Films made about Auroville / bioregion
A Bridge Between the Past and the Future
2016, India, Documentary, 8 min, English with English subtitles
This movie was realized at the request of GreenAcres, Auroville, to raise funds for the purchase of an important and fertile piece of land in Irumbai, located in the green belt of Auroville. It depicts the activities of Herbert’s farm in Auroville, the indifference of local farmers towards rice cultivation, the benefit of cash crops like casuarina and the threat of urbanisation slowly transforming fertile land into urban private development. Since then, the first plot has been purchased.
Director: Rakhal
Contact: Rakhal, Sukhavati, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: rakhal(at)auroville.org.in
Phone: 0091-9488483485
A Trip
2017, India, Documentary, 8 min, English
A trip to Senji for a school’s history course.
Director: Omid
Contact: Omid Paeez, Evergreen Community, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: omidpaeez(at)gmail.com
Auroville: A Dream Down to Earth
2016, India, Documentary, 15 min, English
A glimpse of Auroville, an intentional township in South India based on the ideals of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual companion, the Mother. The film explores aspects of renewable energy, education, health, art, economy and decision-making and ends with the effect on the bioregion and the world.
Script, Director: Serena Aurora
Producer: Serena Aurora, Outreach Media
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Project website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: http://bit.ly/25YO03O
Auroville Green Corridor
2016, India, Documentary, 5 min, English
A documentary highlighting the importance of urban planning and development in Auroville. It incorporates different aspects of nature to create a harmonious coexistence for all.
Director, Camera and Editor: Salonika Commar
Producer: Auroservice (CIRHU)
Cast: Deepika Rani, Luigi
Concept & Co-ordination: Nimisha Maniar
Contact: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury, 7E, The Sun Farm, Auroville Main Road, Near AMI, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: proletafilms(at)gmail.com
Phone: 0091-9930850495
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDtjcoVp9z0
Auroville Urban Farming
2016, India, Documentary, 2 min, English
Auroville Urban Farming is a pilot project located at the City Centre to experiment, learn and experience how to build a city in deep harmony with nature. It addresses innovative concepts like integral landscaping, rooftop gardening, agroforestry, grey-water system recycling, participative and community building efforts to address issues such as food security, in an urbanizing context. The main focus of the project is to promote and educate residents about self-production, so that the aim of nutritional self-reliance of the universal township can be achieved.
Director, Script, Producer: Serena Aurora
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: http://bit.ly/2yZ1PV1
Aurovilles Kinder (Auroville’s Children)
2017, Germany, Documentary, 40 min, English and French with English subtitles
Divya, Ribhu and Nico, three young adults born and raised in Auroville, lived in Europe after school for a few years. Now, they’re back to Auroville. But leaving the “western world” has consequences. In Auroville, there is neither employment nor pension fund, no specific job perspective and the next hospital is an hour away. Why do they choose to come back? Is life in Auroville still as utopian as it was during their childhood?
Director: Nora GroßeHarmann
Producers: Christoph Bockisch, Nora Große Harmann
Camera: Christoph Bockisch
Editor: Benedikt Schulla
Music: Rüdiger Gleisberg
Sound: Gowryrahm Mohan
Contact: Aurovilles Kinder, Hähnelstraße 8, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany – 04177
Email: aurovilleskinder(at)gmail.com
Website: https://www.startnext.com/aurovilleskinder/en
Chandibhava – The Art of Feminine Self Defence
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min, English
The film highlights a martial art practiced in Auroville, based on Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu, Wing Chun and Shou Dao, designed specifically for the self defence of women.
