Camping in Idyllwild

After filming for about 5 weeks, in every free moment I could manage, I took a break and went camping. I wanted to try out the Sigma FP for stills as I had been using it for filming “Ramkali”. I also ended up using Dark Table for all the color work afterwards. I shot with no color profile and made my adjustments after the fact. It was actually quite impressive to see what could be pulled out of these images with some simple editing.

The stars in the clear night sky were beautiful. I used a combination of Laowa 15mm f4, Vivitar (Komine) Close Focus 28mm f2, Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and a Zeiss 300mm f4. Focus is more challenging off a screen in the bright sun. Other than a few missed shots due to that, I really enjoyed it.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Day in Gujrat

I woke up in the comfortable Gujrat University guest room. The view outside was beautiful. The sun was still low across the fields, and a thick fog lay over everything. I took my time getting ready, and by about 10 am, went to meet my friend Anwar for breakfast at the canteen.Afterwards, we walked over to the fine arts department, where I got to visit with a few more staff members and check out some of the various majors. There is an FM radio station, as well as pottery, ceramics, printmaking, industrial design (complete with 3D printers), multimedia and much more. It was fun to see some of the work these students are doing.By then it was time for my presentations, so I went to the multimedia lab and shared some of my professional work and then my short film “Gul” and the design process behind it. The part I enjoy most in this presentation, is sharing the process of taking a vague concept and developing it through clear visuals into a finished piece. It is a lot of fun to have a conversation with the students to learn about their own interests and to see what aspects of what I am sharing interest them most. I had a lot of fun sharing with them.Speaking to some of the faculty, I heard a lot more about the usual administration issues. The problems are very real and quite serious with all of the institutions I have come across. I have faced a number of challenges in my work that really made it hit home for me, how corrupt the system here is. So in that sense, it is understandable why people vent and certainly have legitimate things to complain about. However, it does not make sense to do that with someone who just arrived. Almost everyone I met, after a brief introduction, went into what a mess things were and how impossible it was to get what they would like to do done in this environment. That’s great, but not really appropriate to dump on a guest. This happens a ton wherever I have been. When it is a friend sharing something with me, that is different, but so many places that seems to be the very first and only thing people share, is all the horrible crap they are dealing with and how things are so awful and hopeless.It is not that what they are complaining about is untrue. I think a lot of it is very accurate, however, when I look around and see all of these young students here to learn and quite clearly being taught well by these same professors, I feel like they should share more of that with me instead. After lunch, Anwar showed me some beautiful displays by the industrial design and ceramics departments. The work looked beautiful, and it was quite clear that the staff really do care about their students. From there, I got a high speed ride into town to the local bus stand. I hopped on a little wagon (van) for Rawalpindi as there was no direct bus to Peshawar from there.We had only gone a few miles, when the wagon stopped by the side of the road. There was some kind of issue, so another one was called and eventually we all piled into it and were on our way. I kept dosing off and being jolted awake by the sudden starts and stops. There was an older man next to me who kept mumbling things that were hard to understand. At one point hey yelled out to the driver to let him off at Mundra. Eventually we got there, and the driver pulled over. This guy starts asking everyone whoever wanted to get off at Mundra should get off. He kept asking who it was over and over. Finally someone said, you are the one who asked to stop here. He seemed to have forgotten but since so many insisted that it was him, he relented. He was kind of entertaining like that, announcing stops from there on and giving advice to people on where to get off and which route to take the rest of the way. It was all pretty funny.Eventually, I hopped off in Islamabad and got on a van for Peshawar. It took a while for passengers to fill up, but after an hour we were on our way. It was dark and my suitcase was wedged on top of my lap. I stared out the window at blobs in the shadows, between dosing off for a few moments and looking for signs to see how close we were to Peshawar. Once at the station, I called my friend who came and picked me from the Daewood stand down the street. We drove past a ton of secured areas that had been attacked by suicide bombers in the past, including the school bombing last year. This city has been through a lot.We met up with some more friends of Abdur Rahman’s at a studio, then went out for some food. The restaurant was closing, but we were in luck, they had one prepared chicken left. It was seasoned more or less with just salt, green peppers and lemon. It was really delicious and much more subtle on flavors than spicier food in Lahore.From there we head back and I went to sleep.

Gujrat University

I got a call early in the morning that my ride to Gujrat University had arrived. I finished getting ready and head out to meet Fayaz in an empty lot off the main road, since the place I am staying is in a narrow lane and there are no street names or house numbers to speak of.We had been driving for a bit when a breaking sound came from the engine and we pulled over. Luckily, there was a motorcycle repair shop by the side of the road. After a bit of back and forth, they patched up the car. Like most cars on the road, it was just barely held together enough to run, so we were on our way again. I watched the landscape change and a few small towns and farm land lead us to the outskirts of the city of Gujrat (in Punjab, Pakistan). The campus had beautiful buildings and wide open spaces with lots of greenery.I met up with Anwar, a lecturer there and had been a student when I met him at CEAD in Jamshoro, Sindh years ago. I got to meet some of the staff and walk around a bit. We grabbed some breakfast at the canteen before I gave a lecture on my work. It was fun to share. We scheduled another lecture for the next day, then went out for lunch.In the evening we visited the tomb of the man who bequeathed this land for education. It was overrun by grass. After that, we visited some old buildings in the city.

