Stream-Story

In Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra Valley, an ancient network of kuhls – hand-built water channels – carries water. The kohlis, “water masters,” struggle to protect this heritage, custodians of a way of life where water flows alongside folk tales, myths, and local arts.

We can’t always explain why some forty films praised more than once by festivals and enthralled audiences hasn’t sufficed to bring Indian Amit Dutta’s work out of its relatively low profile. For those who still don’t know his name, this new short film is a chance to catch up. As for the others, whether you’ve seen only one or all forty of his films, you will rediscover familiar impressions: the wind whistling through the mountains, water always flowing somewhere and, above all, this absolutely singular mosaic-like art (sometimes likened to that of Paradjanov), whose inspiration can turn anything to good account – albeit with the fertile constraint of filming only in Kangra Valley, guided by its legends and the words of the artists, craftsmen and engineers populating it (whether alive or dead). The title and subject of this latest film suitably summarise Amit Dutta’s art: it is the story of streams. In his work, everything advances in waves, deviations of a course (of words, stories), variations in flow: everything relates to the life of a stream. To start with the editing, its truly liquid rhythm, its always unexpected way of switching from one thing to another, sometimes lingering (to listen to the wind, to watch falling drops of water), sometimes immediately snatched away by something new, as if guided by the impatient wonder of a child. What’s more, Stream Story is a fascinating documentary on Himalayan waterways development.

Jérôme Momcilovic