Director, Camera and Editor: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury, Salonika Commar
Producer: Auroservice (CIRHU)
Cast: Giacomo (Instructor)
Sound: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury
Contact: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury, 7E, The Sun Farm, Auroville Main Road, Near AMI, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: proletafilms(at)gmail.com
Number: 0091-9930850495
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8wdFqZuAUI
Dominique Darr Homage
2017, India, Documentary, 4 min, English and French without subtitles
An homage to Dominique Darr through her black and white photographs and the people who knew her. She left her body on December 25, 2016.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
Early Days Landing Auroville
2016, India, Documentary, 14 min, English
This movie was created at the request of Acres for Auroville (A4A), the fundraising campaign to secure land for Auroville. Four early settlers reminisce about the early years of Auroville; of how much the Mother was concerned to buy it, and the relationships with local citizens.
Director: Rakhal
Contact: Rakhal, Sukhavati, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: rakhal(at)auroville.org.in
Phone: 0091-9488483485
Eat Local Week at Solitude Farm Auroville
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min, English
Why should we eat locally, what grows locally and how do we cook it? These are questions that some of us ask… Joy Of Impermanence is a community project created in the township of Auroville in India. One of our dreams is to live sustainably and in order to do that we should eat locally. For one week we decided to take part in an experiment of eating only what is locally grown in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India, three meals a day. This took part in Solitude Farm in Auroville, under the guidance of Krishna, the founder. Watch and discover what is locally grown in Auroville and all the health benefits and delicious recipes we learned in one week of eating at Solitude Farm.
Director: Serena Aurora, Eugénie Dumont
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Project website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Ecovillage Design Education Documentary Auroville
2017, India, Documentary, 20 min, English
Recognised by UNESCO, Ecovillage Design Education was specifically designed to enable people and communities to come together and reclaim responsibility for their living situations – at local and regional levels. The EDE is a comprehensive course in the fundamentals of Sustainability Design. It is organised as a mandala that we call the sustainability wheel, encompassing what we perceive to be the four primary interweaving dimensions of human experience – Worldview, Ecological, Social and Economic aspects.
Director: Serena Aurora, Eugénie Dumont
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Project website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: http://bit.ly/2z3I3tB
Exploring Prosperity (Prospérité à Auroville)
2017, India, Documentary, 24 min, English
The film focuses on the Mother’s vision of prosperity for Auroville, highlighting the inner workings and challenges faced by most prosperity services like PTDC, Solar Kitchen, Free Store, Nandini and Santé, which serve the needs of Aurovilians on a day-to-day basis.
Director, Camera and Editor: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury, Salonika Commar
Producer: Auroservice (CIRHU)
Cast: Angelica (Solar Kitchen), Anandi (PTDC), Kamala (Free Store), Nadja (Nandini), Mouttou (Nandini), Pashi Kapur (CIRHU)
Sound: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury
Contact: Abhishek Ghosh Choudhury, 7E, The Sun Farm, Auroville Main Road, Near AMI, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: proletafilms(at)gmail.com
Phone: 0091-9930850495
Field Trip
2016, India, Documentary, 6 min, English and French with English subtitles
Martin comments on a bird-watching field trip organized by his science teacher in Deepanam School.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
Informal Sharing on Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, Auroville and India International Yoga Day 2017
2017, India, Documentary, 31 min, English
On International Yoga Day, 21st June, in Savitri Bhavan, the relevance of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and its connection to Auroville serves as an opportunity for an informal sharing amongst Aurovilians of diverse ages and backgrounds.
Director: Joel Van Lierde, Karen, Savitri Bhavan team
Kiritan Flux & Chloé Sanchez @ Auroville
2016, Documentary, Experimental, Music Video, 5 min
Short documentary with extracts from a live video and sound performance in Auroville. Kiritan Flux (Berlin, Germany) and his partner Tlalit Segal Raayoni combine video footage shot in Auroville a day before the performance, with a soundtrack composed by Chloé Sanchez (Paris, France/Auroville) from her collection of audio recordings captured in Auroville over the past years. They meet for the first time on the day of the performance. The duration of the performance was 45 minutes.
