With Morning Hearts

Produced by David MacDougall. 110 min. Color. 2001. Available as: VHS and DVD Captioned: Yes Catalog #: 0031 Order this title Sale Price: $295.00 Apply for Discount

This remarkable new documentary by renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall continues his long-term study of the Doon School, India's most prestigious boys' boarding school. Sometimes called "the Eton of India," Doon School has nevertheless developed its own characteristic style and presents a curious mixture of privilege and egalitarianism.

With great sensitivity to social, material, and aesthetic details and a keen eye for significant moments of interaction and emotion, "With Morning Hearts" focuses on a group of twelve-year-olds during their first year in one of the "houses" for new boys. The film explores the boys' attachment to the house but, more importantly, their attachment to one another in a communal life. It follows, in particular, the experiences of one boy and several of his close associates, from their initial homesickness, to their life as members of the group, to their separation from the house at the end of the year.

Call us up with morning faces
And with morning hearts,
Eager to labour, eager to be happy
If happiness shall be our portion,
And if the day be marked for sorrow,
Strong to endure it.

Doon school was established by a group of Indian nationalists in the 1930s to produce a new generation of leaders who would guide the nation after Independence. Since then it has become highly influential in the creation of the new Indian elites and has come to epitomize many aspects of Indian postcoloniality.

Along with "Doon School Chronicles," "With Morning Hearts" is a revelatory cultural portrait that will take its place among the classics of ethnographic cinema. It will stimulate discussion and analysis in a wide array of classes in cultural anthropology, Asian and Indian studies, visual anthropology, education and childhood studies, and post-colonial studies.

Note: The DVD version of the film is fully authored, with menus and chapter markers put in by the filmmaker. It also features optional closed captions, which the VHS version does not have.

Reviews

"Brings the viewer into the intimate world of adolescent boys from a variety of backgrounds discovering and constructing themselves as they are being trained to become the future leaders of India. This is an extraordinary film for understanding how young men are being formed in everyday cultural practices and social aesthetics that reflect contemporary India as well as its colonial past. Made with extraordinary insight, sensitivity, and understated humor, this exquisitely made film -- created by one of the leading figures in ethnographic documentary -- is of great value for those hoping to communicate everyday realities about India, about education, about masculinity, and about film itself." -- Faye Ginsburg, Kriser Prof. of Anthropology and Director, Center for Media, Culture, and History, New York Univ.

"By giving us an intimate portrait of daily life at the Doon School, the film demonstrates the way in which leading Indian families try to reproduce their values in the next generation. With characteristic MacDougall framing, this well-structured film is proof of the filmmaker's pleasure in his subject and the art of well-researched observational cinema." -- Dr. Steef Meyknecht, Anthropologist/Filmmaker, Visual Anthropology Program, Univ. of Leiden, The Netherlands

Awards

• Margaret Mead Film Festival honoree
• Assn. for Asian Studies honoree
• American Anthropological Assn. selection
• Cinema du Reel Festival (Paris) honoree
• Beeld voor Beeld Festival (Amsterdam) honoree
• Intl. Festival of Science Film and Multimedia honoree
• "Origins of Visual Anthropology" Conference (Gottingen) presentation