Chanderi "City Of Weavers"

Filmed over a 5 1/2 month period, Chanderi, is a story documentary about the lives and art of two different families of master hand weavers living in a small town of Central India's state of Madhya Pradesh.

In the film one extended family, the Ansari's have organized and created without the help of NGO's or the govenment, an innovative 'self help group' that has successfully cut out the traditional middleman allowing the members to share in 100 percent of their deserved profits. This has earned them increased economic freedom and social status. Their success has inspired other families to form similar self help groups.

Chanderi weaver Nahid Ansari working her families hand loom

Chanderi the City of Weavers The Ansari family takes a portrait

In the midst of this narrative there is a wedding with six of the Ansari family members having unions on the same day. They are all marrying into and with other top weaving families within their town's community. The film virtually lives with the family and is drawn into every ceremony.

It is a privilaged opportunity, as the film makers record events and happenings rarely allowed into or witnessed by people outside of rural Muslim Indian society. The wedding story unfolds focusing on the transformation of two devoted daughters into that of new brides and how the family rises to the occasion.

the mendhi ceremony from Chanderi city of weavers

the ring exchange ceremony from Chanderi City of Weavers

Nahid and Nazim pose from the fim Chanderi city of weavers

In fact, the whole weaving community of Chanderi is holding a giant wedding celebration with over 50 couples being married on the same day. (It is interesting to note, that 'my' family, the one that started the innovative self-help collective are all having love marriages, the only ones within the Chanderi community.)

The film follows the family a month before and then all through the week long wedding ceremonies, and then follows up a month later as the festivities subside and the families, both old and new begin to weave again.

An integral part of the film is that I brought the Ansari family into the film making process. Members of the family began using my cameras and making decision on what and how scenes should be filmed. None of them had ever used or actually even seen a video camera before. My instincts were correct as being artists and craftspersons themselves, they proved to be natural photographers and videographers. Their contributions and how they saw their world through a camera lens enriches the story.

After the Ansari weddings the story shifts to a second couple who are known throughout Madhya Pradesh as masters of their craft.

Sufia Ansari mans the video camera at a Chanderi mendhi

Chhote Lal Koli the master weaver of Chanderi

The second family in the film is headed by Chhote Lal Koli, the 92 year old master weaver who has been weaving in Chanderi since he was 12 years old. He weaves on a old fashion traditional loom, with his wife, Pram Baai who is 85. There are over 3500 working looms in Chanderi and of these there are only three of the old fashion truly 'traditional' looms still in use. These traditional looms require two craftspeople to operate and and are identical to the style of loom used in the 13th century, 700 years ago when hand weaving production began in Chanderi.

The film follows Chhote Lal, his wife, and his family as they create a Chanderi sari and go about their daily life. Within the shooting I have also documented this master weaver as he explains and demonstrates the weaving process. I have also documented an extended interview with Chhote Lal, where he recounts his childhood and weaving conditions in Chanderi from the 1910s thru the 2000s. He also recounts tales and stories heard from his childhood on the events of 1857, when Chanderi was part of India's first war of independence.

a chanderi sari being show at Gopilal and sons

Chanderi is an isolated and neglected town in Central India belonging to the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is literally a town of craftspeople. An estimated 50 percent of the town's population of 40,000 are engaged in textile production. It is truly cottage industry as all the hand looms are in family houses. The legendary Chanderi sari is made here, a gossamer thin fabric once only worn by emperors, kings, and royals. Now the finest of Chanderi saris are coveted luxury items selling for 30,000 rupees and up.

The film depicts the living traditions of arts and crafts in India and shows how they are truly Indian National Treasures. It also brings a face, real people who are working and innovating to keep these traditions intact.

In Chanderi the population is about 50 percent Muslim and 50 percent Hindu. When asked about communal harmony I was told. "In weaving there is the warp and the weft that make the weave of the fabric. In Chanderi, the Hindu and Musim we work together like warp and weft, and we make up our town."

Background on the film.

"What brought you to want to make a film about Chanderi?" When I tell people that I am making a documentary about hand weavers in a remote town in India, in a place called Chanderi, this is often their first question.

I first visited Chanderi while backpacking and traveling through Central India in 2004. I was instantly fascinated with the place, the people, the work they did, its history, and where the future was taking them. I wasn't looking for a subject to make a film, the place and its people found me. As I stood atop a ruined hilltop 15th century palace, taking in the sights and sounds of Chanderi I was reminded of things I had heard the German film maker Werner Herzog talk about.

Mr. Herzog once lectured, "The simple fact is there are few images left. ...I see so few people today who dare to address our lack of adequate images. We absolutely need images in tune with our civilization, images that resonate with what is deepest within us... even if it meant climbing 25,000 feet into the mountains, to find images that are pure and clear and transparent. ...Because it is no longer easy to find that something that gives images their transparency, the way you could before. I'd go anywhere for that."

Here in Chanderi I saw the possibility of finding these transparent and pure images Werner Herzog spoke of. A place that in an atmosphere of seeming harmony, a harmony that my Western world feels to have lost confronted basic human questions. The questions, namely work, family, society, and the struggle to be happy, And there was also a visual metaphor here to represent all this, the unbroken 700 year old tradition of hand weaving and the magical transparent gossamer fabric so special and unique that it is known by the name of place it is created, Chanderi.

In early 2007 I returned to Chanderi with professional photo journalist Natasha Hemrajani. We spent a week researching and documenting the hand weave cottage industry of the town and making contacts. I became only further fascinated with the subject. My resolve that here was a powerful and meaningful subject for a film intensified. That I had found a place where these "pure and clear and transparent" images Herzog talked about could be found.

In our research in early 2007 another basic subject also came into focus. It was the exploitation of the craftspersons, and their struggle to create new and innovative ways to break free from that exploitation. We learned that the traditional worker, middleman, to sales store relationship was leaving the hand weavers of Chanderi at the short end of the deal which left them at subsistence level in the economic scale. That in only the past decade some of the weavers themselves had started to create cooperative 'self help groups' in order to take control of all the means of production and garner 100 percent of their deserved profit. Some exploratory contacts with these 'self help groups' were made and this subject became a focus for me.

In late 2007 I returned to India and Chanderi to begin actual filming. Over the course of five and a half months I lived in the town and shot over 50 hours of digital videotape and garnered over 6000 still photographs.

I arrived alone in Chanderi December 2007 with no ability to speak the native language (Hindi and Budelkhand) with a prosumer DVX100b video camera, a Canon 30D camera, a Mac Book Pro laptop, and an iPhone. I only knew that over the next 5 or 6 months I would shoot this film.

As part of my working plan I found my film crew among the towns people of Chanderi itself. It turned out that they were excellent photographers and tech assistants. My instincts that the weavers of Chanderi, being trained craftspeople and artists would have the natural ability for film making and photography was justified. I was also lucky enough to find the local historian of Chanderi, Mr. Muzzafir Ansari who had published a book on the towns history and he became my advisor, best friend, and translator.

Muzzafir Ansari a respectied member of the community and also the only 'Approved Guide by the Department of Tourism of Madhya Pradesh' in Chanderi introduced me to the two families I would focus my filming on.

(byron aihara May 1st 2008, this section to be continued in the near future.)

Chanderi, the City of Weavers is the working title of the independent film and video documentary directed by Byron Aihara on the hand weavers of Chanderi, India, who make the world renowned Chanderi sari.