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The birth of Shakti PIctures

Shakti Pictures is a visual arts film company. Shakti means divine, creative power, often associated with female energy.

Shakti Pictures was formed in October 2010 in order to produce our inaugural project, Daughters of the Curved Moon (working title), a documentary set in the Himalayas of western Nepal. The film is about a community in Jumla; a portrait of a lifestyle and culture. We are looking at women's changing role in society in rural Nepal. The inspiration came from a group of village women who attended a training programme run by a local charity, Empowering Women of Nepal and the subsequent affect it had on them.

In November 2011 we completed the first segment of shooting. We returned in March 2012, February 2013 and August 2013 for further shoots, tracking the passage of time, how things are changing in the lives of our friends and in the community in Jumla. This blog is the story of our ongoing progress.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Update from the Overnight Charging Station

I'm back in Jumla Bazaar overnight to charge our batteries and computers and download footage. Nisha and I will pile on to the crowded local bus in the morning to make it back in time for the training at 10am.

It is about an hour down the valley, following the river. Really a beautiful journey if a bit hair-raising at times as the road is narrow and bumpy and the bus seems to only just fit in places. When encountering a vehicle coming the other way, reversing with a sheer drop to one side can be a little disconcerting if you pay too much attention.

But travelling by jeep has its own pitfalls as we discovered when we moved camp to Tatopani the other day. Aside from being 3 hours late because it broke down on the way after running out of fuel, the jeep then broke down again where it was assigned to pick us up. This time it was an oil leak. Eventually that was fixed and we were on our way. One of the perk of renting the jeep was so we could stop when we wanted along the way to shoot some scenery.

It was only when we asked to stop the first time that we realised that the brakes hadn't actually been fixed properly and the reason the boy was hanging on to the side of the jeep wasn't because it was full (aside from me, Sophie and Nisha, we also had an array of other miscellaneous passengers including the drivers brother and friend who I guess were going the same way), it was because he needed to be able to jump off the vehicle to find a rock big enough to put under the wheel to stop us.

Thankfully, when we stopped for a few hours in town on our way, they took the jeep off to be fixed and on the journey to Tatopani we were actually able to stop where we wanted even if it was on an incline. Soraj and Dhan Bhadur had come along for the ride too and were going to go back to Bazaar with the jeep after it dropped us. We arrived and said our goodbyes to both. In the morning, we noticed that the jeep was about 200 yards down the road. We later found out that they had again run out of petrol and so Soraj and Dhan Bhadhur had to walk and eventually hitch a ride on a truck taking them 3 hours to get home. For some reason (maybe a leak) it hadn't occurred to them to fill up enough for the whole days journey. I haven't actually paid for the jeep yet, but you can bet there will be some negotiating...
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