A documentary film event was held on Wednesday, 24 October.
We watched a film, titled
“Samsara”.

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Date: Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Time: 17:30-20:00
Venue: Meeting Room, Shikokan Building,
Karasuma Campus, Doshisha University
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Written by Iyas Salim, PhD
Advanced Research and Education, Doshisha University

The film describes itself “searching for the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives.” Well, that makes it almost impossible to review the film. But, a try is worthwhile for to reflect on the vastness of life and horizons of human facets. At the beginning, one tries to make sense of what is the film’s message and what it wants to say. As the film moves on, images, colors, history, old and new  lives take another dimension into more of sensory experience of visuals and musical artistry. At certain points, scenes become poetic and the phenomenal photography induce a meditative sensory flow, reflecting on human existence.

The word “Samsara” means “the ever turning wheel of life.” The mere diversity expressed in music and visual imageries attributed to the 25 countries where the film was made over five-years period, provides a moment of absorbing the incoming flow in its entirety and hopefully bring some sense of it all under the sheer spectacle of the colors of life.

From the Cambodian monks gathering patiently to draw the finest details of a sand mandala, a trip to a slaughter house, a Balinese dancer, and an African tribesman, a disfigured marine, all seem to assert who and what they are. Composed and confident, the images fuse a sense of dignity manifestations, intentionally or otherwise, in natural disposition and art-like. For those forgotten or left behind, the world is cruel when the film brings the silent voices of those who toil and suffer to survive. There is no shortage of contradictions of tragedy and beauty, of suffering and joy. If there is one curious view throughout the film is how Human Being attempts to dominate nature. A persisting thought, yet, says how much can Man dominate nature before nature fires back. But that appears to be the goal of the film; a moment to reflect and ignite thoughts on what is the purpose of life and its meaning, society, religion, ecology, robots, shared fears and hopes, etc.
Indeed, the combination of amazing photography and images with a variety of thematic sound tracks inspire the experience or rather a reflecting time that we may as well aspire for.