The Hare Krishna People

( a 30 minute documentary 16mm film)

by

John Griesser

Candidate for the Master of Fine Arts in the School

of Photographic Arts and Sciences of the Rochester
Institute of Technology

May 26, 1975

Advisor
Mr. Brad Hindson

Bradley Hindson

"11-

a in
1/

'

Table

I.

Introduction

II. Thesis Exposition

III.

Bibliography

of

Contents

p.

p.

p.

iii

>

Ui-

Introduction

In July, 1970 I
photographic

Society for
people.

essay

by

ment

West Virginia farm.

Earth Magazine

in Brooklyn.

new center

published, I returned to R, I. T.
work on

tact with the ISKCON movement,

a photographic comparison

the members of the

proposal to

mation

It

and

the Hare

This

my

vedanta

founder

Swami Prabhupada,

led

This time I lived

Because

thesis.

Soon

movement.

of

my

with the

article

close con

on

as practiced

afterwards

Krishna group because

of

to another assign

I decided to do my masters thesis

the origin of their

and

with article writ

After the Earth Magazine

by

narrowed

of the wealth of

infor

religion.

was natural that a photo exploration of

Spiritual Master

article

center and

to finish my final quarter of study

background I found in this

India because it is

Hare Krishna

story

between Zen and Bhakti Yoga

Hare Krishna

only

as the

International

of the

picture

on the same group.

before putting in full time

my

The

myself was published soon after.

by

devotees

devotees in their New York

spent one week with the

devotees in their
was

on the activities of the

Asia Magazine to do

Krishna Consciousness, better known

one week on their

ten

by

was offered an assignment

beliefs

ISKCON
and

life

would take me to

style.

Also the

ISKCON His Divine Grace A. C.

was at that time

early in December 1970, I flew to India.

living

This

in India.

was the

Bhakti-

Therefore,

beginning

of

my

iv-

intimate

association with the

has lasted for the last four

extensively

we

for

a peaceful and

as a photographer and

graphy has been

monthly journal

in

movie

with

most of the

still

my four

16mm
was

year

stay

effectively to
life

me to

allowed

offered

white and color

monthly issues

live
my

with

services

35mm

of the

which

photo

Society's

my

with the

devotees, I

philosophy

of the

photographic

and then

Hare Krishna

activity

The

cinema.

sound sync movie gear.

only in 8mm

was enthused as to

the general public and as a thesis in

style and

I found that my

and aspiration

Society

Although my

very limited, I

sense of composition and

people.

provided

up

my

experience with

somehow managed

timing

which

I learned

photography helped.

From India

Krishna

we

people.

York for

another

The film

speaks

viewer

way in

western

In turn, I

in black and

found its fullfillment in the

making

16mm.

photographed

Back to Godhead'.

most

with

kindly

this period.

work

my

natural progression of all

wife and

in

'

the activities,

to this time

which

them much more

rewarding life than the

during

published

the end of

how to present

The

this period

beliefs, finding

The devotees

up.

them and supported me

itself,

Krishna Consciousness

During

years.

of their customs and

have been brought

By

of

the activities of the devotees and have live as one of them,

adopting many
condusive

devotees

flew to Mexico, America

and

Europe

This continued for four months,

four months,

for itself

to investigate

and

and then

hopefully

then

late in 1974

of the

sat

the Hare

down in New

the movie was

will spark some

further the philosophy

filming

finished.

interest in the

Hare Krishna

movement

-V-

which

has changed the lives of thousands of

only do

so much,

in this

and

further investigation

and

introduced

For my
my

masters

I have

on a personal

ancient culture of the

India

case

Vedic

so

used

level into

it

deep philosophy

the

expertly to the Western

photographic exploration of the

can

as a tool to encourage

civilization which as

thesis, I propose to

Photography

people.

and

been brought intact from

countries.

finished

present the

Society for

International

product of

Krishna

Consciousness,
of

interested

persons.

question period

niques used

philosophy.

public.

