depicting through a series of interviews and recitals his versatile personality as a well-known classical performer and a creative composer of Indian Music.

Visual images consist entirely of Indian miniature paintings, while an off-screen narrator traces the rise of this art form within the courts of Akbar (1542-1605), who united what is now India and Pakistan, and his son Jahangir (1569-1627). Two schools of the miniature paintings, done by anonymous artists, flourished after Akbar established unity and peace across what had been many smaller states: the Moghul (Islamic) school and the Rajput (Hindu) school. The Moghul paintings record the events of the court, while the Rajput school connects physical beauty and, in particular, the longing of women to the transcendent values of the spirit.

An ordinary-looking chair refuses to be sat upon.

Filmed over two years in India and the USA, Mark Kidel's award-winning documentary brings together archive footage spanning seven decades of Ravi Shankar's performing life, and provides a definitive account of the late sitar maestro's unique musical career.