Recipes for Food. Recipes for Life.

We are making movies for the exhibition.
Portraits of towns and portraits of it’s people. The idea evolves everyday. Because life writes way better stories than we could ever think about.

Two days ago we started shooting for our film with Musabhai.
Early in the morning we met him in his shop and planned to spend the day with him. Our agenda – dive into the world of Musabhai the Blockprinter, the Businessman. Follow him in his world of numbers, parcels, and customers. Be big-eared for discussions with clients and tea, the camera always ready to capture what we were hoping for.

Soon it was noon. Sarah and I were discussing scenes and conversations to shoot. Just then Musabhai called out to us, “Come, you can film me cooking.”
We looked at each other, confused.

Just in the morning he had told us that he was not printing or dyeing cloth anymore for some years now. Anyway.
“Maybe he is going to cook some natural dyes in a pot, to colour his cloth, so let’s go!”
While we were still looking at each other in confusion, Musabhai had vanished.
We stepped into the courtyard of his house, but there was no one.

After a few seconds came a voice from inside the kitchen, “Come, come. Come inside. I am cooking!”
Both of us were now grinning from ear to ear.

The businessmen behind the burner? A picture we really didn’t expect.
We will let you watch, Masterchef-Musabhai !!!

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Together with Khamir and the blockprinters of Kachchh: Kachchh ji Chhaap, 500 years of blockprint. An exhibit coming up soon on 7th December 2013.

So what are you doing in Ajrakhpur?

Abdul Rauf and Mansukh, both Khatris, both Blockprinters, but two men who could not be more contradictory.
Rauf, the businessmen. He knows about the value of his craft, he knows how to sell it, how to present it. He knows why it is important to preserve his craft.

And Mansook? He considers himself as a laborer, is working for the same customers since he started, the same pattern, the same cloth. He has never visited other Blockprinters, never came out of Bela and had never met Rauf…Until Now.

“So, what are you doing in Ajrakhpur?” asks Mansukh.

This is the first conversation between two worlds who are rooted in the same thing but couldn´t be more different. Who they are? What is their story?

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Bringing together the Khatri Blockprinters of Kachchh – The Blockprint Collective – coming up soon in December 2013 at Khamir