Original Language: Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, English
Country of production: UK
Shooting location: India
Distributor: Andy Lawrence Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, Arthur Lewis Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL UK
A
film about one man's journey across northern India and his search for
enlightenment. Rajive McMullen, a history teacher suffering from a
debilitating illness, makes the painful journey into the heart of
Tantra, searching for meaning in holy shrines, coming close to death in
cremation grounds and enjoyng the chaos of the Aghori seekers. This
film offers dramatic insight into Tantric ideas about the life cycle,
particularly, death and contributes much to our understanding of how we
seek knowledge and how we die. The Lover and The Beloved
also represents a realistic attempt to understand both the practice and
illusive theory behind Indian Tantrism, and is intended to challenge
widespread Western misinterpretations of this system of thought. Along
the way we visit Kamakhya Devi in Assam and Tarapith in West Bengal, two
of the most important centres of Tantric hinduism.
Andy Lawrence
Andy
Lawrence is a freelance filmmaker using anthropological theories and
ethnographic research methods to explore issues in film and video. He is
interested in the human life course, particularly birth and death, with
regional specialisation in the UK and India. His work explores the
proximity of childbirth and death to our lives and the ways in which
knowledge around this is mediated. He is filmmaker in Residence at the
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, at the University of Manchester,
where he teaches on the MA in Visual Anthropology. Andy has made films
for broadcast as well as producing award-winning films for festival
release. Recent directing credits include the 2008 documentary feature. Born,a mediation on birth made in collaboration with the radical midwife Judith Kurutac. Born was made for Birth Rites,an
international touring exhibition of art about the politics and practice
of childbirth. Andy has also worked in drama, collaborating with the
acclaimed poet Mark Gwynne Jones to produce the award-winning short
film. The Message, which looks at the fragile nature of inter-generational transmission of knowledge.