Around India with a Movie Camera

This remarkable documentary weaves together archival footage—including hand-colored sequences—with a dynamic new score by Soumik Datta, to create an emotionally resonant story about life across India from 1899 to 1947.

Drawn exclusively from the British Film Institute’s National Archive, the film features some of the earliest surviving film from India as well as gorgeous travelogues, intimate home movies and newsreels from British, French and Indian filmmakers.

Capturing Maharajas and Viceroys, fakirs and farmhands and personalities such as Sabu and Gandhi, the film engages critically with broader themes of a shared history, shifting perspectives in the lead up to Indian independence and the ghosts of the past.