Life inside a Nepalese cable car in 'Manakamana'

One summer in Tokyo, as I was unemployed and without any better ideas about how to occupy myself, I spent an entire day riding the Yamanote Line. It takes roughly one hour to complete a loop of the line and, in the course of the day, I managed 19 laps before having to stop and catch the last train home.

That might sound like an unpardonable waste of time to some, yet it was one of the most memorable days I've spent in the city. Forced to adjust to the slow, patient tempo of the journey, my boredom gradually ebbed into a serene calm, and the everyday pageant of passengers became strangely absorbing.

Watching "Manakamana" brought this all back to mind, but in outline, this documentary by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez sounds monotonous enough to have been conceived by Andy Warhol. Over the course of 11 long shots, the film shows pilgrims in a cable car traveling to and from the eponymous Hindu Temple, situated on a mountain ridge in Nepal. On each trip in the cable car, the camera sits opposite the passengers, watching them chat and fidget while a landscape of luscious foliage unfurls behind them.

Judged by almost any cinematic standard, this shouldn't be interesting to watch; the slow films of Hungarian director Bela Tarr seem like a riot of activity in comparison. Yet, if you can surrender to the methodical pace of "Manakamana," it is genuinely rewarding — a hymn to the glories of human minutiae.

Spray and Velez are part of Harvard University's Sensory Ethnography Lab, the team behind a series of critically adored documentaries that question and subvert the conventions of both anthropology and documentary filmmaking. Context, narration, linear structure — all these take a back seat to immersive, impressionistic experiences.

"Manakamana" will be showing at Image Forum in Tokyo as part of a program featuring three other films from the SEL, including "Foreign Parts" (2010), a Frederick Wiseman-esque exploration of a New York junkyard, and the churning, elemental "Leviathan" (2012), shot on a fishing trawler.

"Manakamana" is simpler and more audacious in its execution when compared to these films. While "Leviathan" was a heady rush of sensation, this one demands more perseverance. Some viewers may not even make it past the 10-minute opening sequence, in which an old man sits with a young boy in a Tom and Jerry baseball cap, both of them looking slightly uncomfortable and neither saying a word.

There are 10 more trips like this, with the camera looking at these people until they get off. By so carefully focusing the viewer's attention, Spray and Velez force you to appreciate the most quotidian details: a passenger's clothing, perhaps, or subtle changes in their expression and body language.

Some of the passengers are as taciturn as that opening pair, but others are more energetic: There's a trio of long-haired young rockers who snap selfies, play with a kitten they've brought along for the ride and joke that they should try shooting a promo video inside the cabin. Two men carrying Indian sarangi instruments comment on local infrastructure before tuning their strings and launching into an impromptu session.

In one delightful sequence, two women — presumably mother and daughter — try to eat ice creams before they melt, with mixed results. And while it would be unfair to spoil the film's biggest surprise, I will say that humans aren't the only species that get to use the cable car. You wouldn't see that on the Yamanote Line.

For more information about Sensory Ethnography Lab films in Japan, visit www.hunt-the-world.com.