Posted by:  Cathy

We are pleased to see that Maiwa Handprints, of Vancouver, BC, will be featuring kantha, indigo and Bangladesh later this year.  On September 11, 2012, the Maiwa store on Granville Island will host a “Living Blue” exhibit with displays and discussion about indigo.  On September 12 and 13 at Maiwa East Anowarul Haq and Apurba Deb Roy will lead a workshop on kanthas.  On October 11 Mary Lance’s excellent documentary about indigo “Blue Alchemy” will screen in Vancouver, and Mary will be there to talk about her film.

Posted by: Cathy

It’s exciting to report that we had another day of filming done in Dhaka on May 7.  We were able to capture additional interviews with several of the women who worked with Surayia at Skills Development for Underprivileged Women and later at Arshi.  Len and I worked closely with our editor, Rita Meher, as well as with the field producer in Bangladesh, Dina Hossain, and others, to refine the film story line and the questions to ask the women.

We’re excited about the prospect of additional footage of the women since they were there for many of the most important moments of Surayia’s life: when she started working with women and embroidery at Skills Development, when she was asked to leave the project, when she started Arshi, when her daughter Annie died.  They were also there when Arshi became a success and stayed close to Surayia as her health failed and she was no longer able to work.  Their stories are inspiring ones and important to show a complete picture of how Surayia and her art helped change women’s lives for the better.

We look forward to reviewing the footage soon.  Many thanks to Catherine Masud and her staff at AudioVision and to Dina Hossain for helping us to capture the footage we need to tell these wonderful stories.

Posted by: Len

Although we are still hard at work on creating the first rough cut of THREADS, our thoughts are also turning to the next step after we have finished editing and locked the film. That step will be the additional post production that follows editing, where the film is put into final form and prepared for distribution. We need to start planning music and associated sound engineering, as well as the thorough review of the film required for color correction.

Cathy and I recently met with a Seattle post production house to get a better idea of what services we can expect and — importantly for independent film makers — what the work will cost.  It is amazing what can be done with a film to make it truly a professional product worthy of someone who was a perfectionist as Surayia was.  Any differences in lighting, for example, between filming sessions can be modified or corrected so that the final product has a consistent look and feel.  We were told to think of the process as “Photoshop (c) for movies.”

We plan to travel to Bangladesh before the end of the year to work on music for the film, and ideally to record a  soundtrack done by local musicians.  That recording would then be processed by a sound house and ultimately added to the film at the post production house to create a final version of the documentary that is ready for distribution.

We still need to finish the filming and editing, of course, but it is encouraging to know that we can also start to plan for the next phase of this great project.

Posted by:  Len

Congratulations to our friend Alex Rotaru for the New York City theatrical release and good reviews generated by his latest documentary, “Shakespeare High.”  Cathy and I met Alex — who has also directed “Kids with Cameras” and “They Came to Play” — in late 2011 in Kazakhstan where I was helping to put on an American contemporary documentary film festival in Almaty and Shymkent.  Alex’s enthusiasm, passion for his subjects, and general joie de vivre are refreshing and inspiring, and both Cathy and I really enjoyed the time we spent with him, and learned much from our discussions of film making.

Alex was in Kazakhstan because “Kids with Cameras” was selected by an independent panel of experts for the American Film Showcase which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and was being shown, subtitled in Russian, along with five other American documentaries in various cities in Kazakhstan.  Alex and film expert Diane Carson led discussions of his and the other films, had workshops with students, and helped introduce Kazakh audiences to a film genre that most were not familiar with.  Continuing Alex’s tradition of success, in February “Shakespeare High” was selected for the 2012 American Film Showcase.

Congratulations to Alex and those who worked on the other films chosen for AFS!  Your work goes around the world and helps audiences experience firsthand the amazing creativity and breadth of vision and experience of U.S. documentary filmmakers.   We hope that Surayia’s story will one day join AFS as well.

Posted by:  Len

We recently came across this article from the Dhaka Daily Star and were pleased to see the Salesian Sisters being recognized for the excellent work that is being done at their embroidery center.  Along with Anil Advani we visited the center in Monipuripara several times during our trip to Dhaka in late 2010 and were very impressed by the high quality embroidery that we saw.

Intricate embroidery at the Salesian Sisters house in Dhaka. Photo copyright Anil Advani and Kantha Productions LLC.

Surayia gave her designs to the Salesians when she was no longer able to draw or stitch; Sister Elizabeth and her colleagues now oversee the embroidery of the women who used to work for Arshi.  The quality, from what we saw on our visit, remains high, and we understand that there continues to be strong consumer demand for nakshi kantha tapestries.

The Daily Star article includes a photo of one of Surayia’s designs, her interpretation of Rabindranath Tagore’s play “Shyama.”

We were also pleased to see a positive mention in the article of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows.  Cathy and I were frequent visitors to their house and chapel in Bashundara when we lived in Dhaka; Mother Luisa taught many young women how to embroider beautiful table linens.  The type of work done at OLS is very different from that of the Salesians, but it is all exquisite and the goal in each case is to help poor young women become self-sufficient, just as Surayia did.

Congratulations to Sister Elizabeth, Mother Luisa, and everyone in Bangladesh who helps to carry on the rich tradition of embroidery.