A Cooler Climate: Screening and Conversation with James Ivory

Asia Society is delighted to present a film screening and conversation with Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name (2017); Howards End (1992); The Delhi Way (1964)). Join in for A Cooler Climate, Mr. Ivory’s 2022 film uncovering never-seen-before footage shot during a life-changing trip to Afghanistan.

James Ivory on A Cooler Climate: “There is a reason for the title of my film, A Cooler Climate. In the Spring of 1960, I was working in Delhi, where every day was hotter than the day before. I was in Delhi because the Asia Society had sent me to India to make a documentary about India’s ancient capital, The Delhi Way. The Asia Society felt too that they had given me a grant most likely large enough to shoot two films. ‘Go to Pakistan too,’ they said, ‘Or go to Sri Lanka.’

"But the month of May in that part of the world was sweltering everywhere. I chose to fly off to Kabul, which was like Colorado (and also full of red stone). It was high, mountainous, and windy. I got on a plane of Aryan Airlines with my equipment, and in about an hour I was indeed in a cooler climate.

"I knew nothing about Afghanistan. I didn’t know it was a Muslim country, or had been visited by Alexander the Great’s armies and had been harassed by Genghis Khan. Nor that its language was a form of Persian. I shot thousands of feet of sixteen millimeter footage. Once Delhi had been cooled off by its monsoon rains, I went back. But that is another story.”