Birth of Light, 2012, a film by Sophie Pinchetti. Black and White, 5mins. Text by Sophie Pinchetti. Music – ‘Road to Bardo’ by Barn Owl. With Thanks to Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras.

A tribute to BENARES, India’s city of light. Also known as Varanasi, the ancient holy city lives alongside the sacred Mother Ganga river in northern India. It is the city of SHIVA, god of creation and destruction, who is said to have walked here with his wife Parvati at the beginning of Time. Reputed as the most ancient continuously inhabited city in the world, Benares is a living city of legends and myths; the fire on the cremation ghat of Benares is believed to have never stopped burning since its creation.

A holy place to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, Benares is said to purify a lifetime of sin, promising Nirvana after death. The city lives on untouched by modern doubt, through the mantras of its ancestors and the incantations of its youth. The Puja ceremony performed every night after sundown on the Dasaswamedh Ghat, is a ritual blessing and offering to the Ganga river which flows along Benares, revered as a Goddess.

In this place from which the linga of fire came, connecting The Netherworlds, This World and The Heavens – Benares is charged with magical and spiritual potency. Some of the sadhus even practice black magic. Benares is the pre-eminent tirtha of Hinduism, a haunting place of contact between worlds, where life and death alchemise in mysterious union. A city for eternity…

This film premiered on purple TELEVISION here.