Books

I spent the morning at the Landa Bazar, looking for some cloth for a river bank for “Risalo”. I have been here so many times over the course of this project. It is great to see the finished backgrounds, neatly framed in cloth. Umar has done a beautiful job of helping to design these backgrounds and hand stitching and figuring out the many challenges to bringing the designs to fruition.I took one of the finished backgrounds to the bazar to match some colors. Most of the people selling cloth in large heaps could not be bothered to talk to their customers, but as I looked through the stacks at one stall, I chatted a bit with the owner as Umar and I have come there quite a bit. I opened up the background and showed him what we had been up to with all these pieces of cloth that we had purchased here. He was really happy to see it and told the neighboring shopkeeper all about it and called him over to have a look. They really appreciated the hard work that went into piecing it together. It was fun to share.I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my friend Kabir, sifting through stacks of old books at the Sunday book fair and then heading over to Ferozsons book store. They have opened the whole back area of the store again, having rebuilt it after an electrical fire years ago. I grabbed some ice cream at Chaman, then sat down with some book collectors and sellers. Over tea, it was interesting to learn about big estates in Lahore that housed huge libraries that ended up being sold for their weight in paper, rather than the true value of all these antique books that had made their way into the hands of a private collector from all over the world.

Azam Gardens

I caught a wagon to Azam Gardens. From where I am, it is fortunate that I can get a Qing Qi to the main road and then walk a ways and hop on a van to some far off places. Vans are pretty cramped and it takes a while, but once I was in, we were on our way.We made it about a couple of kilometers, before a bunch of scrawny M.A.O. College snots came by and insisted that everyone get off the van and go to another one so these pieces of shit could go on a joy ride at the driver’s expense. They don’t want to deal with these kids damaging their vehicles and this is their route, so we piled into the next van and were on our way. The conductor on the second van told us about how these college students do this stuff.After that we were on our way once again. Eventually I got to the neighborhood I was headed to. I spent some time at a couple of houses. People were a bit busy or sleepy, so I ate, made small talk, slept a bit and then no one was really around when I woke up, so I left.It was dark by then. I walked out the neighborhood, to the main road and crossed the many lanes of traffic. There were no wagons stopping there so I just kept walking for several miles until I got to some crazy intersection, crossed it and hopped on a wagon. That took me to the Qing Qi which took me home. Good times. I am ready to be done with this trip.

Phool Patti and Faiz Festival

Haider Ali and Ali Salman of Phool Patti dropped by in the morning. I went out to pick up some halwa poori, while Umar fixed up the place and made some tea. I must say, he is really good at uncluttering the place when he needs to. I can't say that about myself.Haider and Ali Salman are as usual up to great things with Phool Patti. As a truck artist, Haider has pushed his way past so many barriers to develop his skills and then rise on the merit of his hard work. Painting trucks has been in his family for several generations, but from his teen years, he made a point to seek out training in all areas related to his work. He went to cinema board painters to work on portraiture and landscapes, and studied with sign board painters to push his calligraphy skills. He wished to insure that he could cover all aspects of his art, and never be at the mercy of someone else. I feel very connected to that. In working on my own projects, I try to pick up as many skills as I can, and while I may not become an expert at everything, I want to at least be able to put things together. This helps a lot in directing and collaborating with other artists as well.In hearing Haider talk about his own journey thus far, I see a lot of the same obstacles that I hear from other artists or experience myself. Yet despite all of that, here he is, pushing and creating connections and opportunities for himself as well as the team he has created, traveling the world, breaking all of those barriers that others have tried to set, particularly on artists who don’t have recognized academic training or the benefits of other bars to admission in this very hierarchical and incestuous system. On the other hand, I have a lot of those benefits, but I recoil in disgust at a lot of that whole scene, while leveraging it in a way that better suits my temperament. He is an internationally recognized artist, yet if he had more of a snooty attitude about his art, and some inflated degrees; an acknowledgement to the academic gate keepers of art, then he would be Haider Ali sahib and not referred to as Haider bhai. What a bunch of crap. Despite all the nonsense, it brings me a lot of joy to see him and his team traveling the world on the merit of their work.After some food and sharing some music and artwork from “Risalo”, I head over to visit some relatives. I returned later towards evening, and took a series of buses and qing qis to get to the hotel Haider was staying at. We sat down for some green tea, then Umar and I saw them off at the railway station. That one sentence sounds so simple, but what it actually entails is so much more. We crossed several lanes of insane traffic from all directions, navigating potholes and open sewers (covers are often stolen), the public latrine (any wall or corner), misdirection on the train platform (running around with heavy luggage up and down stairs to every which platform we were directed to in a huge mass of people), then squeezing aboard the train and ignoring incorrect and official sounding pronouncements of being in the wrong berth, then walking all the way back through all of that to move on.Umar and I head to the bus stand and waited for a bus to Alhamra. Our friend Imran was there at the Faiz Festival, in honor of poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. We sat for a while, watching a beautiful solo dance performance to Faiz’s poetry, intermixed with other songs and pieces that pulled together readings of letters between Faiz and his wife during his imprisonment. There was a lot of humor in their exchanges through what must have been such a heart wrenching experience. I felt a bit sad, thinking about all the struggles, apathy and lack of a genuine desire to do your part to make things better that I see here and certainly back in the US as well. There are so many people who do care and are doing incredible things to make the world a little better, but overwhelmingly as was before and as is today, our goals and purpose in life are to accumulate wealth for tomorrow or brownie points for the afterlife.We took a walk through the beautiful Lawrence Gardens at night, before heading home to enjoy some delicious food courtesy of Umar’s sister.

