ADVENTUROUS TRAVELS: Film Director Paula Fouce (R) during the filming of Song of the Dunes. (Courtesy of Paula Fouce)

LOS ANGELES—“There is amazing color and distinct beauty amidst the harsh landscape—it’s a beige desert, yet these people are all dressed like peacocks,” says director Paula Fouce about the subject of her new film.

The Song of the Dunes screened, on Feb. 4, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s large auditorium, the Bing Theater, which was filled nearly to capacity. Following the film, a panel discussion led by filmmaker Fouce addressed the engaged audience.

Included among the panel were co-director William Haugse, an Academy Award winning film editor for Hoop Dreams; Dr. Joseph Prabhu, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at California State University and a Trustee of interfaith peace organization, the Parliament of the World’s Religions; Christopher Tufty, Emmy award winning Director of Photography (DPA); and Italian composer, Luciano Storti.

The vibrant documentary peers into lives of the nomadic musicians of the Thar Desert, a region in India near the Pakistan border. The musician tribe, known as the Kalbelia and Manganiyar people, who are referred to as the “untouchables,” have performed for generations at village celebrations and at the royal courts of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in the Rajasthan region.

Nowadays, however, since the demise of the princely states when India became a republic, the musicians no longer have Royal patronage. They depend on tourism and local marriages and ceremonies for their livelihood.

Despite the outlawing of the caste system in 1947, the hierarchy ironically still bars them from entering the ceremonies for which they are playing. With magical folklore and mystical teachings, complete with Cobra snake charmers, the downtrodden people keep the traditional music alive today with dedication and joy.

I spoke with Fouce, President of Paradise Filmworks, who first became fascinated with the Far East when she went to Nepal to study. She would later live in both India and Nepal, and lead tour groups through Pakistan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, and China.

Fouce initially set out to trace the Gypsies who originated from this region. She described the original Gypsies as “a mixed group” and “made up of the worrier caste as well as artisans, musicians, and camel trainers, who followed the army over the continent along the Silk Road.” [Spanning from Baghdad to China.] After extensive research on the subject, they came to find that the tribes were “uneducated” and “they did not know their own history.”

Her intention in making this film is to have people see the amazing tradition and talent. Despite these qualities, Fouce says they still have to endure prejudice.

Chanan Khan plays the srimandal, an instrument unique to the Rajasthan region. (Courtesy of Paula Fouce.)

There is a growing awareness and interest in preserving the remarkable traditions of the true folk musicians, which are on the brink of extinction, Fouce explains. One of several musicians profiled in the film is Chanan Khan, the only known musician who can play and make the srimandal (an intricate stringed instrument).

One such example is the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, which was originally initiated in 2007 as India’s first annual festival of regional roots music and the arts. Fouce informs me that Mick Jagger is a patron of the festival, which showcases singers, dancers, instrumentalists, storytellers, and artisans from Rajasthani folk communities—many of them unknown to the outside world.

Despite the great discrepancy between how we live and how they live, “You can still find commonality with them,” Fouce concludes of her remarkable experience making Song of the Dunes.
 
“It is interesting because these people struggle so much, but they have such a love of life.”