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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, February 19, 2013

Jumla Tomorrow

Sophie arrived in Kathmandu to find a national strike (bandah) in place in Nepal. This meant that normal taxis were not running. The streets were full of people wandering and children playing. The usual mayhem of tooting motorcycles and gridlocked traffic completely gone. This also meant that picking her up from the airport was a bit more challenging. There were tourist buses (with special green plates) still able to move about the traffic-free streets, so after rearranging a few things, she found her way to a comfortable room after her gruelling 36 hour journey from Los Angeles.

No time for jet-lag as the whole team (Soph, Miranda, Soraj & Nisha) is set to leave for Jumla tomorrow morning. We are all bracing ourselves for the cold as the ground is covered in snow there - and if I thought Kathmandu was cold in the winter with no heating, I better hold on to my ear muffs as this is going to be a whole new level of chill.

We are all very excited to be returning to Jumla and grateful to our supporters that made our recent fund-raising campaign such a success.