visiting

Umar and I visited my friends Haider Ali and Ali Salman Anchan of Phool Patti. They had just returned from a trip to the Pakistani High Commission in India, where they had painted some walls in their truck art style.We caught up, then head to the train station to book their return tickets to Karachi. From there we grabbed some lunch at a little dhaba, before heading to Olomopolo, an interesting open arts space where they had a meeting scheduled.I walked over to visit Sohail sahib at Checkpost and the rest of the group went their separate ways. It was a bit of a walk to get to Checkpost, but I felt like just walking. After my experiences with production people here, I really wanted to just get back home and move on with the next stage of things. After all I have been through to accomplish whatever I have for “Risalo” so far, I just wanted to get back home. I had gone over some more details for the last river background with Umar that morning. I planned to be out of town for the next week. That is a bit risky as the work may not get done, but so be it, I don’t want to sit around here waiting another week, just trying to bide my time.It was good to catch up with Sohail sahib. I shared the reasons for my decision to go home and not shoot “Risalo” in Pakistan. The director of “Manto” dropped by to see some progress on a project he was working on. I felt very fortunate to get a chance to sit in on the session and see some previews of a very lavish production that he has been working on. It makes me feel good to see projects that are raising production standards here.We had some coffee cake, courtesy of Hamza Imam who recently became a father. Hopefully I can stop in again before I leave, but I certainly appreciate all the friends at Checkpost, who let me use their resources for weeks on end to digitize DV tapes for the music portion of “Risalo”. Sohail introduced me as being someone of some significance in relation to my work, but I feel quite the opposite. I look at the work around me and see funded projects with entire crews, and on one side I see myself, quite battered by the experience of trying to make this film. What I am trying to make is certainly an oddity. I don’t see something like “Risalo” being made at any point if I don’t do it. That does not necessarily mean anything of any significance, it just is. Sometimes you just make stuff, because that’s the stuff you want to watch, and whatever with all other considerations.I took the usual long walk to the metro, followed by a bumpy ride home via bus and qing qi. I have a few lectures lined up in different cities for next week. I might as well do something useful before I leave. That should pretty much take me through to the date of my flight. I am tired of waiting and thinking, so hopefully this will help.

Friends from Peshawar

A former student of mine from NCA was in town so I went to visit him at the college. I spent some time catching up with Suffi sahib as well, before Abdur Rahman and a couple of his artist friends from Peshawar head out for a walk. His friend Imran had never been to Lahore before, so we went to the Lahore Museum next door. Though I am tired at this point in the trip, whenever I see some interesting art, ideas start flowing and I feel excited to create new things or continue with what I have already started.After the museum, we had some food in Anarkali, before Abdur Rahman needed to go take care of some chores. I offered to show Imran and Shams around. We spent the day walking through new Anarkali, to Lohari Gate. From there, we walked through winding lanes, admiring bits of old architecture whilst dodging traffic. I took them to see the beautiful Naunihal Singh Haveli. From there we walked through all the cloth markets, past Sunheri Masjid and found our way to Masjid Wazir Khan. Incidentally, I had never actually walked by Sunheri Masjid before. I had heard of it and seen some photos, but each time I walk these old lanes a different way and come upon new things, that have been there for ages.They really enjoyed all the detailed fresco and tile work on Masjid Wazir Khan. We sat down for a bit as the sun began to lower in the sky. We had done a lot of walking. From there we walked around the Shahi Hamam or royal bath house before hopping on a Qing Qi outside Delhi Gate and head to Data Darbar. From there we figured out where they needed to go next to meet a relative of Shams’. I sat them on a wagon (van) and sent them off, before walking down Ferozpur road and hopping on a Qing Qi the rest of the way back.It was nice to share the city. I have been to most of those places several times on this trip, but if someone is visiting the city for the first time, those are certainly some things they should see. I told them to try and visit the fort and Badshahi Mosque the next day. I felt tired as I got home. I want to try and make good use of the limited time I have left in Pakistan, before I head back. I worked on a design for the final background I need to get finished and then sat, just thinking abit about what comes next.

