Documentaries

Serena, an Aurovilian and filmmaker, recounts her journey with the nuns of the Buddhist Karsha Monastery in Ladakh, documenting their inspiring story and the powerful exchange that unfolded.

Auroras Eye Films (an Auroville unit) recently produced a documentary celebrating 30 years of the Auroville Choir. The film can be seen at

A two hour twenty minutes documentary ‘Sri Aurobindo and The Earth’s Future’ will be released on YouTube on August 15, 2023 at 4:30 am Indian time, the hour Sri Aurobindo was born in 1872.

Death is a topical theme in Auroville this year, reflected in the numbers of those who have left their bodies in recent months. Mauna, who has for years compiled our community’s obituaries, has pointed out that half way through 2023, we have already recorded as many deaths (16) as were recorded in each of the two preceding years (17 Aurovilian deaths in 2022 and 15 deaths in 2021).

On a sultry May summer’s evening, after one of its communal and tasty pizza nights, the Youth Centre (YC) premiered a documentary simply titled ‘The Youth Centre’.

Christoph Pohl grew up in Germany. He studied media technology engineering and worked in video and film post production in Hamburg and Berlin before moving to Auroville in 2008.

Auroville’s development has been intrinsically entwined with the complexities of local cashew cultivation over the decades, so Aurovilian filmmaker Serena Aurora decided to get to the bottom of the story.

Auroville’s grocery outlets have begun to be stocked with an all-new collection of hemp-based products. Hempseed oil, hemp flour, and hemp hearts have hit the shelves thanks to Hemplanet, an Auroville unit that aims to promote the use of a wide array of hemp derivatives and eventually begin hemp cultivation in Auroville.

On 10th August, in Cinema Paradiso there was the premiere of a documentary, The Saints of Pondicherry, on an old people’s home for the destitute and homeless in Pondicherry, which was founded by Aurovilian Albert Zwaan who passed away some years ago.

On February 7th, the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ held at the Unity Pavillion was an encouraging success. Organised by the joint land fundraising teams of Acres for Auroville, GreenAcres and LFAU, the event’s central message was the sacredness of the land, and the need for an intense collective effort to acquire land in Auroville’s Master Plan area now.