The Sadhu who came to Varanasi from Italy

In 1974, a 22 year old Italian named Alessandro traveled to India. He never went back. The moment he entered Benares, he was captivated. He adopted the life of a Sadhu and was given the name Shiva Das. The gentle soul departed his mortal body in May 2020. 

I believe I met Baba Shiva Das at Assi Ghat in Varanasi in January or Feburary 1997. This is what he said to me (I wrote it down): 

 “Just make silence, the idea of turning off the ego machine and listening with your whole being. Become the harmony that is chanting the mantra, the names of God. Surrender to cosmic Bhakti, Live with balance in nature. Avoid the conflicts and chaos of desire. Realise what you need and travel through what is called days and nights. The moon is soma juice for all plants and from thoughts and actions you create us. Switch off and make the flow go the other way. Then tune consciousness through levels of perception to new states of ecstasy. What is really you is eternal and has been. We are all ascending into energy but there has been a breakdown. There has been a blockage along the way, a disturbance in the flow. Thoughts are self-fulfilling, so what happens if you stop thinking? Reality makes itself. Do not be distracted by your mind. Silence is penance.”

Anarchy in the UK: The New Underground Cinema (2016)

The definitive documentary that chronicles the UK's 'Misrule Cinema Movement' boom from (2010-2016) This period of social revolution and unrest gave birth to a new wave of pent-up creative energy and determined filmmakers who started shaking the chains of the mainstream film industries rigid cage, by making movies on mobile phones and using Youtube and Facebook to promote their films. Building their own cinemas and staging guerrilla-style movie screenings throughout the country.

Intrépidos Punks (1980 Eng Subs)

 

Hard to describe this surreal Mexican movie about a outlaw gang of 'punks' who ride motorcycles, rob and party. The music, the costumes and the hairstyles are on another level. It is difficult to imagine this film was intended to be a serious work with shock value. Today it comes across as funny and over the top. Brilliant.

Werner Herzog - Herz aus Glas / Heart of Glass (1976)

 

Heart of Glass (German: Herz aus Glas) is a 1976 German film directed and produced by Werner Herzog, set in 18th century Bavaria. The film was written by Herzog, based partly on a story by Herbert Achternbusch. The main character is Hias, based on the legendary Bavarian prophet, Mühlhiasl.

During shooting, almost all of the actors performed while under hypnosis. Every actor in every scene was hypnotized, with the exception of the character Hias and the professional glassblowers who appear in the film. The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story. Herzog provided the actors with most of their dialogue, memorised during hypnosis. However, many of the hypnotised actors' gestures and movements occurred spontaneously during filming.

The soundtrack to the film is done by Popul Vuh