Videos

Traveling Assam with a group of 10 friends under the guidance of Jan Knaapen (info@jantreksandtravels.com), November 2012

This film contains an insight into the life and times of Maharaja Bir Bikram Bahadur of Tripura, and his contributions to the erstwhile kingdom.

Sri Surya Pahar or Surjo Pahar, as it's called in Assamese, is one of the truly hidden gems of the Assam. Located in the Goalpara district, it's believed that there are 99,999 shiva lingas here - just one less than Varanasi and so was also known as Second Kashi back in the days. In today's video, we'll explore Sri Surya Pahar in detail, but also explore Chandubi Lake, visit the cleanest village in Assam - Rangsapara and explore Nishangram and Kasumari which is leading the way in the state for rural and eco tourism. We'll also meet and spend time with the local Garo community and learn about their culture, eat some Garo delicacies and enjoy their folk songs.

Reiek in Mizoram is a largely hidden gem of Mizoram, known only to those who visit the state and choose to go beyond the capital city Aizawl. The village was given a Gold Medal for being one of the best Tourism Village of India recently, and I completely agreed with the selection when I visited Reiek. Located about 20 km form capital of Mizoram, Aizawl, Reiek is easily reachable by road. However, once you are in town what you do completely depends on you - you can chill and relax, enjoy local foods, go hiking or try adventurous activities like rappelling. We did all of it and had the best time possible in Reiek. This is my story from Reiek.

Vintage cars form an important part of a countries history and heritage. Not only does it tell you how the people of the past travelled, more often than not it also tells you about the tastes, preferences and of course, creativity of the original car owner in case of custom bodies. In Shillong there are a few who still owned these vintage cars. And showcases during the important events of the state.

Tirap and Longding distrcits of Arunachal Pradesh still have real kings and Queens! . The kings still are kings and get to have many wives and queens! But why?? . I got an opportunity to spend a day with the royal family of headhunting Wancho Tribe and it was fascinating to see their life, even if for a day! . Join me to experience the royal hospitality of Wancho Tribe in Kamhua Noknu village and find out answers to all your questions! . Special thanks to Phoging Pansa and Jatwang Wangsa for helping me during the shoot! In collaboration with @arunachaltourism4102 .

Beneath the cloud capitals, amidst luxury and woodlands and surrounded by the shimmering waters of the Umiam lake, lays an idyllic conclave of houses and buildings that make up one unique educational institution in the Northeastern region, The Union Christian College, popularly known by its acronym, UCC.

Documentation: Unknown Cloud on its Way to Karbi Anglong, Assam India - parallel location to Unknown Cloud at Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin as part of An Immersion Commission by Berliner Festspiele.

Exhibition: Limits of Knowing at Gropius Bau, 2017

Credit: Camera: Sarlongkiri Ingti
Video production: Joakim Olsson

An Unknown Cloud Forming in Malmö, 2021 by Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden

A series of works or a radically slow process? Programmed to evolve globally until 2057 as both a myth and a real, live phenomenon, the Unknown Cloud has appeared over large cities, remote villages, across national borders and international sea space.

Unknown Cloud Forming synchronizes the movement of bodies near and far, by bringing people together within a limited time window, often at dusk. With a free App downloaded on their phones, Cloud followers are directed to gather in local flash-mobs on a square, a green area in the city, on top of a hill or in the forest, whereupon they make a collective effort to draw both each other and the Cloud towards them. As soon as the experience starts, their devices cease to be smartphones. The screens go black and they gradually transition from an individual into a collective experience. The smartphone becomes a bi-directional sensory extension to the body – a wand or a sacred object that enables you to experience the otherwise intangible world of the unknown cloud.

