Making Forest of Bliss: Intention, Circumstance, and Chance in Nonfiction Film: A Conversation Between Robert Gardner + Akos Ostor (Voices and Visions in Film) (Paperback)

by Robert Gardner (Author), Ákos Östör (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Poet Seamus Heaney wrote of the "deep and literate gaze" Robert Gardner transmits "with an intensity that passes from the documentary into the visionary" in his film Forest of Bliss. A decade and a half after its making, it is recognized as a contemporary classic of nonfiction cinema. Making Forest of Bliss, the first in Harvard Film Archive's series "Voices and Visions in Film," presents a dialogue between Gardner and his colleague anthropologist Akos Östör, illustrated with more than 150 images captured from the film. Recalling the conditions of its filming in Benares, India, in 1985, and presenting their moment-by-moment impressions upon watching it several years later, Gardner and Östör probe questions of what it means to capture life and death on film and ponder how the filmmaker's intentions, choices necessitated by circumstance, and the serendipity of chance contribute to this endeavor. The resulting conversation is a lively exploration of issues philosophical, anthropological, and--above all--artistic. The volume contains an introduction by philosopher Stanley Cavell and includes a newly mastered DVD of the complete film.

About the Author
Associate, Harvard Department of Visual and Environmental Studies Founding Director of the Harvard Film Study Center Former Director of the Harvard University Carpenter Center

Professor of Anthropology, Wesleyan University

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Film Archive; Pap/DVD edition (February 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674007875
• ISBN-13: 978-0674007871
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,057,940 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In sight, January 17, 2006

By	Brian D. Schwartz (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Robert Gardner's masterpiece Forest of Bliss gives viewers a chance to soak in a striking visual document. However, as the meaning of events-along with the visual significance of color, grain, and the light and dark of day-is realized, viewers need to lean forward and analyze just what it is they are watching, with no narration or subtitles to guide the narrative. Viewers can feel captured, like the images, in the stages of life and death.
Making Forest of Bliss, a conversation between Gardner and Akos Ostor, an anthropologist and key collaborator of Gardner's in Benares, India where the film was shot, provides context for the film. Yet Gardner and Ostor do not translate the story; instead they tell something new. Beyond the four walls of the film frame existed their lived experience. As they move through the film shot by shot, their provocative memories emerge into an academic discourse about the nature of nonfiction film. Readers gain insight into the precision of composing actuality and the varied forms of ethnographic study and tempered revelation. Meaning is made, unmade, and remade in remembrance, between two artists in academia who share distinct viewpoints.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Almost . . . but not quite, January 9, 2009

By	The Muse's Apprentice "dharmabum" - See all my reviews

Having spent two six-month stints in Varanasi, and being a film maker myself, this book had all the makings of a classic . . . and in ways it is. The dialog between the two men is classic . . . unfortunately the accompanying DVD itself - attached unwrapped and only by a small adhesive smear - was scratched from the word go. Disappointing. DVD should be in an envelope.