Director, Script, Producer and Editor: Christoph Pohl
Camera: Tlalti Segal Raayoni, Kiritan Flux, Christoph Pohl
Cast: Chloe Sanchez, Kiritan Flux
Audio Improvisation: Chloé Sanchez
Video Improvisation: Kiritan Flux
Photography: Marco Saroldi
Production Company: brainfever media productions
Contact: Christoph Pohl, Anusuya, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: cp(at)brainfever.in
Phone: 0091-9787702495
Link: https://vimeo.com/149995178
Lilith Fashion
2016, India, Documentary, 6 min
A show by Lilith Fashion School.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
Miniature Le Jour de la Femme
2016, India, Documentary, 7 min, English with French Subtitles
On Women’s Day, women working at Miniature enjoy a day of fun in Pondicherry.
Director: Danielle de Diesbach
Email: danielledediesbach(at)gmail.com
Musica Vita – Music of Life
2017, India, Documentary, Experimental, Feature, Musical, 72 min, English
What started as an individual journey, turned into the witnessing of a musical collaboration of a score of people from different countries and cultures: out of the joy of collective exploration into the realms of life-kind. A musical.
Director: Abhishek Garg
Producers: Abhishek Garg, Prabhjit Dhamija
Cast: Aurelio C Hammer, Lefteris Grigoriou, Paul M Johnson, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Joshua Leeds
Music: Paul Michael Johnson
Contact: Abhishek Garg, 924, Sector 91, Mohali, Chandigarh, Punjab – 140308
Phone: 0091-9988990100
Website: http://musicavita.life
Natural Building Techniques Presentation by Earth Institute Auroville
2017, India, Documentary, 34 min, English
For 27 years, the Auroville Earth Institute has educated and empowered people to build their own dwellings using earthen techniques. The Institute has attempted to revive traditional skills and link ancestral and vernacular traditions of raw earth construction with the modern technology of stabilised earth.
This presentation, by Lara K Davis, Co-Founder of the Earth Institute, explains the many different methods of earth construction around the world.
Director: Serena Aurora
Credits: Eugénie Dumont
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJh5RWyLRZI&t
Permaculture Revolution
2016, India, Documentary, 9 min, English
A fundraising day at Solitude Farm with lots of activities, food and entertainment.
Director: Omid
Contact: Omid Paeez, Evergreen Community, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: omidpaeez(at)gmail.com
Rain Dance
2016, India Documentary, 5 min, English
Due to a poor monsoon, Krishna, who runs Solitude Farm, performs a rain dance with children of The Learning Community (TLC).
Director: Omid
Contact: Omid Paeez, Evergreen Community, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: omidpaeez(at)gmail.com
Reach for the Stars
2016, India, Documentary, 8 min, English
Reach for the Stars is an initiative that finances the higher education of young people from poor backgrounds from the villages surrounding Auroville.
Director: Masoom Gandhi
Script: Jonathan Heine
Producer: Masoom Gandhi, Sunayana Singh
Music: Lennart Altgenug
Contact: Stephanie Bussman, Sanjana, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 60510
Email: stephanie.bussmann(at)gmx.de
Phone: 0091-9943106616
Website: http://www.reach-for-the-stars.org
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=kAtrM0KRXmI
The Blue Waters of Pondicherry – Through the Eyes of Jonah
2017, India, Documentary, 20 min, English
A short documentary on diving in the Pondicherry and Auroville coastal waters. The video addresses various topics including reef building, rich marine life, the fishing industry and more.
Director: Lisa Suchanek
Email: lisasuchanek91@gmail.com
The Fearless Tattoo Project in Auroville with Eco Femme
2017, India, Documentary, 4 min, English
Eco Femme, a women-led social enterprise based in Tamil Nadu, India, that is involved in spreading awareness of healthy menstrual practices and making eco-friendly menstrual products, invited the Fearless Tattoo Project to Auroville to hold a workshop for its employees. The Fearless Tattoo Project is a pledging campaign that aims to awaken women to the fears that bar them from living their life to the fullest, by tattooing the word “Fearless” on their skin in the language of their choice. This tattoo is neither a fashion statement nor an ornament, but a key to a profound personal and cultural transformation.
