From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (2013)
Director: CAMP; Writer: CAMP; Producer: CAMP; Cinematographer: Siddik Umar Sanghar, Mrinal Desai, Junas Salemamad Bhagad, Ashok Sukumaran, Shaina Anand, Sulaiman Haroon Raja urf Dada, Jabbar Hassan Chingda, Ismail Haroon Ghandhar, Mohammed Rafik, Sulaiman Wahab Sumbhania, Abdul Majid Chauhan, Mehboob Abbas Sanghar, Hakimuddin Lilyawala, Anonymous; Editor: Sreya Chatterjee
Duration: 01:23:00; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 233.188; Saturation: 0.008; Lightness: 0.418; Volume: 0.144; Cuts per Minute: 14.434; Words per Minute: 14.663
Summary: A boat has many powers: to gather a society in its making, to distribute goods, to carry people and ideas across places that, it seems to us, are more different than ever before.
The widely travelled feature-length film From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf; a vast, undulating, and musical spatio-temporal journey through the Western Indian Ocean, is a result of four years of dialogue, friendship and exchange between CAMP and a group of sailors from the Gulf of Kutch. Their travels, and those of co-seafarers from Pakistan and Southern Iran, through the Persian and Aden Gulfs show us a world cut into many pieces, not easily bridged by nostalgics or nationalists. Instead, we follow the physical crossings made by these groups of people who make and sail boats. And who also make videos, sometimes with songs married to them.
'From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf' was awarded the Jury mention at Festival International de Cinema, Marseille and the New Views Prize, Olhar de CInema, Curutiba. It was the opening film at Images Festival Toronto, and has been screened at BFI London Film Festival, the Viennale, MoMA, Flaherty Seminar, Shanghai Biennale among other venues. It showed in Bombay and Sharjah in purpose-built cinemas; one inside a public museum and one on the waterfront. It is in the permanent collection Tate Modern, Sharjah Art Foundation and M+ museum.
1.
Title sequence
Sound travels first.
Image appears after a beat.
An actor prepares; adjusts the mirror/camera, checking himself, There's someone hiding
behind him brandishing a kitchen knife, also checking himself. The actor sees him, and he
runs out of frame, only to be pulled back in and smothered with a hug that beats to the
rhythm of the song. An abhinaya or mime follows…with the knife as prop, with lip-syncing and dance.
We are inside a wooden cabin. There is humour and love. This is a film built on
a social contract called friendship
Song: Yaadon Ko Bas Wo Yaad Hai
Album: Woh Bewafa
Singer: Agam Kumar Nigam
Music Director: Nikhil
Lyricist: Praveen Bharadwaj
Music Label : T-Series
The song juxtaposed in this video at once brings in the themes of longing for home, desire and memories, but the comic rendition of it is an insight into the everydayness and pragmatic take of the sailors in to these grave aspects of their lives; something which is consistent throughout the movie, thus acting as an appropriate title sequence
2.
Titles cut in on black over the song.
CAMP
Siddik Umar Sanghar
and Junas Salemamad Bhagad
present
3. A film based on actual events
It is a documentary, in its purest most unadulterated form.
(Cardinal point 1)
4.
and videos of actual events
An Assemblage.
A film based on and mediated by hundreds of videos.
Many videos in the film are single units, one-takes; videos filmed out-at-sea over ten years, often found married to music. They embody alterity. An otherness of the everyday made cinematic.
Each is an image. Not a visual.
5.
Cut back to the video.
They are laughing, they pan and readjust the camera, which by now we sense is a
cellphone. And by now we sense that we are in the cabin of a wooden ship. The friend (bandhu)
pretends to steer the boat, hands on the wheel. In the background, not concerned with the filming, a person sorts the contents in a Lulu bag. Exposure changes to reveal another background. Outside the window, another boat emerges and disappears. we are at sea. But their boat is static. They seem to be role-playing. (But they also do what they are pretending to do).
The lyrics tell us the days don’t end and nights are a burden. In these circumstances life is
hard…
6.
Song continues.
Film title on black
KUTCHI VAHAN
PANI WALA
and in english
FROM GULF TO GULF TO GULF
The original title of the film is a code word. Its a trade secret, its meaning only the sailors
and their communities along the western Indian Ocean, be they Kutchi, Balochi, Khaleeji, Irani,
Yemeni or Somali will know.
