Abstract:

This is the fifth and final film in renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall's Doon School Quintet, his long-term study of India's most prestigious boys' boarding school. In this film he focuses on the life of one student whom he discovers at the school. The film explores the thoughts and feelings of Abhishek, a 12-year-old from Nepal, during his first days and weeks as a Doon student. This remarkable and intimate documentary is at once the story of the encounter between a filmmaker and his subject and a glimpse into the mind of a child at "the age of reason." Along with "Doon School Chronicles," "With Morning Hearts," "Karam in Jaipur," and "The New Boys," this compelling individual and cultural portrait will take its place among the classics of ethnographic cinema. It will stimulate thought and discussion in a wide range 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.