Preceded by a rumor to act as an amplifier of one’s senses, the Cloud has an ability to create a portal between the life worlds of human, non-human, geological entities and life forms.
Faced with the contradiction; to imagine something that is already there, but cannot be perceived with their senses, Cloud followers are drawn into an interdependent collaboration to form the cloud. Like a superorganism spread out beyond the borders of their own body, they begin to listen with their hands, hear from the position of another person’s body.. They are nudged into forming larger constellation of bodies to be used as an amplifier to collectively hear traces of our civilisation: radio communication floating through the air, and the invisible communication signals from the mycelium web, the last surviving non-human creature on Earth, underground. By placing your “sensor’’onto your own and (at distance) other bodies to listen for their murmur, you encounter the universe’s own fossils: neutrinos. Neutrinos carry fossilized messages from the universe’s remote past: the radio astronomical sound of the sun, the background radiation of the beginning.

Like the dynamic structure of glacial ice; the deeper you look or listen, the deeper you travel into the cloud, and the further back into the Earth’s geological past you reach. Ice has been consistent in its technology over millions of years. Ice has a memory: trapped air gets squeezed into tiny bubbles, each a record of the atmosphere, each data, collected and kept for millennia. When, as a group, you collaborate to attract the cloud, you become able to collectively pass through the memory of the Earth’s deep past. Some memories will remain as fossils and others will evaporate forever into air, in parallel with the ongoing melting of glaciers globally. When encountering a cloud event it remains uncertain if the cloud is a ritual to generate change or a contemporary ritual of burial. The appearance of the cloud changes the acoustic reverb in the visitors’ headphones. Like a glacier, the cloud appears to have a climate of its own. The light from smartphone screens colour the haze blue, like aged ice, as an interlude to the impending time compression, the cold memory of the earth.

Credits:
Unknown Cloud Forming 2015 – 2057
Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden (Jakob Skote and Max Celar) in collaboration with Rachel Alexander and Hara Alonso
Producer Emma Ward
Earlier iterations of the Unknown Cloud were commissioned and co-produced by Berliner Festspiele Immersion (DE) & Accelerator (S)

Lundahl & Seitl are supported by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the International Program for Visual Artists (iaspis), Stockholm Stad and Kulturrådet Sweden / Swedish Arts Council.

Walking through a park Tankghul Naga – Tuinem Village Tankul Naga weaving - setting up - weaving - sewing together the strips Nagas on the road with photographic equipment Close-up of Luikai, smoking Tangkhul Naga wrestling, Ukhrul - two men wrestling War dance Yartong takes a head - two men in a mock fight with spears and shields at Ukhrul Tangkhul girls singing Huimi village Spear throwing Spear throwing in Camp Songphel

Vintage Video Of Then Sikkim Kingdom Courtesy IPR, GOS

Sights around India's northeastern state Tripura, shot with a Nokia PureView and set to the music of AR Rahman

A doctor and party visit the villages of eastern Manipur in India's far north east.

The film is dedicated to the inspiring endurance of all those people, who suffered irreparable loss and personal tragedy during the 1996 Bodo-Santhali clashes.

Verrier Elwin (29 August 1902 – 22 February 1964) was an English-born Indian self-trained anthropologist, ethnologist and tribal activist, who began his career in India as a Christian missionary. He worked with Mohandas Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, then converted to Hinduism in 1935 after staying in a Gandhian ashram, and split with the nationalists over what he felt was an overhasty process of transformation and assimilation for the tribals. He also worked on the tribals of several North East Indian states especially North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and settled in Shillong, the hill capital of Meghalaya. In time he became an authority on Indian tribal lifestyle and culture, particularly on the Gondi people. He served as the Deputy Director of the Anthropological Survey of India upon its formation in 1945. Post-independence he took up Indian citizenship. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed him as an adviser on tribal affairs for north-eastern India, and later he was Anthropological Adviser to the Government of NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh. His autobiography, The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin won him the 1965 Sahitya Akademi Award in English Language, given by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. 

Christoph von Furer Haimendorf in March 1962 visited Wanchu tribe in Nagaland. He filmed their daily choirs and activities.