Director and Producer: Serena Aurora
Cast: Kathy Walking, Sandhya Chandrashekar
Music: Ivan Avakiyan
Vocals: Lakshmi Santra
Contact: Laura O’Connell
Email: laura(at)ecofemme.org, serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8UE4XQDkIw
The Garden of Eden
2016, India, Documentary, 29 min, English
An interview with Joss, steward of Pitchandikulam, as he shares his vision of Auroville as the “Garden of Eden”. Everything slowly shines from the light of a subtle world, just a little bit behind the surface of things.
Director: Rakhal
Contact: Rakhal, Sukhavati, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: rakhal(at)auroville.org.in
Phone: 0091-9488483485
The Golden Globe Sacral Nirvana Oliver Shanti
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min
Most Aurovilians don’t realize the sharp increase in tourist activity in their township. The hectic dance of motorized traffic entering the Visitors Centre parking lot, the rivers of pedestrians flowing towards the “Golden Globe”, all are masterfully channelized and organized by the Matrimandir and Visitors Centre groups, allowing Aurovilians to remain unaware that this growing influx of tourists is starting to affect the region.
Director, Camera and Editor: Rena
Email: rena(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 1
2016, India, Documentary, 5 min, French with English subtitles
An inner story by the pioneers, episode 1 with Frederick.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 2
2016, India, Documentary, 6 min, English
An inner story by the pioneers; episode 2 with André.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 3
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min, English
An inner story by the pioneers, episode 3 with Tapas.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 4
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min, French with English subtitles
An inner story by the pioneers; episode 4, with Gérard.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 5
2017, India, Documentary, 4 min, English
An inner story by the pioneers; Episode 5 with Shyama.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
The Mother, Ep. 6
2017, India, Documentary, 5 min, French with English subtitles
An inner story by the pioneers; episode 6, Janaka.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
Tree House Community
2017, India, Documentary, 4 min, English
The film shows the philosophy of the tree house community and how it reflects in the residents: their work, their relationships with each other and with nature.
Director: Jonak Chakrabarti
Email: email_2_mimi(at)yahoo.com
Unending Education
2016, India, Documentary, 12 min, English
Unending Education in Auroville: Aloka, Chali and Deepti give a hint about what unending education means in the context of Auroville.
Director: Rakhal
Contact: Rakhal, Sukhavati, Auroville, Tamil Nadu – 605101
Email: rakhal(at)auroville.org.in
Phone: 0091-9488483485
Unique Towns – Auroville
2016, Singapore, Documentary, 47 min, English and Mandarin with English subtitles
Auroville is one of the stories in the documentary series, “Unique Towns”. This series features unusual and unknown towns in the modern world. In the 21st century, people are told to pursue money and fame as if it were the only goal in life. The film shows how Aurovilians learn to live in a sustainable way in a zero-monetary community, where learning opportunities are endless. The town appears to be a utopia and attracts people from around the world. How do they apply the concept and practice of The Charter in their life? And how do they pass on this practice to their next generation?
Director: Pang Zhi Tsung
Producer: August Pictures Pte Ltd
Camera: Tai Yih Khi, Soudman, Satish
Presenter: Joanna Dong
Email: pangzhitsung(at)augustpictures.com.sg
Phone: 0065-62504801
Upcycling Expo
2016, India, Documentary, 5 min, English
A film on the beautiful recycled objects exhibited by the Upcycling Studio.
Director: Fred Cebron
Email: fred1(at)auroville.org.in
Voices of Auroville
2017, India, Documentary, 12 min, Auroville
This film is an exploration of Auroville through the many people that inhabit the region, who explain where they are from, why they are here, what they bring to Auroville and how they see the township in the near future.
Director: Serena Aurora
Email: serena_aurora(at)hotmail.com
Website: https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
Link: https://youtu.be/33LZ1UtkmxA
