In my book, a successful non-narrated nature music video must either a) tell a story (such as Godfrey Reggio's classic Koyaanisqatsi) or b) be visually creative (such as Jan Nickman's titles for Miramar, Natural States and Desert Vision [both reviewed in VL-4/89]. Himalayan Dreaming accomplishes neither, and it does so with background music that could charitably be called nondescript. Broken into seven segments (for no apparent reason), the film serves up a round robin of images of mountains, rivers, flowers, and people in the Himalayan village of Tosh and the surrounding Parvati Valley in no particular order, towards, as near as I could tell, no particular end. Worse, 75% of the scenes are stationary camera shots (often of stationary images). Himalayan Dreaming is likely to inspire dreaming of a far more prosaic sort: the kind where people nod off in their Barcaloungers. Not recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)
Himalayan Dreaming
(1996) 62 min. $19.95. Vanguard Films. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-892649-07-1. Vol. 14, Issue 3
Himalayan Dreaming
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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