New Delhi, January 5: ‘‘In the 1980s, my friends were dying of AIDS. Death forces you to ask certain fundamental questions about spirituality. When people face death, they use objects as an attempt to approach spirituality,’’ says Paris-based documentary filmmaker Peter Friedman. Along with anthropologist Roger Manley, he has directed Mana-Beyond Belief, a film that explores the equation between physical objects and the mental process. It was screened at India International Centre recently.

‘‘Roger has travelled extensively. His experience as an anthropologist helped in the research process,’’ says Friedman, who studied screenwriting and direction at Columbia University. Together, they shot the film in various countries—India, Myanmar, Malaysia, West Africa, Germany and Italy—while travelling in search of ‘beliefs’. They took four years to complete its production.

‘‘I wanted to make a film which is purely images and sound, unlike other documentaries that explain everything,’’ says the 46-year-old director. The film shows the Chinese making a paper car, an exact replica of the one used by a dead person, and then burning it down to make sure that the dead soul lives in luxury. In his film, Friedman uses such images to illustrate how easily the human mind places its belief in an object.

‘‘Mana is a Polynesian word used by the Maoris of New Zealand, and means prestige attached to an object,’’ he says. Documenting the beliefs of people belonging to various cultures, the directors did face some obstacles while shooting in sacred places. ‘‘We travelled to a remote part of the US which is inhabited by the Navajo tribe. Roger has known these people for 20 years. When we entered the hut where they conduct their sacred ceremonies, the medicine man said, ‘no cameras’,’’ he recalls. It was only after Manley’s insistence that they got the shots.

Friedman has been making documentaries since 1984, and has also received the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best independent Film for his film Silverlake Life, which deals with AIDS.

While Manley has not been able to make this visit to India, Friedman has managed to catch a Bollywood flick. ‘‘I saw Veer-Zara in Agra this time. I think the use of the camera was stunning. I wouldn’t expect that in any Hollywood movie,’’ he laughs.