Trip to Ichra

I had picked up some clay pots in Multan for one of the stories for my puppet film “Risalo”, but felt that the larger ones were a bit roughly finished and I could use some more. The size I needed was not available at a number of shops I searched around Lahore, and a friend had suggested I go to Shama chowk.The chowk itself is around Ichra Bazaar, which is apparently the oldest part of Lahore. I had passed it many times while riding the metro across town and figured that I would go there at some point, but it had yet to happen. So it was, that I made plans to go. My friends Ifthikhar and Mohsin agreed to join me, and though that made us start about 3 hours late (it is seriously difficult to get people to stick to a schedule here), I was very thankful for the company.The metro was insanely packed. It is always packed, so when I say that it was even more packed than usual, that means I spent the duration of the trip pressed up against a lot of people rather intensely. Getting out was that much more of a challenge, but I made it out, like ripping free from the clutches of some hungry beast.Mohsin and Ifthikhar got there about 7 or 8 buses later. We walked down to the main road. An old man asked me how to get to the bus in the opposite direction. This is a huge problem with traffic and metro here. There is almost never a safe way to cross the street. I manage, but just barely, so you can imagine that elderly people or anyone disabled, or just any regular human being is going to find it difficult to impossible to cross through traffic that comes from all directions and never lets up. It is a cruel and dangerous setup. The metro does not have a way for pedestrians to cross from one side to the other. You have to walk down a long flight of stairs, cross anywhere from 6 to 9 lanes of traffic, and find an unobstructed crossing point in the middle, then run across the other side.I looked at the old man asking for directions to the other side. I glanced up and down the street. There were stairs that crossed over the street a good distance from where we were. I told him to cross there. We had to go the same way, so we saw him and four women hobble painfully down the street to the stairs, then up and down the other side, only to have to keep going to get back to the metro stairs, then up again.We continued on our way and found a shop that sold clay decorations. They had some pots that could work, but I wanted to explore more options before deciding. We would come back this way when taking the metro back home anyway, so I I figured we would go explore the bazaar for other options if there were any.Through backstreets we came across an old gateway with beautiful fine brick work. It turned out that the gateway lead to an old mandir, or Hindu temple. When Pakistan and India split in 1947 and the bloodshed of partition caused mass migration on both sides, the Hindus and Sikhs of Lahore left as many Muslims from across the border made their way here in one of the largest mass migrations and massacres.Refugee families came to Lahore, while many who had lived here for countless generations left. Those families that came here were allotted homes, including spaces within this mandir. So the numerous rooms that lined the perimeter of this large mandir had been converted into small single room residences where families had been living for at least three generations. They had treated the spaces with respect, though their former religious functions had ceased long ago. Then when the Babri Masjid was destroyed in India, by fanatical Hindus, the fanatical Muslim groups in Lahore decided that they needed to destroy mandirs. The Muslim residents told us how they were extremely afraid, running to save their families as crowds of politically motivated groups descended upon these long abandoned places of worship and caused damage that is still visible today.It always makes me sad to see these remains. The dead buildings seem to echo the anguish of all those displaced and murdered to make way for what exactly, I do not know. We explored for a bit, before continuing to Ichra. There were a ton of cloth and clothing shops. I picked up some sewing supplies that Umar had asked for as we explored. We did see some pottery shops, but none with anything useful for me. In the end, after much walking with friends, we went to the first shop near the metro to pick up the clay pots we had seen there. This time, the first man I had spoken to was nowhere to be seen and his assistant was running the shop. I asked for a dozen of the clay pots I needed. He mumbled something about six times and all I could figure was that he was quoting a higher price than the owner had earlier, but I could not make out exactly how much. I did not care. I just kept telling him the pots were rs. 30 each as had been stated earlier and that I would take 12.I got a ladder and brought them down. He filled all twelve in a single plastic bag. I had to insist, several times for two bags. He refused several times. Finally he said for me to pay him the money first, since he thought I would run away otherwise. This guy was quite the character. So, I paid him, he brought the change and we put the pots in two bags before Mohsin, Ifthikhar and I squeezed back onto the metro and head back home.Umar spent the night working meticulously on adding backing and borders to the backgrounds he had completed. I must say, they look quite incredible all finished and ready to hang.

Looking at clay pots

I had stayed the night. In the morning I spent time with my cousins and aunt. Faiza baaji, who has been instrumental in many of my Punjabi language efforts on other projects, took me to her collection of clay decorations, to see if there was anything I could find useful for my film, “Risalo”. I did find a few pieces to finish off the unfinished hookah prop I picked up from Multan.Besides that, it was just nice to take a break from sitting in isolation waiting for time to pass. I left in the late afternoon to head back to the other side of town. This is part of the process of wrapping things up before I leave for home. I had picked up the other suitcase I had and spent a few hours trying to figure out how to get all the film related props, puppets, backgrounds and production gear into my suitcases while still keeping it at some estimate of the airline baggage weight limits.

