Sky Above and Mud Beneath

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]

Sky Above and Mud Beneath
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Pierre Dominique Gaisseau
Written by	Pierre Dominique Gaisseau
Produced by	Arthur Cohn René Lafuite
Cinematography	Jean Bardes-Pages Gilbert Sarthre
Edited by	Georges Arnstam
Distributed by	The Rank Organisation (France)
Release date	May 1961 (1961-05)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$1.1 million (US/Canada)[1]

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]

Cast

• Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau - team leader
• Gérard Delloye - co-leader
• Herve de Maigret - radio operator
• Jan Sneep - liaison officer
• Tony Saulnier-Ciolkkowski- photographer
• William Peacock - Narrator (English version)

See also

• New Guinea portal