the film entitled

fol

The film

lowing

in the film

"The Hare Krishna

will

be

the screening.

would

be

to an audience

shown and then there will

Discussion

and topics related to the

The showing

People'

will

ISKCON

be held

be

on tech

movement and

advertized and open to the general

When the film on the Hare Krishna

ISKCON

Society, it
first

we could

Krishna
super

ty

and

footage

view all the

16mm footage

footage

of the

Therefore, 1
film from
to

was suggested that we

was

badly

$10, 000 for

New Y

shot and much of

it scratched

to start from scratch and

was submitted

$5000

and the

have a clear idea

I did

the

West.

not

of

Although I had heard

Western countries, I had

out of touch with

plan

to ISKCON which came

film itself

cost

last three

was

was

and

years

Europe.

to visit the major temples,

Paris

the singing and

sound work and

ed to

spent the

interesting features

Our first stop

some of

was

movement

beginning

getting

nor

did

At this

end.

had devel

In

oped

in

in the

in India and had been

Therefore,
see what was

the general

going on,

of each temple.

where we met the

dancing

$ 8, 000

of the expansion of the movement

ISKCON in America

for shooting

and shoot the

vast majori

and unusable.

how the film would turn out in the

know how the Hare Krishna

8,

shoot the entire

We did not really have a shooting plan in mind in the

point

The

the purchase of equipment and production of the film.

the end the equipment came to

we

ork where

an assortment of single

in two days.

A budget

beginning.

found

we

go to

proposed to the

which we viewed

made a proposal

the

first

first

in a film archives in the Hare

stored

There

temple in New York.

8,

people was

in the

streets of

used to the

London to Bhaktivedanta Manor,

Spiritual Master

Paris.

Bolex EBM.

My

and shot

wife

did the

After Paris,

we travel

stately English tudor house in the

-2-

countryside outside of

was not

in

sync

because

had to

of

go through the

mag film in between

for

All in all,

West

general

on

in the

meant that

process of

sound sync

Los Angeles,

planned out scene

picture,

out pieces of

16mm

so that the sound

process gave us great

works.

Mexico City, Dallas,

15, 000 feet

of-

film.

Again,

simply to

go to a

shoot the

interesting features

was to shoot much more

by

dialogue

actually

we shot

sound with the

cutting

our travels which took us to

procedure was

shooting

footage

that our sound sync

in syncing the

sound sync gear that

and

found

This time consuming

in the particular temple and

This

on

laborious

pauses

during

Virginia,

ire we

improper connection between the camera and

track would match the film.

appreciation

Therefore, later

tape recorder.

we

London.

footage

place,

see what was

than if the

the

going

of that place.

film

were

scene, but this seemed to be the only way to proceed

under the circumstances.

After four
with a simple

splicer and

months of

editing

set

15, 000 feet

traveling

and

up consisting

of

film.

The

shooting, I sat down in New York

of a movie

scope, winds, guillotine

general plan was to view all the

it together according to

footage

and select the

best

place.

We first

through all the original and cut out the best

to be

have

went

workprinted.

This is

and piece

not

usually done

footage

with the professionals.

all the original workprinted so as not to scratch

wound al

area and

it.

Instead,

the original through the movie scope and cut out about

to be workprinted thus saving a good deal of money.

They

we

6, 000 feet

Fortunately,

we

did

3-

not

find that the

Snce

proceedure.

sound

This

in any way damaged

original was

we

did

not

have any

experience

movie, I purchased the book Independent

provided useful information

by

'unprofessional*

this

putting together

Lipton.

Filmaking by Lenny

especially in editing

and

16mm

matching the

sound with the visual.

Eventually
it

and

6000 feet

had to be

amount of

ruthless

footage

viewer a good

was not

There

of that subject.

footage
seemed

farm,

and the

This

was

I found

Much

wanted to

the school

them to express their opinions.

the

editing

many

ments some of which were useful others not.