Keep going

In the morning, Umar and I picked up some more cloth from the Landa bazaar. Though we have often picked up cloth from the second hand sellers outside, on this day, we head inside the shops, deeper within the market where they sell all kinds of new cloth. The shopkeeper we had called before coming was still not there so we searched the neighboring shops for some other cloth needs.I looked at more cloth that could make for an interesting river background. I had figured out the mechanics for the design that I thought would work. It takes a lot of time to find the right material and certainly, new cloth is more expensive, but very necessary for certain tasks.After hours of hunting and bargaining, I handed the bags of cloth to Umar and sent him home, then walked down the street to grab a rickshaw to my relatives. The rickshaw driver was interesting. He quoted me the right price, so I did not need to bargain. I hopped in and we were on our way. He discussed all kinds of life philosophies with me along the way. Luckily, he did not need a response from me beyond an occasional “mm hmmm”. It is very loud in a rickshaw, with the sound of the vehicle and all the traffic around it. Add to that the fact that the driver is thankfully facing the road and all of his sound is being projected away from where I was sitting in the back and it makes it very tough to understand much of a conversation.I picked up that he was grateful for all that he had despite hardships and that love for all was all that mattered. People love to compliment themselves and share how virtuous they might be. Who knows what is true and what not. I was just along for the ride. I thanked him for getting me there safely, then spent the rest of the day and night catching up with my relatives over some nice food and a break from the world of puppets.

Reflection

Imran and Umar provide a breakfast feast.

I sent some money to the puppeteers for their time, waiting to be called to Lahore for “Risalo”. It is interesting. I look back at how I had planned to shoot the film on my little Canon Rebel T4i with it’s minimal 720p resolution for raw recording with Magic Lantern. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to shoot on a nice professional grade camera, with a proper crew. I really did want that, but there was no way for me to afford it.I understood the limitations of my budget and tried to make a plan within that. Yet when I came to Lahore, I was told by so many well meaning production related friends that I was foolish to do that. Surely they would help me to gain the resources I needed to shoot the film with a cinema quality camera and crew. This is not a huge project and my planning is quite meticulous as far as what we need to shoot, so it was well within the realm of possibility. However, for that to happen depended on a few variables beyond my control.Contacts who knew the people that could provide crew and equipment. I had that.People to state what they wished to help with honesty.People who actually felt connected to the purpose and the film to work with me rather than getting people just trying to size you up and see what they can take you for.Two and three were my downfall. It took so much energy to set things up properly and get the key people and equipment in place that when the promises and reassurances all turned out to be lies, I had neither funds nor energy to continue with a shoot. Certainly I tried, but that endless sizing you up to squeeze you as hard as possible is what forced me to stop the production right here. This is not how I can make this film.The biggest casualties here are the puppeteers, who will go back to their menial labor jobs. Thankfully there are opportunities for them to begin making puppets again which can lead to performances and a more sustainable life for them. This depends now on them putting in the effort to do this, with the support that friends and I can provide. We’ll see how this goes. Being open and looking out for the puppeteers was appreciated by them, when it came to production people I met, that same attitude was seen as weakness and they sharpened their knives that much more. So the far more educated and wealthy people were the dirtiest and nastiest of the bunch. The puppeteers called me as Khurshid visited them to distribute the funds I sent. Jamil thanked me for not forgetting them and for treating them with respect and care. It is so necessary to work with people with whom you can create a bond like that, rather than these production people that I came across.I texted the DP that dropped out and told him, that I wished he had told me he had no interest in doing this film before I went to Multan. I had visited him and shown him the animatics for both stories, reconfirmed that he was on board, gave him the option of splitting the production into a week in November and a week or less in December according to his schedule. Yet here he was intent on telling me he would do the work, only to begrudgingly say he was out, once I had raised the hopes of the puppeteers and trained with them. Even his admission followed another attempt to delay telling me for another ten days?!So what does this tell me? It does not matter how good their friends are and how good they are to their friends in a non professional space. As I have made my decision to rearrange the schedule for the film, by going home to my family and hopefully a job, while working on the animation and audio portions of the film, I find myself having to explain to so many people. People tell me that I should have planned better to get an Indian Visa and go there to work, or I should have magically had more money, or I should have hired more production people at the beginning to help record the music, or I should have been better, smarter and more capable at everything. Sure, I wish I was, and that more things came easily, but no. This has been my struggle and my effort. Having seen the video folks that same friend recommended, I don’t see how I would have fared better with his audio friends. People have all the answers when they are not actually doing the work. It all sounds great as an idea, but once you try those resources, you realize the painful process of bringing each piece to life.There is a lot of learning from this process, but unfortunately, it consists largely of making more money and staying away from Pakistani production specialists. I had this lesson regarding music folks when I came to record music for “Gul", then actors when I came to record voices for another project and now video production people and arts institutions on “Risalo”. These are not just my experiences, for along the way I have heard so many horror stories regarding other friends’ dealings with arts institutions run by corrupt appointees. Now I must leave, to create this work and survive these challenges, but in an entirely different place and with a different set of circumstances to be determined.I would leave tomorrow if Umar was not still working on backgrounds. I might as well finish that so I do not have to return in case I end up shooting the film elsewhere. The suitcases are heavy and I will likely pay a great deal to take it all back. That does not make it seem likely that I will return to shoot in Pakistan.

