Sky Above and Mud Beneath | |
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![]() Theatrical poster | |
Directed by | Pierre Dominique Gaisseau |
Written by | Pierre Dominique Gaisseau |
Produced by | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Georges Arnstam |
Distributed by | The Rank Organisation (France) |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Box office | $1.1 million (US/Canada)[1] |
Sky Above and Mud Beneath (French: Le Ciel et la boue, lit. 'the sky and the mud'), also released as The Sky Above –The Mud Below,[2] is a 1961 French documentary film. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature[3][4] and was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.[5]
The film documented a 7-month, thousand-mile Franco-Dutch expedition led by Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau, into uncharted territories of what was then Netherlands New Guinea.[2] The expedition began in the northern region of the Asmat. The group interacted with tribes of cannibals, headhunters and Pygmies; battled leeches, hunger, and exhaustion; and “discovered” and named the Princess Marijke River, named after Princess Maria Christina (Marijke) of the Netherlands.[6]