What does a smiling tea plucker in Darjeeling have in common with a grandmother running a tea shop under bombardment in South Lebanon?
This is the question that led me to create Kanchenjunga, a deeply personal, visually poetic documentary that explores how war, memory, and labor are stitched together—through the rituals of tea, the weight of colonial history, and the silent power of images.
I'm Ghassan Saleh— a filmmaker, and visual anthropologist. This film is not just about me. It's about the people I met in the Himalayan hills of India and the people who raised me during decades of conflict in Lebanon. It’s about two women, worlds apart, who never met but who are connected by their work, their struggles, and their unshaken dignity.
The film asks hard questions:
Who owns the stories we photograph?
What does it mean to see…?
Can an image ever speak for the life behind it?
Kanchenjunga is a film within a film. It blends personal narrative, political critique, and layered visual storytelling. Shot over 12 years and across continents, it features real testimonies, archival footage, and a raw behind-the-scenes dialogue between myself and the film’s narrator—a character who challenges everything I thought I believed.
Now, after years of filming and writing, we are in the final stage of production: editing, sound design, translations, and preparing for festival submissions.
Why We Need Your Help:
This is a completely self-funded, independent film. Every frame was made possible by passion, borrowed gear, and the generosity of friends. But now we need your support to finish it.
Your contribution will go directly toward:
Post-production (editing, color grading, sound)
German/Arabic/English/Hindi/Nepali subtitles and translations
Festival submissions and outreach
Printing the photographs as part of the visual set
Licensing music and archival materials
Why This Film Matters:
Kanchenjunga is about labor, resistance and finding connections across histories of exploitation.
But most of all, it’s about remembering—with care, with humility, and with eyes wide open.
If you believe in the power of independent storytelling, if you believe in voices from the margins, if you want to be part of something meaningful—please consider supporting this film.
No amount is too small. And even if you can’t donate, sharing this page means the world to us.
Thank you from the heart.
— Ghassan
You could watch a teaser using the following link:
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