Rehearsing puppeteers

I spent the morning with some cute company. My friend Azam had to drop his wife Zareen at the University where she teaches. They are both talented artists and arts educators. The home is brimming with beautiful art created by the couple and by other artists. I love it. They are like family to me and have made my first and second trip to Multan so warm.So as I was doing some tedious shot breakdown tasks related to “Risalo” on my laptop, the most beautiful little smile kept me company. Little Sherebano hung out with me, doing her daily workout of pushups and smiling. She seems very eager to start crawling, standing and running around. She smiles and my heart just melts. It was great to have her there, helping me with my spreadsheets. After a bit, her brother Shazain came sleepily into the room. He seemed a bit concerned about where his parents were. I reassured him, gave him some water then we all went to the living room, away from the laptop and other things that must be broken.Azam came back, we had some breakfast, watched some cartoons and head to the design college. The puppeteers were in the area and so I went and got them and we sat down in the yard to do some work. I skipped through the two animatics to give them a feel for what we were doing. They got to see what some of the other puppets were like. I took out the four I had and let them inspect them and start trying them out. Talking will only get us so far. These artists need time with the puppets to figure them out in the context of what we’ll be doing with them.So we spent a good four hours figuring things out. Part of it was an audition to see how their skills were and equally to see if we could work together and figure out new things which is what this entire project is going to entail. We had conversation and they got along with each other. I know that sounds like a pretty basic thing, but trust me, it is crucial. They listened, and shared solutions for how we could get a particular movement out of a puppet. It was an exhausting 4 hours of explaining, and all of us collectively thinking and working together, but it was worth it. These puppeteers are fully capable of putting on their traditional performances. The movement is broad and big so that people way in the back can see it just as well as people sitting up in the front of the audience. For my film, we need finesse and subtle movements. That is not what they normally do, but we also have the advantage of being able to do multiple takes, set initial poses on puppets by hand and adjust their setup for a given shot. This is quite a bit like the animation work that I do. That helps in being able to guide the process. Their own experience as puppeteers is vital in figuring out if the strings need to be wrapped around the other side of the hand to get the palms facing in or out and things like how long they need the strings to be.I was very glad to see them take that initiative and with my blessings to adjust the strings and figure out new ideas, they ran with it. We figured out that certain movements will require multiple people to manipulate a single puppet. We also need space, so we will likely raise the puppeteers up on chairs or some kind of sturdy benches, with longer strings so that they can perform together. It will be an interesting challenge to put it all together, but they are certainly more able to handle the puppets than I am, and willing to take direction and work together to create solutions. That is what we need. This just might work.In the end we discussed payment and a timeline and I have to say that I am truly grateful that they were professional about it all. It seems we have created a good space to work together, with everyone’s needs met. We don’t have a master puppeteer who can bring out the most subtle of movements, but we have some puppeteers and it will be my job to help them do their best and take their art to someplace new. Khursheid works as the storyteller and as such does not perform the actual puppets, but he has been crucial in finding the puppeteers and giving me space to work. I’m not going to leave him behind. So he too will join us. Of course I have paid him for all of his help up until now, but part of building these relationships, besides payment is mutual respect and understanding as best as I can, the financial challenges that they face. I’m also under a lot of pressure to somehow pull this thing off before I run out of this shoe string budget.That is why I spend a lot of time and care in making sure that each person I work with feels respected and appreciated, while also knowing what my expectations are and making sure they are down for it. So we realized there will be a need for extra hands in spots. Khurshid will be needed, not only to wrangle the team, but I think he’ll be able to help with background characters as well. I feel like this is great. He won’t be cut out from any of the earnings or the excitement of working on a larger project like this, and he will be a valuable addition to our team. The last puppeteer we will add to the team is currently in Lahore, I was told, so I can see him there. I met several other puppeteers when I last arrived, but the more skilled ones were either too beaten down by life, or manipulative and deceitful. In either case, they would be perfect for performances, but much more challenging to work with on something more experimental.I said goodbye to the puppeteers. They thanked me and I felt a little nervous knowing that so much is on my shoulders, but better that we have the beginnings of a team and workflow after just a few hours of working together. Azam and Zareen took me to the craft market where Shafiq sahib among other artists sell their work. I had been there back in March and knew that I would be back to pick up props for “Risalo” at some point. I needed a number of small clay pots for “Risalo” as well as a few other items I had made a list of. Picking the items was easy. Shafiq sahib helped me out. The only challenge was payment. He would not let me pay for anything. People are so sweet and humble, and these are the very people you want to pay whatever you can to. Azam and Zareen are good friends and supporters. I had come with them and was thus like family. I will figure out a way to pay. I say this because many artists are so loving and generous, but they usually are struggling and have put their hearts and souls and a lifetime into their work. The least society can do is pay them some fair monetary compensation, as people do for all other goods and services in their lives.

