Northwest Film Forum

Boatman is Gianfranco Rosi's account of a boat trip along the Ganges River, together with his helmsman Gopal. They pass tourists and Indians who are bathing, working or meditating. In a series of small portraits Rosi depicts life on and at the banks of India's sacred river. Along the way, Rosi’s camera imagination of the endless circle of life and death, which is rooted in the lives of the Indian people, and manifests in the way they bid the dead farewell; they floats along through a teeming cast of mourners, children, pilgrims, dogs, death and ashes. A point of departure for the other world, where worlds collide with lasting incomprehension.

Click here to listen to Pure Nonfiction’s interview with Rosi about the making of Fire at Sea, his student days at NYU, and his friendship with writer Charles Bowden.