Copyright 2026, Documentary Educational Resources https://store.der.org/sarkar-aditi-nath-c823all.aspx Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:20:36 GMT 60 Nexternal RSS 2.0 en-us https://store.der.org/singing-pictures-p422.aspx Product422 Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT <div style="float:left"><a class="url" href="https://store.der.org/singing-pictures-p422.aspx"><img src="//cdn.nexternal.com/der/images/singing-pictures.jpg" alt="Singing Pictures" border="0" hspace="3"></a></div><span class="riRssTitle"><a href="https://store.der.org/singing-pictures-p422.aspx">Singing Pictures</a></span><br><a href="https://store.der.org/singing-pictures-p422.aspx">Buy Now:</a> <span color="#990000"><b>$295.00</b></span> <br /><br /><div><div>For generations, Patua (Chitrakar) communities of West Bengal, India have been painters and singers of stories depicted in scrolls. The Patuas tell the stories of Muslim saints (pirs and fakirs) as well as Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines. In the past they used to wander from village to village, receiving rice, vegetables and coins for their recital. They would unroll a scroll, a frame at a time, and sing their own compositions. But competition from other media eroded this way of life and now the Patuas are trying to adapt to changing conditions.</div><div><br /></div><div>In response to this cultural crisis and as a means to make extra money, recently a group of women from Naya village near Calcutta formed a scroll painters' collaborative. The film follows their daily lives as they paint, sing, cook, tend to their children and meet with the cooperative. They discuss the problems and rewards of practicing their art, and speak freely about the social, religious, and political changes in the village and the world beyond. Their wisdom, artistry, and good humor amidst many difficulties illuminate the lives around them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Scrolls cover a variety of themes: mythological and religious, social and especially women's issues, contemporary local and world news. The more recent themes are communal (Hindu Muslim) harmony, Joy Bangla (the birth of Bangladesh as a country), the battle of Kargil (Kashmir conflict), and the September 11 events in New York. Women painters have also developed the figure of Satya Pir (revered by Muslim and Hindu alike) demonstrating how two communities can live in religious harmony despite mounting tensions in the rest of the country.</div><div><br /></div><div>The women candidly discuss issues of Islam and birth control, victimization of women, female education, poverty and work, religious tolerance and intolerance, and depict some of these ideas in the scrolls themselves. Women painters want to tell their own stories in songs and pictures, illustrating their lives of hardship and endurance. These stories attest to what it means to be a woman in Bengal and India today, demonstrating how a small group of determined women can empower themselves by adapting an ancient art to new conditions.</div><br /><br />Visit <a href="https://store.der.org/sarkar-aditi-nath-c823all.aspx">Sarkar, Aditi Nath</a> to see additional products in this category.</div> https://store.der.org/songs-of-a-sorrowful-man-p428.aspx Product428 Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT <div style="float:left"><a class="url" href="https://store.der.org/songs-of-a-sorrowful-man-p428.aspx"><img src="//cdn.nexternal.com/der/images/songs-of-a-sorrowful-man.jpg" alt="Songs of a Sorrowful Man" border="0" hspace="3"></a></div><span class="riRssTitle"><a href="https://store.der.org/songs-of-a-sorrowful-man-p428.aspx">Songs of a Sorrowful Man</a></span><br><a href="https://store.der.org/songs-of-a-sorrowful-man-p428.aspx">Buy Now:</a> <span color="#990000"><b>$295.00</b></span> <br /><br /><div><div><div>Lina Fruzzetti and Ákos Östör began a major film project in 2001, documenting the revival of an ancient tradition in India: scroll painting and the singing of stories depicted in the scrolls. The result was the award winning film <i>Singing Pictures</i>, released in 2006.</div><div><br /></div><div>The current film is a follow-up to the previous one and deals with the life and work of a painter, composer, singer, well known in rural West Bengal, as a poet and mystic of legendary proportions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dukhushyam is a charismatic figure, one who has departed from convention in many ways, most importantly in encouraging women to take up the traditional craft of scroll painting and musical composition pursued almost exclusively by men before. <i>Singing Pictures</i> was about the trials and ultimate triumph of 15 women in the village of Naya, all of them his students, who formed a cooperative to practice the ancient craft of painting scrolls, composing and performing the songs accompanying the scrolls.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a series of edited sequences the new film chronicles Dukhushyam's vision of the decline and rebirth of his art; his tolerant Sufi Muslim spirituality; his engagement with Hindus, Muslims and the modern world; his encyclopedic knowledge of changing musical and painting histories and techniques; the influence of his beliefs on his way of life, and his teachings for future generations of painters and singers in his community.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><hr><br /></div><div><b>SELECTED SCREENINGS &amp; AWARDS</b></div><div><div style="">Worldfilm - Tartu Festival of Visual Culture, Estonia, 2010</div><div style="">International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec (FIFEQ), Canada, 2010</div><div style="">Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2010</div></div><br /><br />Visit <a href="https://store.der.org/sarkar-aditi-nath-c823all.aspx">Sarkar, Aditi Nath</a> to see additional products in this category.</div>