From here on its established that the film text has two readings; for the sea-faring societies
whose film it is, and for us the universal audience. The film as structure must have fidelity
so as to work on both levels, as two parallel texts.
And still for the curious, a slight clue: a tiny animation of the chimney and a little belch of
smoke.
The English title FG2G2G lays out the linearity of the film, which already seems loopy and circular, nonetheless proceeding on a length of time through space; through three gulfs on the Western Indian Ocean.
All films have cardinal rules, structures into which we see acts, sequences, narrative arcs
etc unfold.
The structure in this film will be gradually revealed over linear time. But the titles lay down
the third cardinal principal around its process, form and mode of address.
Cut -
7. Prologue
We are back at sea. Its windy, we appear to be sailing. The wooden cabin is bright pink. Two men are sitting cross legged discussing how to fix the roof of a small model ship, while referencing their own larger and real vessel. A big jar of Fevicol is in front of them.
The two men are involved in a recreational activity trying to build and paint a mini ship. They find time to put in the details.
recreation
Taqiyah (Skullcap);
Fevicol-glue
8.
In the next shot the roof is fixed and a white stripe is being painted on the body of the
model boat, carefully over the green one. The green is the peace of Islam, the white for the
peace of the world. Together, these colours provide divine support for the ship from under the water.
The camera lingers on the cabin and the galleys of the model ship, and then zooms our and pans up to reveal the
same in the big boat.
This is Memesis. But not only…
Song: Ek Haseena Ki Nigahon kaa
Singer: Suresh Wadkar
The song and the act of making a model boat are both an act of bonding over a shared love of boats and the charm of the alien land. The song is a retro that must have been a favorite among sea men; it is a hyperbolic description of falling in love with a woman from a foreign land which is also a homosocial act very common among men.
While the kinship among the men on the boats becomes apparent at the outset, this scene begins to hint at the kinship between the men, and the boat in which they traverse over long distances. As the men painstakingly dab paint on the model, they bring alive their relationship to the boat.
gaze
hook line
The rope line seen in the background is a hook line. Sailors tie one to the railing, to rein in Mahi Mahi fish. This hook line and episodes of fish catching will recur in the film from time to time.
9.
Scene 1.
Title: Jam Salaya, Gulf of Kutch, India
Were inside the cabin of a huge ship under construction, as is revealed with the pan; the view of the town is seen through the cabin, as a view from the boat, this giant boat on the yard. It's name is MSV AL SULTAN. We see many wooden ships in various stages of building.
A young lad checks his hair in the reflection and enters the cabin, poses.
Sequence 1
Jam Salaya, Gulf of Kutch
Jam Salaya, Gulf of Kutch, India
MSV Al Sultan: literally meaning, the king. Arabic.
The name of the boat appears.
10.
A bag of wood planing tools, the same fevicol - white adhesive we saw in the model boat scene, the
same cabin we saw in the opening song, and also in the model boat.
These sailors make the boats, they sail the boats,
and on those long days and nights in between work and rest, they also make videos,
sometimes with songs married to them.
The first three scenes:
The title sq. prologue and scene 1 lay down the video vocabulary for the rest of the film.
The first is a cellphone video, and belongs to the category called “found”.
The second is handy cam, filmed at sea- and part of our film collaboration with some boats
and sailors.
The third is at land. Filmed by us.
The sheet of glass is placed into the wooden frame in the cabin. A window to the inside of the ship.
A young adolescent boy hammers a bracket nail onto a giant log of wood in a lumber yard in Jam Salaya.
Lumber yard
The huge log of wood, usually Malaysian timber, used as the fulcrum for the ship glides along a track. In the background of the lumber yard is the shipyard, on a makeshift mast is a green flag.
gaidar
hull
In the hull of a ship taking form. A young boy exits frame after serving the boat builders some water. Other workers carve out the niche on the left side of the boat, for the horizontal rising. In the mid foreground, the gaidar (master carpenter, ship builder) chisels the big curved log for the Keelson.
The horizontal log is in place. Young adolescent workers tighten the chain to secure it. Wipe off perspiration, take a break.
chisel
hammer
hammer
hammer
kinship
labour
More such wedges are being chiseled out.
skill
wider shot. Work time and break time. Hammer and Chisel. Beedis and Khaini. Young and old. Apprentice and mentor.