This

become

attached

to

his

fields,

We had

suffi

best footage, the

we showed the

and also some outsiders and asked

There

anyone

in Dallas, the

headquarters.

were

and other creative

true of a film

include in the film

the children

world

During

devotees

As

small

enough to give the

especially

definitely

for

Los Angeles

to take its own shape.

in shaping the final film.

was

footage that

A very

at all.

feeling

out then that

of the

usually

3000 feet,

This

out.

of all these places and as we edited out the

work print to some selected

graphy

about

of people and places are presented.

array

factory,

incense

West Virginia

film.

really necessary

were certain things

such as the

be cut

on a particular subject was

idea

down to

was edited

in the editing process.

such as this where a wide

film

film

overattachment to ones own

important

seemed so

cient

of

seemed at the time that no more could

actually due to
one

the

knows

who

suggestions and com

we

has

found very helpful

worked

the artist has the strong

work and concepts and

becomes too

in

photo

tendency
'close'

to

to

-4-

his

false
a

Outside

work.

30

ego.

critique is

After

much

cutting

film

which

minute

After the work

We

sound.

expanded

print was cut and

His

movement.

down slightly

to

music

fit into the

tracks, the

tracks together with

Hie final

the voice tracks.

easily done
we used

with a

an

finalized,

English

again, I

finally

background

Then

scenes.

'squawk'

box to

expertly

we pieced

sound sync sections,

into the

narration was

together two effects

and the

narration-

proceedure was to sync the two music

work

print, then the two effects tracks, then

This syncing

the sound with the visual is most

of

flat top editing table.

Since

we could not afford

the movie scope, a syncronizer mounted with two tape

had

we started work on the

professor and initiate

version of the

Our

a total of six sound tracks.

finally

again and

of this

was pleased with.

by Howard Wheeler,

tracks, two

viewing

wrote out a rough narration which was polished and

Hare Krishna
cut

and

in clearing away some

useful

very

Since it

read the sound.

was almost

this,

heads,

impossible to

and

wind

the film at sound speed,

the result was a jumble of sound which with some

practice we were able to

decifer.

and more

Then

cutting

listening,

I tdbk everything to

few days later

hours

and

and

we

of our

had

New York

after some minor

$900

Eventually,

funds.

final

sound

changes,

Then the

we

after much

listening,

cutting,

work print and sound track.

lab for
did

a trial mix.

Then

the mix which took six

original was cut to match the work

print, A B rolled, and the optical and original taken to the lab for printing.

As I look back

on the

film, I

can understand that it was

only by hard

-5-

work and

degree

determination that
Most

of success.

Many

somehow we can succeed.

times

over some problem which was not

One has to live

block.

would go

and wake

to

sleep thinking

up thinking

think about the

thinking
it

was

This

a good

it.

film

as

and

it became my life

report will

hopefully

sometimes

graduate committee.

documentary
together.

on the

The film

Britain.

Ha

re

This

can

particular

has been

Krishna!

Those

A copy

copy

by

it

want to

always

for

whom

price one

film is up to
with this

of you who read this

of the

was used

people and

used

about

general public

a good

in it and

be the

by

possible,

day.

only say that I lived

and obsession.

as

but only

I didn't

absorbed

Whether this is judged

Hare Krishna
also

but

up in despair

dream

sometimes

completely

gain something.

give

I did 24 hours

complete absorbtion seems to

film.

honestly

a problem at all

Even though

myself

and

ready to

was

film,

As the filmaker I

those who view it.

and

with a

openly

how to present it most effectively to the

has to pay for

film

about

really

about the

film, I found

intended.

with some

problems we tend to create ourselves,

sincere endeavor to present the subject as

mental

film

to complete the

we were able

film is

with the

by CBS for

has been

their

cut and tape spliced

other networks

in

USA, Canada,

6-

Bibllography
Campbell, William Giles
B

>ston

L pton,

>ughton

Lenny

Form
M ifflin Co. ,

Independent Fi

and

Style in Thesis

19^7113

.making.

pp.

Writing