Shooting the Past

A film by Stephen Poliakoff

A London library with a monumental collection of rare photographs is faced with extinction. Amongst its ten million pictures are images telling extraordinary stories of the past, intimate tales which are both erotic and full of pain. The custodians of these pictures are an eccentric collection of librarians whose stoical, arcane knowledge is in conflict with a new management determined to destroy their world forever.

Within the main plot are two life stories, each revealed and illustrated by a sequence of photographs, gathered from all over the collection. These sequences are utterly captivating and very beautiful, and demonstrate the writer/director's fascination for the still image – a momentary record of a person's life that is captured within a photograph, and how with images from other sources and from other times, their story will begin to unfold before our eyes. Stories that would otherwise have been lost, or never known, were it not for a handful of seemingly random photographs that have found their way into the library's vast collection.

Voyage au Tibet interdit

Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) was a French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, most widely known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet in 1924, at a time when it was closed to foreigners. In 1890 and 1891, she travelled through India, returning only when running out of money. On a second visit to India in 1911, to further her study of Buddhism, Alexandra was invited to the royal monastery of Sikkim, where she met Maharaj Kumar (crown prince) Sidkeon Tulku, becoming his confidante and spiritual sister. She also met the 13th Dalai Lama twice in 1912, and had the opportunity to ask him many questions about Buddhism – a feat unprecedented for a European woman at that time.

In the period 1914-1916 she lived in a cave in Sikkim, near the Tibetan border, studying with the young Sikkimese monk Aphur Yongden, who became her lifelong travelling companion, and whom she would adopt later. Together, they trespassed into Tibetan territory, meeting the Panchen Lama in Shigatse in August 1916. In 1924, Alexandra, with Aphur Yongden, returned clandestinely to Lhasa, the Forbidden City, at the end of a journey of eight months traversing the Himalaya during the harsh winter conditions, disguised as a Tibetan beggar.

Alexandra David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels. Her teachings influenced beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and philosopher Alan Watts. Her most famous book, Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa, was published in 1927, a year after her return to France.

80 years later, Priscilla Telmon journeys alone in the footsteps of this and other journeys of Alexandra David-Néel. She takes a route beginning in Hanoi, through the jungle of Vietnam and the forbidden valleys of Yunnan, populated by some of the rarest ethnic tribes in the world. Across the great Himalaya range to the monasteries of Lhasa in Tibet, the war-torn regions of Sikkim and south to the congested Bengal capital, Calcutta.

More profoundly, her journey becomes a double adventure. One in the physical and spiritual footsteps of Alexandra, which she attempts to reconstruct. The other, more personal, through the vastness of a wild and eternal Tibet that seems determined to escape the march of the twenty-first century. Priscilla's journey shows that with the difficulties of travelling and the prohibition of entry, little has changed on the Roof of the World since Alexandra's time.

Riding Solo to the Top of the World

A journey of self-discovery by Gaurav Jani

Riding Solo is a film about filmmaker Gaurav Jani's solo motorcycle journey from Mumbai to one of the remotest places in the world, the Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, bordering China. It is even more extraordinary for the fact that Jani was a one-man crew who loaded his 200kg bike with over 100kg of equipment and supplies and set off on a journey to one of the world's most difficult terrains.

Womens Riding School Review:
"Riding Solo to the Top of the World, a film by Gaurav Jani, takes you to some of the most remote places in India as you see the world from Jani's simply packed 350cc Royal Enfield. Allow Jani to whisk you away to the Changthang Plateau, an area of the Himalayas where you will see him cross the world's highest pass – over 18,500 feet in elevation. Jani's goal is the Chinese border where the Changpa, a small nomadic tribal community of goat herders dwell.

This is a magical story of adventure and of finding ones self. What appeared on the outside to be just another motorcycle documentary unfolds quickly into a colorful story of a man, a motorcycle and of a beautiful landscape – filled with all things wonderful. Jani's sense of self makes you comfortable from the start, the pictorial landscapes and ride adventure keeps you captivated and as Jani makes friends in the most unlikely places, you too will find salvation at the Top of The World." – Judy Mirro

This is a truly inspiring film in every sense. The adventure immediately becomes a personal experience in which one shares every moment of Gaurav's journey, both on the physical and spiritual level. The photography, production and soundtrack music all add to what becomes an unforgettable experience.