Still, The Children Are Here

London-born, Bombay-bred filmmaker Dinaz Stafford spent several months in Sadolpara, a small bamboo-and-thatch village deep in the state of Meghalaya in northeastern India. Her mission: to capture the lives of the Garos, indigenous people who have lived there in much the same manner for nearly 6000 years. The outcome is a beautifully shot — if slightly artificial — piece of ethnographic filmmaking that portrays a rich way of life and how it's now threatened by agricultural development and outside market forces. Unlike industrialized societies, the Garos live entirely in sync with their environment, building homes from local materials and carefully planning their harv...