A Cooler Climate

Ivory’s celebrated filmography includes A Room With a View, Maurice, Howard’s End, The Remains of the Day and his Oscar-winning script for Call Me by Your Name (SFF 2017). Fresh out of university, Ivory received funding to make two documentaries: one in India, the other ‘somewhere close by’ – he chose Afghanistan because of the ‘cooler climate’. The haunting, colourful images he shot of Kabul and Bamiyan were never crafted into a film. Instead, Ivory focussed on the India-based documentary, before a life-changing moment when he met his life and work partner, Ismail Merchant. The glorious Afghanistan footage, accompanied by Ivory’s memories of travelling, growing up in Oregon, and coming to terms with his sexuality, is at the heart of this beautifully insightful film essay.