Even wider. Work and break. All three sets of workers appear in the frame, the task of building still in progress.
Intergenerational
Extreme wide. The estuary of Jam Salaya in the background. End of work day, almost.
Right to Left pan of shipyard and estuary taken from the terrace of a home in Jam Salaya. Shipyards are the extension of each home, the 'godi' where boats take form. In the foreground are boats in construction, in the background on the estuary are sailing vessels, in the middle is the muddy estuary at low tide. The pan glides past over 40 vessels not able to find an end till it follows a blackbird. A loudspeaker from the mosque announces the names and nikkah of a couple at 4 pm. Where does the built environment end, where does the sea begin?
A empty classroom in Jam Salaya. Outside the window is the ship yard, a vessel under construction is framed by both windows.
black board
class room
mickey mouse
school
school bench
Another sequence of intergenerational boat building.
Sequence 2
Third window of classroom. Mickey mouse painted on the classroom wall and a black board to the right, with the lesson in Gujrati.
Ten young boys are frolicking in the water, in the muddy "godi" where three boats are moored. A diesel tank lies abandoned on the left of frame. A young lad strides out of the water. It is a style of walking, and a style of trousers that we will notice more and more.
A boy walks out, his bell bottoms now wet and another boy drenched, picking up two stainless steel, tiered lunch carriers follows him out.
Al Faruk
boys
Shah-e-Hasami
MSV Al Faruk: literally meaning "distinguisher between truth and false", a title given to Umar, a companion of Muhammed. Arabic.
Shah e Al Hasami: ?
MSV Al Mehraab: "Mehraab" denotes the wall in a mosque to which Muslims must turn towards in order to be facing Mecca. It is an Arabic word.
Two other boys exit the water. One of them picks up two steel tiffin carriers. They are likely not school tiffins, but lunch boxes for the ship building team being taken home.
R. K Photo Studio, Jam Salaya. Tilt down from a collage of framed portraits of young children, some girls, many boys- to famed portraits of young men. Boys become men. and leave for the seas after learning the ropes in the shipyard. Life moves from home as sea to sea as home.
An older man, possibly in his fifties, looks at camera and smiles. Voice behind the camera, says , " haan Malum!". Malum is the indian ocean word for Pilot, or navigator. He walks with his palms in the water and points to the thick black rope that went out of frame.
Two sets of ropes, one black, the other white. And two groups of people trying to work them. Tying, or untying?
Malum, the one who knows ties a complex knot and harnesses the a white rope onto the black one. The younger sailors, Khalasis watch and learn. Malums waterproof wrist-watch speaks of his generation, who kept time, tide, sun, moon, wind rain, with experience and sextant, radio, calendar, map and clock.
A call and response that is no longer used, from the days of sails and manual cranes. "Don't lose strength - Keep pulling"
Two boats rev up and move forward, the boat that was reigning in the rope now drops them. Belch of smoke comes out of the funnel of the first boat. Both boats move in tandem towards the creek where we see several boats lined up. The ropes go taut, we see that the other boat is harnessed to it; it is being pulled out of its lap.
Departing Jam Salaya, Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat
MSV Shah-e-Boon: literally meaning "King of Boon." Urdu/Persian.
MSV Safina al Rashid: literally meaning "The Wise Vessel". Arabic.
Zoom out from the name of a large boat anchored in the creek - Safina Al ZIlani, a man is filming from a small boat, camera pans right and left and we see many, many large boats on the horizon, the creek tide is high, the boats float high about their waterlines. A voice comments on the receding tide as the small boat comes to dock at Safina Al ZIlani, at a ladder.
MSV Safina al Zilani: literally meaning "The Zilani Vessel". Arabic/Persian.
Big boat departs, people in a small boat wave to the crew, go safely. The flag of India is seen on the back of the vessel.
Another large vessel departs
the man who was making the model boat in the prolog smiles and talks to the person behind the camera outside the pink cabin. Camera zooms into the cabin to someone at the helm of the boat. We are onboard and on a journey.
GPS, several vessels marked as X are seen in the mouth of the Gulf of Kachchh, and in the water out side Karachi. A line calculates the distance of the Gulf crossing.