Meeting more puppeteers

rickshaw art

I love the art in my friends’ home

hi there new friend

After a delicious breakfast with my friends Azam and Zareen and their little ones, we head to the Fine Arts Department at Bahauddin Zakaria University. It was interesting to walk around and see the class rooms and students. I saw students working in clay. These campuses are a huge blessing. Progress is hampered largely by a culture of deeply rooted corruption that keeps institutions from reaching their potential. As always, while walking down the corridors of institutions, I don’t see the damaged buildings or lack of electricity and polish so much. I mean, it is there, but what I really see is that there are large buildings, with a lot of space and institutions with the ability to pay bills, teacher salaries, connected to a network of institutions around the country. So much could be done, if people were not so corrupt and intent on not allowing others to get ahead.That system keeps the people who are struggling to make things better from being able to make the progress needed.From there we head to the Multan Design College across the street, and I grabbed a rickshaw to head to the Siyal Hotel, a little dhaba by the Eid Gah, where Khursheid lives. We had agreed to meet there to figure out how to proceed with getting puppeteers. He had visited different areas in Multan where the puppeteers, who are all related live and called some people in other areas to help me find puppeteers prior to my arrival. Over the phone, I had requested that he get people that are the best puppet performers, as well as good people that we could actually work with. These puppeteers are living in very difficult conditions. They collect recycling, sell eggs, or keep a goat or two all year round to sell during Eid season. They get called for shows now and then, but it is not often. I can’t even imagine the cut throat existence that exists in their world after seeing what salaried, educated people are willing to do to get ahead.Therefore, I have a heavy set of challenges to deal with. These puppeteers are not going to be at the skill level of the ones in India who are performing on a regular basis and have exposure to international puppeteers who visit. Yet I have seen that they are capable performers, and if they can take direction and we can work together, then we can make this puppet film; “Risalo”, happen.So I went to see Khursheid, and as it turned out, he had three of the puppeteers in tow with him. That was great. I got to see Jamil Hussein again, and met Muhammed Ishaaq and Abdul Hakim. I had tried to find Abdul Kakim before. Khurshid took me to the tent slum that his family lives in when I was here back in March. He was away, in a rough part of Karachi called Lalukhait, collecting recycling. I saw some of his photo albums and some wood puppet heads he had carved as well as a couple of beautiful puppets he had made, many years ago. Later, while in Karachi, I had tried to search for him again, thanks to the help of some truck artist friends. I was not able to meet him then either and just met his son there.He, as far as I have been able to find out, is the last puppet maker in Pakistan in this Rajasthani tradition. No one has learned from him, because what good is a skill that can’t put food in your belly? At that time, I knew that I could not expect that he would be able to create the main characters for the film. I ended up getting those made by Puran Bhatt in Delhi and then selected premade puppets from Rajesh Gurjargour in Udaipur, Rajasthan. I could not go to India, but my wife was able to bring them for me.So here he was, sitting at this table, a quiet older man along with some more worn, emaciated puppeteers. I was nervous coming in, because it is hard to wrangle people and an entire production.We talked about what I was trying to do, what they had done prior and what we could do together. I appreciated that Khursheid had discussed the project and myself with them already. They stuck to providing reassurance as to why they were qualified to do this work. To me, that is a very good sign. Without my even asking, they shared examples of how they had created puppet performances for the Health Department, with changes to their routine to reflect the script they had provided. They talked about these projects and displayed an understanding and strong desire to do the work. They didn’t play any kind of angle, sizing me up or trying to talk themselves up while talking someone else down. Those are strong warning signs that I have had to deal with a great deal with others.So we shared some tea in a little dhaba. They would not let me pay for it. We decided that holding auditions in the slum would be very challenging as we would be in a sense mobbed by people pulling out their old puppets, trying to fight their way in, without actually being trained performers. This happened when I came to scout puppeteers back in March, so I know it was true. We agreed to meet the next day at the design college. They would bring some of their puppets and I would bring the four I packed in my suitcase, and we could try this out.I head back to the design college, feeling good that at least in conversation, they were good. I want to benefit them, and when we create something beautiful together, we can all rise together.

Multan once again

I head out early in the morning and hopped on a Daewoo bus to Multan. The ride there was nice enough. The weather is much cooler now than my previous rides, which makes it a much better experience. Once in Multan, I hopped on a rickshaw and made my way to the Multan Design College, to meet my friend Azam Jamal, who is the principal there.I came to Multan to decide on puppeteers to work with for my film; “Risalo”. It will likely be a challenging process. I asked Khursheid, who is a storyteller during puppet performances, to track some suitable puppeteers according to my criteria before I arrived. That should help get things going.

Prepping for Multan

Best place to nest?

I spent the day getting ready to go to Multan and working on a spreadsheet breakdown of shots for “Risalo”. It is good to be at this point at last, but there is a lot to do. I need to keep tabs on all the people involved as well as to do way more tasks myself than I really should be doing, but that is the nature of my resources.There is a pigeon that has made its home in Imran’s kitchen. I have tried to shoo it away many times, but it always comes back. Days ago, I noticed that it had now laid some eggs. Now when I go to use the kitchen, it freaks out and flies around like crazy. The electricity was gone and it was rather dark in the kitchen. I went to heat up some food and it started flying and hitting the window, rather than going out the open hole in the top part of the wall.Umar is working on huts for the background in the film. It should be interesting to see how these come together.

