Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a documentary of a road construction project in the Nepalese Himalayas. It follows a group of villagers traveling by foot to sell medicinal herbs they’ve gathered, as well as the construction crew, and families with homes and farmland near the new road. It’s really nicely balanced, in that it equally shows the opposing views of the locals on the road construction; some are excited to not have to walk so far to the market and others worry about their homes being demolished for being so close to the road. What’s also great about this film is that it provides explanation and context through on-screen text, that’s not just subtitles; this is really appreciated as not all documentaries do this, some rely on you to read the synopsis to know what’s going on.

The audio is not in English, but there are English subtitles. As the documentary consists of first-hand accounts of the situation, it’s not the kind to become outdated, making it ideal for library collections. For educational use, it’s most relevant to the social sciences, in particular, geography, international studies (Nepal especially), political science, though perhaps civil engineering too. The runtime is nearly an hour and a half, so rather long for showing in class; it would likely need to be viewed outside of class time, or over multiple class periods. However, they do make good use of the time; each segment adds to the narrative and is informative; there are not long pointless segments of footage, as some documentaries include.

Baato is similar to Suspension (from Icarus Films, and reviewed in EMRO), in that both are about constructing a road to make travel easier, but shows all the complications and viewpoints involved - just in different parts of the world. It would be interesting to perhaps show both films and compare the situations. Either would make for great discussions in-class or essay responses.

Awards:
Winner, Fredi-Ursula Wohlwend Award, Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival

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