An empty vessel tosses purposefully in the open sea, India flag fluttering at the helm.
MSV Noor e Shabir: literally "The Light of the Virtuous". Shabir is also a title of Hussain, grandson of Muhammed. Urdu.
Camera tries to zoom in and read the name clearly - Noor e Shabbir, light of virtue. A green flag flutters on the prow. We realise one boat is filming the other.
cooking
work
Three members of the crew boil water, peel potatoes and make rotis onboard.
A shot of what has become the kitchen floor, three men squatting among vessels with chapatis, vegetable peels etc. A man deftely rolls out the chapatis and cooks them on the stove beside him while the other tends to the fire over which he places a vessel of water. Another is cutting up and peeling potatoes.
An acrobatic fish comes bounding at the ship, we realise its caught the line, the same voice we heard earlier instructs both camera person and fishers. The neon Mahi Mahi is boarded onto the ship.
animal
fish
mahi mahi
work
Fish out of water begins to change colour, then keels up. cut.
One boat films another. Calm waters. Even keel. Empty boats.
Encountering another boat from Jam Salaya, India
Jam Salaya, India
Leisure time. Viewing.
We encounter a launch from Karachi, also empty.
Song:
To Man E Dil by Hafeez Baloch (Bulbul E Balochistan)
Encountering a boat from Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi, Pakistan
One more boat films another and stripes a song on the clip. A rounded back wooden vessel, an Iranian Bari. Also above its usual waterline, probably empty. Small plume of smoke is perceptible.
Encountering a boat from Qeshm, Iran
Sound surprisingly travels onto the next frame. Viewer relaxes and changes pose.
Dubai, UAE
airplane
flight
MSV Jaya Jamna: literally meaning ?
Al Sadek: literally meaning "The Truthful". Arabic.
LIC (Life Insurance Corporation, Indian Insurance Company)
Sharjah, UAE
time: 7.30 pm
Fireworks at the Burj Khalifa, New Year's Eve. More footage on Youtube.
Grand fireworks happened twice at Burj Khalifa in 2010. First during its official opening on 4th Jan and again on NYE 2010/11. Confirm if this is the latter?
Burj Khalifa
time: 7.30 pm
Jadaf drydocks, Dubai
Sharjah Creek
cooking
cooking
Sharjah Corniche Road
Dubai Creek Wharfage:
Dubai Creek Wharfage: Men load and unload boxes from vehicles. White markings are made on cars. Looks sunny.
Dubai Creek Wharfage
food
Song: Zindagi Ki Talash Mein
Singer: Kumar Sanu
Film: Saathi (1991)
The framing of the multi-storeyed building and the selfie shot tries to situate the boatmen in their ideas of life and death and their weirdly pragmatic attitude towards it. The song which in itself is melodramatically poignant on being married to a tragic situation offers a sardonic take on the whole thing. The recurring videos in the film of ship burning and the sailors' nonchalance about it speak of its quotidian nature.
Bosaso
Berbera
Bandar Lengeh
Mogadishu
Bandar Abbas
Song: Aa Jaana Tere Bin
Singer: Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam
Film: Bol Radha Bol (1992)
Bab al Musandam
Socotra
Song: Chori Chori Dil Tera Churayenge
Singer: Kumar Sanu, Sujata Goswamy
The clips on ship caught in storms mostly portray the romance between the ship, the sea and the sailors. Given the masculine nature of the ship this also brings in the homosocial relationship that they share.
Song: Elahi Madad Kar Madad Ki Ghari Hain
Artist: Mohd Owais Raza Qadri
The imagery of a woman's odhani in the sea waters not only personifies the sea but again brings in their quirky sense of humour.
