Bayview Entertainment will be guiding documentary
filmmaker Satyaprakash Upadhyay’s Bunkar: The Last of the Varanasi
Weavers, the award-winning look at the
3,500-year old Bunkari (weaving) traditions of Varanasi, India, to the DVD
marketplace on June 30.
Craft, art form, a family/generational tradition …
the Bunkari method of the handloom is dying thanks to, or cursed by, modern
mechanization. The craftsmen once
numbered in the millions, now could just fill Dodger Stadium, it is an
industry, a tradition, a lifestyle in retreat.
Upadhyay’s film traces the history of Bunkari,
blends in interviews with a number of the weavers, no, make that craftsmen,
artists — yes, indeed, artists, they even have their own followings, fans — and
shows modern manufacturing techniques have devastated the once flourishing
industry.
It took Upadhyay some 18 months to film his story,
to capture on film the rich, but sadly dying, craftsmanship of Bunkari and to
showcase the talent, the traditions and the creative art of these unique
handloom tradesmen.
Bunkar: The Last of the Varanasi Weavers is a
fascinating, educational and even emotional story that is presented in English
and Hindi, with English subtitles where appropriate.
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