January 4, 2012: Wayanad Project: Pre-production

January 4, 2012

This may be my last blog for a while, so I'm going to give an overview of what I'm going to be doing over the next few weeks.  Tomorrow I am taking a 7:00 am train to Mysore which is in the southwest state of Karnataka.  It's about 91 miles southwest of Bangalore.

Mysore Palace is home of the Wodeyars, who were the former rulers of the Kingdom of Mysore.

From Mysore we are taking a bus into the the area of Wayanad.  Wayanad is a northeast district in Kerala.  It is home to some of the most furtive land on the planet.

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I am journeying to this Eden in order to make a film.  I was asked to help make a documentary about the struggles of the people in Wayanad.  It is hard to imagine that between 1997 and 2005, 11,516 farmers committed suicide in Wayanad.  Since Wayanad is such fertile place there has been a trend to move away from self-sustaining agriculture to mono-culture.  Cash crops such as coffee, tea, and ginger have swiftly become the only agriculture in Wayanad.  Since 1991, with the liberalization of India's economy, farmers in Wayanad were the beneficiaries of an economic boom.  That was until the spice price crash in the mid-90's.  The price crash was terrible for Wayanad farmers.  At the time of the crash farmers in Wayanad had switched to the "green revolution" and had taken out loans from the bank to pay for fertilizers.  Without any money, many farmers committed suicide.

The topic of the film, though, is no the plight of the farmers in Wayanad, but the issues faced by the Adivasi.  The Adivasi are the indigenous people of the Wayanad district.  For thousands of years, the Adivasi lived in the forests of Wayanad, and were able to sustain themselves.  In the 1960's the Central Government forced the Adiviasi to live outside the forests.  The government than began to deforest the area.  Worse they began to replant non-native trees for wood and forest.  Basically the Adivasi lifestyle is being erased from the area.  Adivasi now live on the edge of the forest.  They suffer from malnutrition, and many Adivasi journey to the city to work, in order to provide for their families.

The past two days have been busy.  A lot of work has gone into the pre production.  My group partner Ashley and I have been working on our thesis, and working on the question we wish to ask the Adivasi when we get there.  For such a serious topic, I have enjoyed planning this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lwCzmwcrW6o
We've discussed the shots we need, the voice over narration, question we want to ask the Adivasi and the farmers.  Today we got a solid outline down and I'm hopeful for tomorrow, and the next couple of weeks.  It has been a little stressful, researching the topic, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself.  Since I'm not sure if I'll have internet I'm going to tentatively say this is my last post for a while.

Bryan McIntyre