This is preceded by a clip on how an overburdened ship is struggling mid water, so this is a juxtaposition of divine intervention and natural and often manmade calamity
This is preceded by a clip on how an overburdened ship is struggling mid water, so this is a juxtaposition of divine intervention and natural and often manmade calamity
This is preceded by a clip on how an overburdened ship is struggling mid water-a juxtaposition of divine intervention, natural and often man-made calamity
This is preceded by a clip on how an overburdened ship is struggling mid water-a juxtaposition of divine intervention, natural and often man-made calamity
This is preceded by a clip on how an overburdened ship is struggling mid water-a juxtaposition of divine intervention, natural and often man-made calamity
colgate
Song: Odhani Odhali
Singer: Udit Narayan, Mahalakshmi Iyer
Film: Tango Charlie (2005)
animal
fish
mahi mahi
Bosaso, Puntland, Northern Somalia
animal
goat
animal
camel
animal
cow
animals near the gulf
Song: Kisi Din Banoongi Main Raja ki Rani
Singer: Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan
Film: Raja (1995)
Song: Teri Meri
Singer: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shreya Ghoshal
Film: Bodyguard (2011)
The song is preceded by a chuckle that shows us the jest that goes into this. A woman on board is a rare thing not just in this movie but in the marine culture. So this brazen rendition tries to capture it.
animal
cow
Salalah, Oman
animal
goat
Song: Maula Mere Maula
Singer: Roopkumar Rathod
Film: Anwar (2007)
work
animal
fish
mahi mahi
cooking
food
recreation
Song: Chikni Chameli
Singer: Shreya Ghoshal
Film: Agneepath (2012)
Men sit and play cards.
recreation
Song: An Nabi Sallu Allaih
Singer: Owais Qadri
Berbera, Somaliland
food
Song: Pyaar Ki Pungi
Singer: Mika Singh, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Nakash Aziz, Pritam, Javed Jaffrey
Film: Agent Vinod (2012)
MSV Sabir Piya: literally meaning "Sabir the Beloved". "Piya" means beloved in Urdu. Sabir refers to Makhdoom Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir (1196-1291), a Sufi saint whose dargah is near Haridwar, in a village named Kaliyar.
animal
Sharjah
recreation
cooking
food
animal
goat
Song: Woh Kisi Aur Kisi Aur Se Milke
Singer: Agam Kumar Nigam
Album: Phir Bewafaai Deceived In Love
animal
dolphin
fish
Aden, South Yemen
Khasab, Musandam Peninsula, Oman
Sirri Island, Persian Gulf, Iran
Ras Laffan, Qatar
Kuwait City
Khor Al-Zubair, Basra, Iraq
Song: Piya Haji Ali
Singer: A. R. Rahman, Kadar Ghulam Mushtafa, Murtaza Ghulam Mushtafa, Srinivas
Film: Fiza (2000)
MSV Safina al Baghdadi: literally meaning "Ship of Baghdad". Safina is an Arabic word which also means "She who is strong". It is interesting that this happens to be a female name.
Khor Grama, Oman
animal
barnacle
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Song: Aage Aage Chahat Chali
Singer: Udit Narayan
Album: Chand Sa Roshan Chehra
Mombasa, Kenya
Song: Regina Nakupenda
Song: Dil Nashin Dil Nashin
Singer: K.K
Film: Aashiq Banaya Aapne
animal
goat
Song: Ye hai maikada yahan rind hai
Singre: Ali Mohammad Taji
Ship, fishing, drawing in the catch
animal
fish
Charcoal
Kismayo, Southern Somalia
Song: Jai Jai Shiv Shankar
Singer: Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Film: Aap ki Kasam (1974)
a boat sets sail singing the glory of Shiva.
a boat sets sail singing the glory of Shiva.
Naat
Song: Hum Ko Bulana Ya Rasool Allah- Alhaj Owais Raza Qadri (Naat)
fire
Sharjah, UAE
UAE
Song: Marhaba Marhaba Aye Ali Ke Pisar
Singer: Shamim, Naim Ajmeri
Album: Asgar Ka Jhula
Jam Salaya
work
skinning
animal
cooking
goat
Naat
Song: Dalo nazre karam sarkar
Jam Salaya, Gulf of Kutch: Men are shown walking and driving in the rain. a shot of the landscape is shown as rain continues to cover the scene.
Jam Salaya
Somewhere in Mandvi, Gulf of Kutch, the camera shows a ship and a Muslim burial ground.
Mandvi, Gulf of Kutch
Song: Brazil! Venga Boyz
Jam Salaya
Song: Kala Kauwa Kaat Khayega Daler Mehendi
Rain and dance sequence:
Song: Jalwa
Singer: Wajid Ali, Earl D'Souza
Film Name: Wanted (2009)
Song:
crossing flooded streets
Indiancine.ma requires JavaScript.
