“THREADS” – An Update from Cathy Stevulak

Welcome to our second update on Threads: the Art and Life of Surayia Rahman -- a movie in the making.   You are receiving this message because you have signed up on our film website to receive occasional news about the documentary, because you have been helping us along the way, or because we thought you would be interested.

 "Threads" tells the story of a self-taught Bangladeshi artist who shared her skills with destitute young women, stirring social change, empowering lives and bringing traditional embroidery to an art form.  Read more on the story and this exquisite art on the Threads website. 

There has been a lot of exciting activity with the film recently, as well as with efforts to catalog and create an archive of Surayia's work.  Here are some of the highlights:

--  Surayia:  I speak with Surayia and her family members regularly.  Though the heat is oppressive at times in Dhaka at this time of year, Surayia still has that inspiring lilt in her voice:    "Anything can be done in this world," she tells me.  "One can not really explain everything or document it.  Capture the feeling."  And we will.

 -- Finding Surayia's friends and art worldwide:  My husband Len and I have made contact with so many wonderful people who have worked with Surayia at critical times in her life and who are now living on various continents.   Each one has generously shared memories of Surayia and helped connect us to others who own her work or know more about her history.  For example, at the turning point when Surayia started working with destitute women to help build their skill in producing nakshi kantha tapestries:

Art Wright and Sylvia Bews-Wright, early supporters of the project Skills Development for Underprivileged Women in central Dhaka, shared with us their photographs of the young women that Surayia taught to embroider in the early 1980s.  Upstairs from Surayia and the women was a safe and caring place where the women and their babies would stay, established by Betty while she was working with Families for Children.  We visited Betty in Canada and it turns out that she and her husband live in the apartment next door to where I used to live when I was in Canada in the 1980s!  She showed us the original Mother and Child tapestry that Surayia had fittingly gifted to her. And how did we connect with the Wrights in the first place?  Through Maureen who created and administered the Skills Development project.  Amongst other artifacts, Maureen showed us documentation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's visit to Bangladesh when Her Majesty was presented with an embroidered work that Surayia had designed. 

For more stories in the upcoming months, watch the blog on the Threads website.

 --  Starting to film   We now have hours of film footage shot in Bangladesh of Surayia as well as some of the women who started working with her many years ago and who have grown with hope and confidence to build better lives for themselves and their children.   You will be touched to hear their stories and to see the beauty they have created under Surayia's guidance and, more recently, under the guidance of the Salesian Sisters in Dhaka.   Captured on film are: the thread seller who was Surayia's main supplier for many years;  interviews with people who know Surayia and her social and artistic contributions;  plenty of "B-roll" shots of busy streets, crowded and colourful markets, all replete with the vibrancy and reality of Bangladesh life. This is in addition to the interview footage shot in Toronto with Surayia in December.  Thank you to our great film teams for this gorgeous high definition footage.

-- Applying for grants  We applied for two film development grants -- both highly selective competitions.  Many thanks to the very experienced filmmakers who are advising us along the way and to those who helped us with film clips. We are thrilled at the positive reactions to this unique story that "needs to be told."

--  Documenting the artwork- from 1 to 100  Anil Advani in Dhaka continues to make beautiful still images of Surayia's designs, including those pieces made for the official opening of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka.   My brother also helped with photography, and so many of you are sending images of the work that Surayia and the women she trained produced together.  Thank you! We started with one photograph and now have over 100 from around the world.  We are so pleased that Professor Niaz Zaman will be helping us with documenting Surayia's art history, and we have had other insightful discussions with art historians, museum curators and textile professors. 

--  Upgrading the film website  Thanks to Sage Internet Solutions Ltd. and to Anil we have upgraded our website and added new information and a blog. Take a look and please feel free to comment on posts or send us your memories of Surayia so that we can post them.  We welcome your ideas about the film, too.

--  Thanks for our sponsors    We started from "scratch" and so appreciate the many -- too numerous to list here -- who have had faith in us, providing thousands of dollars of pro bono services and advice to move the film forward.  Very special thanks!  We will soon be receiving our first cash gift for the film, which will allow us to pay for translation and transcription of the Bangla portions of the footage and work with a documentary editor to make a short 'trailer' that we can use for fundraising and promotion - and so that you can see some of the footage that we have so far.   We now have a "donate" button on our website for contributions small or large....every bit will be put to good use.   We need more high resolution photographs of Surayia's work in various places in the world, archival materials of her early life in Calcutta and Dhaka, music for the film, computer hardware and software, as well as more filming later on. 

If you know of anyone else who would like to receive our updates, they can sign up on the website home page.    If you want to know about new posts on our blog, just click RSS feed on the homepage and you will receive an email.   And, if you would like to be taken off our mailing list, there is opportunity for that below.

Thank you very much for your interest in Surayia and the community of women who make such beautiful embroidered tapestries.  Your support for this project is important and we dream that it will help bring greater focus to humanitarianism, women's empowerment, the beauty within Bangladesh and the many artisans throughout the world whose handwork brings meaning to life. 

We appreciate your support and encouragement!

Cathy

cathy@kanthathreads.com

"Threads"   --  a life-changing documentary

Photographs copyright Kantha Productions LLC and Anil Advani