Melbourne Documentary Film Festival Online

Meeting the Beatles in India

Expired October 31, 2021 11:00 AM
Already unlocked? for access
Protected ContentThis content can only be viewed in authorized regions: Australia.

In 1968 the Beatles travel to Rishikesh, India, to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.


Paul Saltzman’s meditative photographs from the ashram are unique. You never see the Beatles like this. We threw off our Western clothes. We took up our silk pantaloons. We could be ourselves again. And who ourselves were—who ourselves are—we were keen to find out. -Donovan Leitch

Paul Saltzman’s photos of all of us in India, in 1968, are absolutely beautiful. The photo of John, finger to his ear, is the best picture I’ve ever seen of John Lennon from the Beatles’ era—it speaks volumes. -Cynthia Lennon


Saltzman’s images are irresistible—the more one looks into them, the more they relinquish their secrets. Tiny details and unnoticed associations coalesce around the unplanned and the unexpected. -Tim B. Wride

Curator of Photography, LACMA


The intimacy of these frames is remarkable—some of the best I have seen—providing a significant addition to the detail of the most important rock group the world has known

-Stephen Maycock

Curator of Rock ‘n’ Roll Memorabilia


I love Paul’s pictures of the Beatles. His photographs are so personal. He’s captured them as they were. -Astrid Kirchherr Author, Photographer

  • Year
    2020
  • Runtime
    1 hour 22 mins
  • Director
    Paul Salzman