Andreas Burgess
Cinematographer
In the Courtyard of the Beloved
IN THE COURTYARD OF THE BELOVED is a visual and aural portrait of
Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, a Sufi shrine in New Delhi, India. Made from
over 18,000 still images and ambient sounds recorded on-site,
rapid-fire bursts of kaleidoscopic imagery assemble into fractured
collages where a moment expands outwards and then converges back into
itself, fleshing out a three-dimensional rendering of place.
Each day, hundreds of pilgrims travel by airplane, train, car,
rickshaw and foot to reach this shrine, which honors a 12th century
Sufi mystic who believed in drawing close to God through renunciation
of the world and service to humanity. Beginning with imagery from
these journeys, the film then enters the physical space of the shrine;
a unique nexus of marketplace, social space and spiritual haven, where
devotees come to offer their prayers and find a moment of reflection
away from the din of Delhi traffic. As the sun sets behind the dome,
musicians begin the qawwali, a style of Sufi devotional music that
ranges from contemplative religious elegy to raucous crescendo.
Made with the collaboration of Samina Quraeshi
Original tabla score by Suphala
Audio post-production by Paul Bercovitch
Produced by Sadia Shepard
Photographed and edited by Andreas Burgess
Asset Information
Updated: 20 months ago
Short
Duration: 00:12:48
Definition:

Dimensions: 1280 x 720
Size: 446.6MB
New York, New York,
United States