Phool Patti in Lahore and Evernew Studios

I went out to meet my friends Haider Ali and Ali Salman Anchan of Phool Patti for a halwa puri breakfast in Anarkali. It was fun catching up a bit. They are on their way to India to share their amazing art.After breakfast, we walked through new Anarkali to Lohari Gate in the walled city and had some tea. From there we walked through the old city and came out the other side by the Lahore Fort. I walked them to the entrance of the fort then head out to Evernew Studios to meet Nomi to discuss shooting “Risalo”. He had just come off a busy production schedule, but we sat down and watched the entire animatic I had put together. He seemed happy to see that things were properly planned and quickly approaching being ready to shoot. He had since decided to switch which camera we would use, which I think is fine as it will save a lot on budget and still give us excellent quality for our needs.He had not put together any of the budget materials, so we still need to work that out and it looks like we will try for shooting a portion in November and then the rest in December, between his commercial responsibilities. That sounds fine. I think we are on schedule, with plenty of smaller tasks to do in the next few weeks so that we can shoot this film.Afterwards, I head to Delhi Gate and the Landa Bazaar. I picked up some interesting cloth for a river scene and lots of shiny gold buttons for treasure. I need to pick up a bunch of props in Multan during the time I’ll be auditioning some puppeteers and working to prepare them for the unique challenges with the way we are approaching puppetry for “Risalo”. There are so many bits and pieces to put together for each aspect of the film. There is very little momentum on any tasks when I am not directly involved at the moment. That is a huge challenge, but by providing a solid plan for all details of the project, I hope to create a strong production that each artist can add to during the process. It is just a lot of work to get to that point. The latest animatic has been a huge step in that direction.I spent the rest of the evening with Haider Ali and his friends. We grabbed some ice cream at Chaman and walked around Mall rd. There was a lot of talk regarding all the challenges and obstacles to being able to flourish with your art. I listened mostly. I certainly agree, but I was more interested in ice cream after the last few weeks of pushing to get this latest animatic together. I can’t just dwell on the obstacles if I am going to bring all these elements together and make this film happen.

Anything can and does happen

People love their political parties. Loud procession in the street.

I was supposed to meet a puppeteer yesterday. That was shifted to today, and that also did not happen. Apparently his brother got into a fight as soon as they got to Lahore on friday and now the brother and brother’s wife are in jail and the puppeteer is trying to get them out. This does not bode well for working with him. This of course is one of the many challenges in working with people.Certainly, anything can happen to anyone, but once we lock shoot dates, it is not an option to not show up, and can I get these puppeteers to show up for all the days of the shoot? Besides that, a production meeting was shifted at the last minute to tomorrow, so it was another day of waiting.I could not get my animatic for Sohni to render out, between the electricity going constantly and the computer freezing or software errors. I did figure out a way around this for my current purposes. I can play it back just fine in the computer, so I just used quicktime to record that portion of the screen. I could not get it to record sound, so I had to put that in afterwards. Well, it is something we can work from.I also made a list of props that need to be made or purchased. It is not a lot of things, but the there are a few that I need to make, so it needs to start happening now.

Perhaps tomorrow

The puppeteer I was supposed to meet got into some kind of issue and said we would have to meet the next day. So, I worked on my animatic for “Sohni”. I combined shots, removed some and lengthened others to create a smoother flow to the story. That’s about it. All day waiting, working, waiting for the electricity, waiting for people, and inching forward.Once again, it is a rather isolating experience to sit here and try and piece it all together. It’s not much of a life, but the work looks very good. Each day I think, well tomorrow some of these meetings will actually happen and I we can move forward, and I can have some ice cream.

In search of X-Ray Paper

Umar and I went out to look for some material that could be used inside of some cloth huts we are making, to keep their shape. We started at some art supply stores in Anarkali, looking for xray paper. It turned out to be a very thin kind of film. That would not do, so we walked through packed lanes and made our way to Urdu Bazaar. There are shops with all kinds of cardboard and paper. We even found a thicker sort of xray paper, but in sheets too small for our needs. Asking around, we were lead to Lohari Gate. Down the street from it there are all kinds of shops with printed cardboard and film from packaging. There was lots of beer case cardboard, flat and unused as well as candy bar wrapper paper and all kinds of other product labels, unused and stacked. We walked down a lane that had all kinds of xray paper and found a shop that had rolls of it that we could purchase by the kilogram. So we figured out how many yards we needed and estimated based on that.I’m really glad that Umar was there. He had suggested that I go to Mayo hospital and just ask for it, but I insisted that he come and somehow Mayo hospital ended up being the one place we did not go. It is tough to track things down, I have no idea what the local terminology for a lot of things might be as people don’t go on descriptions. They need things worded exactly as they understand it, otherwise forget it. I’ve seen that elsewhere too. Besides that, we needed to make sure that whatever we picked up satisfied both of us, in terms of what we thought was needed.With a couple of kgs of xray paper, we returned.