Documentary: “Breath of the Gods”

From a letter by the director to an Indian friend:

“When you step onto your mat, you enter a world within the world – as the charcoal rectangle with Peter Brook. Everything that we see in my film, everything that is done in Yoga altogether, can happen on this mat.”

– Jan Schmidt-Garre

Good news for everyone who loves documentaries and yoga!
Breath of the Gods, a film about the roots of modern Yoga has come to our cinemas and is now on DVD. Yoga.in was invited to the Berlin premiere this past spring. It was a pleasure to watch the film and talk to Srishubha, T. Krishnamacharya’s daughter.

The German producer Jan Schmidt-Garre was inspired to make the film by two events:

1) He visited a yoga class and felt the “irresistible“ connection of body and mind.

2) He learned about the central role of T. Krishnamacharya, the “father of modern yoga,” in the development of yoga as we know it today. While Krishnamacharya himself died in 1989 at the cheerful age of 101 years, his major disciples Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga yoga) and B.K.S. Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga) were still alive and teaching. What an amazing opportunity!

Over a period of 5 years Jan and his team visited India several times. Krishnamacharya’s son and daughter, T.K. Sribhashyam and Srishubha, became a vital part of the film which includes wonderful old footage rediscovered during production.

The German version DVD release is on September 26th and you can get it on Amazon.de. Thanks to its success in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with over 90,000 viewers, it will also be released in English in theaters in the UK and the US this winter and out on DVD in the Spring of 2013.

For more information and to view the trailer, visit the English Version of their website or the German Version.

We say: Two Thumbs up!