Gulmarg: the war-torn Muslim village that's become a ski spot for Westerners
- Text by Cian Traynor
- Photography by Cassie De Colling, Tamie Wexler
Cassie de Colling was determined not to give up on Kashmir. She knew she could find a story waiting to be told.
The Australian director had come to Gulmarg, a snow-swept town in the western Himalayas, to film a not-for-profit project.
But that plan fell apart when the organiser disappeared without explanation.
“I had a load of camera equipment and thought, ‘I’m not leaving until I shoot something,’” says Cassie, laughing.
That’s when a chance encounter inspired a different story. While trying to capture scenic shots of Gulmarg’s skyline, a snowboarding brother and sister invited her to meet their family.
Over tea, the complexity of life in Kashmir quickly became clear.
Prolonged border disputes between India and Pakistan have resulted in as many as many as 70,000 deaths since 1989.
In July, the killing of a popular rebel commander triggered some of the largest protests against Indian rule in years. Kashmir has been under a security lockdown ever since.
Yet despite warnings by Western governments not to travel to Gulmarg, skiers and snowboarders from around the world are drawn to the ‘line of control’ it straddles between India and Pakistan.
On one side, Asia’s highest cable-car ferries tourists 13,000ft up Mount Apharwat. In the near distance, armed forces watch their every move.
That divide between civil unrest and backcountry hotspot inspired Cassie to make Gulmarg: Paradise on Earth.
As she and co-producer Tamie Wexler explain, packing that fractious mix of despair and optimism into a documentary short proved challenging.
What were your expectations going in and how did your experiences contrast with that?
Cassie: I felt like I was going to quite an uncharted place but I didn’t expect to see Westerners there drinking and partying. I expected it to be more pristine, in a sense.
That became one of the things I wanted to explore in the film: the blending of Western society into a once-undiscovered Muslim village that’s now a ski town.
Tamie: I knew it would be crazy. Luckily, Cassie painted the picture that anything goes in Kashmir. You can’t really put it into words. You just adapt by melting into the environment and learning to laugh at things that just don’t go your way.
Filmmakers Tamie Wexler and Cassie De Colling.
You might like
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
New film champions women surfers tackling the huge waves of Nazaré
Undercurrents — Filmmaker Maddie Meddings’ latest documentary focuses on big-wave superstar Laura Crane as she helps prepare 16-year-old Imari Hearn to take up big wave surfing.
Written by: Sydney Lobe
Joe Bloom’s View From a Bridge
More stories, more human — The artist and creator of the vertical video generation’s most loved storytelling platform explains the process behind creating the show, and the importance of bucking trends.
Written by: Isaac Muk
When David Wojnarowicz became Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud in New York — In 1978, the American artist and his friends donned masks to pay tribute to the French poet, who was born a century before him. Miss Rosen traces the differing yet parallel lives of the queer revolutionaries.
Written by: Miss Rosen
New documentary spotlights Brixton’s community in the face of gentrification
Beyond Brix & Mortar — With property prices rising by 1,700% since the ’80s, the film explores the rich cultural history of the area’s Afro-Caribbean community, and the threat to the area’s soul.
Written by: Sydney Lobe
On the set of ‘La Bamba’, lost Latino legend Ritchie Valens’s biopic
The overnight rockstar — The Chicano rock & roll star exploded overnight in the late ’50s, but just as quickly he was gone, killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly. An ’80s biopic saw him immortalised on the big screen, which photographer Merrick Morton captured behind the scenes.
Written by: Miss Rosen
