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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.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Images of Jumla - Tatopani

goats don't quite know what to make of the camera


Lauri in her kitchen making roti


kids often carry their younger siblings around


women carrying dung out to the fields

we followed

it takes many journeys to fertilise the fields and
groups of women all help each other

this woman has the most incredible eyes - and smile


the view down the valley towards Patarasi mountain


old man enjoying his pipe


young girls beating grain


Man Bahadhur in his kitchen smoking fish

washing clothes by the river



Nisha & Sophie



Lauri giving Sophie a tika as we prepared to leave Tatopani



Friday, December 23, 2011

Images of Jumla - Ghodasin


smoking & thumb sucking




cooking up a feast at a festival



Nisha's mum, Rusa



boys playing karam - woman carrying heavy load in background




the crowd in the village watching crazy dancing at the festival




people store corn on the roof for the winter



gambling game played at festivals




Bishnumaya



Sandesh having his face washed




man running with goat (obviously)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Images of Jumla - Urthu-Chautara



Here is a selection of images from our first days in Urthu-Chautara, Jumla.


village life on the rooftops of Urthu
Chautara is the village on the other side of the river


our first morning - the village meeting on the 'high street'

Nisha, our production 'sprite' aka everything girl


everyone is always curious


the mandir (temple) at the top of the hill







Usha


Jumla's launderette


Nabina


grandparents are often looking after the kids



Khamani, Deepa and Jumli apples

These are pictures from our first week of our time in Jumla. This is and will be our main base but during our time we travelled to other regions - to film the EWN Eco-Tourism training in Tatopani (the same training that was the initial inspiration for this project), and also to revisit the women I had met at that training to see how their lives had been affected by the training.

As always, more to come...