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High above a jungle in Nepal, pilgrims make an ancient journey by cable car to worship the legendary temple of the Hindu goddess Durga: MANAKAMANA.
Director: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez
Share this film. Give others the chance to learn from its story.
Take time of your day to reflect and calm your mind through meditation – in many ways, MANAKAMANA is about meditation and how we perceive the world around us.
Help support the production of films by donating to organizations providing film production grants. MANAKAMANA was funded by various grants, such as the Independent Spirit Grant and the The Princess Grace Foundation.
Delve into the programs catalogue of Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography program. MANAKAMANA is just one of many wonderful films working in the tradition of the late ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner.
Take a trip to Nepal in hopes of having the Goddess Manakamana grant your wish! Manakamana Temple is desperate need of repair, so tourism in the region is always welcome as a means to boost the potential for restoration work to occur.
“Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab continues to impress. The past couple of years have seen the emergence of Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s Leviathan and, more recently, Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s MANAKAMANA.”
In this interview with Scott MacDonald, developed over emails with Spray and Velez the filmmakers discuss MANAKAMANA and the collaboration that brought it to life.
Filmmakers Pacho Velez and Stephanie Spray revisit their film MANAKAMANA while riding the Roosevelt Island Tram.
“We didn’t quite know how it would play out, but that was probably the greatest joy of making the film,”
Watch the full video on Moving Image Source.
This temple to the wish-fulfilling goddess Manakamana is in desperate need of renovation. Find out more here.
HE WHO DEVOTES HIMSELF
Films that see religion humanized by sacrifice and devotion
“In the past 25 years, there have been two movies released with the title Leviathan: a totally ’80s underwater horror flick helmed by the venerable Greek schlock-meister George P. Cosmatos and a 2012 documentary co-directed by a couple of anthropologists from Harvard. And, wouldn’t you know it, the one by the Ivy Leaguers is scarier. A thick, bloody slab of post-verité shot on a fishing vessel off the coast of New Bedford, Mass.”
Continue reading here.
Around 15 km north of the center of Kathmandu nearby the entrance of National Park Shivapuri the village of Budhanilkantha lies a 5m long sleeping Lord Vishnu (Jalasayana, he who sleeps on the waves lying in a 13m long tank, as if floating with His legs crossed. The sculpture from the 5th century represents Vishnu’s sleeping in the cosmic ocean while resting on Ananta Sesa the thousand headed snake. Only Hindus are allowed down the steps and touch his feet.
Find out about more here.
“In 1922 Shree Tin Maharaj Chandra Shamsher started building a 22km long cargo Ropeway from Dhorsing-chisapnai-chandragiri hills passing into the Kathmandu. In 1964, this system was further improved and extended…”
Continue reading here.
Check out Leviathan -the famous film by another team of filmmakers from the Sensory Ethnography Laboratory.
“Do animals have souls? Yes say the Hindu scriptures.
Every living being, freom the animals down to the insects and tiny organisms, possesses souls. Like humans, they are also beings (bhutas) subject to the laws of Nature and he cycle of births and death. We may consider them ignorant, but they have their own language and intelligence.
Continue reading here.
