The Kabir Project (with Streaming Video)

The Kabir Project


The Kabir project brings together the experiences of a series of ongoing journeys in quest of this 15th century North Indian mystic poet in our contemporary worlds. Started in 2003, these journeys inquire into the spiritual and socio-political resonances of Kabir’s poetry through songs, images and conversations.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/bhagats/35943-the-kabir-project-with-streaming-video.html
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35943

We journey through a stunning diversity of social, religious and musical traditions which Kabir inhabits, exploring how his poetry intersects with ideas of cultural identity, secularism, nationalism, religion, death, impermanence, folk and oral knowledge systems. The core inspiration of the project is music, and Kabir comes alive in 4 documentary films, 10 audio CDs and poetry books through the power of song.

This is an initiative undertaken by filmmaker Shabnam Virmani as an artist-in-residency project at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, India. The project is supported by the Ford Foundation, New Delhi and Wipro, Bangalore.

Apart from the films, CDs and books, the true spirit of the Kabir Project lies in the taana-baana (warp & weft) of social networks and friendships built over these years between the singers, scholars, activists, artists, illustrators, students, music lovers and lay persons who have been woven together through student labs, festivals, workshops and other exchanges. Folk singers Prahlad Tipanya, Mukhtiyar Ali and others have become deep friends, giving the project its soul force. Our advisors include scholars Linda Hess and Purushottam Agrawal, poet Ashok Vajpeyi, singer Vidya Rao, and ethnomusicologist Shubha Chaudhuri.

The project is growing rapidly in many ways, with cultural groups, educational, social and community-based institutions and individuals taking the initiative to organize workshops and interactive events that include the films, folk singers, live music concerts and discussions.

In the next phase of the project, work has begun towards constructing a multi-media web-space to browse the music, poetry and ideas of Kabir. This web-space will be co-created with the involvement of folk singers, along with innovative social experiments to vitalize the Kabir oral traditions at the village level. Exploratory workshops and school-based interactions have begun to explore ways in which the power of Kabir’s poetry can be brought alive in education.

http://www.kabirproject.org/about%20us

 
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Each film is seen in several videos. After you select the film link below, continue and select Play Video 1, 2, etc.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35943

The Films

Chalo Hamara Des

Had Anhad

Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein

Koi Sunta Hai

In 2003, we set out on a series of journeys in search of the 15th century mystic poet Kabir into spaces touched by his music and poetry. We met a diverse array of people – an urban folklorist, a street fruit seller, a social activist, a Dalit folk singer, a Zen Buddhist scholar, a neo-fascist cleric of a Kabir sect, a Muslim qawwal – each encounter offering a moment of insight into his poetry and its contemporary meanings. We glimpsed not one but many Kabirs, tantalizingly present in seemingly opposing spaces – Hindu and Muslim, secular and sacred, folk and classical, des (home land) and pardes (foreign lands).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35943

Kabir walked with us into that unstable dividing line between all these dualities, and each journey became a film. Sometimes he beckoned, sometimes he baffled, but always he pushed us to self-interrogate, to question the boundaries of our identity, nation, ideology, caste and religion, making these journeys deeply personal, even as they were political, unrelentingly inward even as they ventured outward.

The 4 films are interwoven in significant ways, but each can be viewed independently.

Source: http://www.kabirproject.org/the%20films

Where did you come from? Where are you going?
Find it out in your own body.
If you find the True Guru, you'll get the secret.
A window will open within.
Wearing garlands, holy marks, he's lost in fasts, pilgrimages
He sings, strums, entertains the world and yet is unaware of his own body.
Hindu, Muslims [and Sikhs, etc] are all deluded - always fighting!
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35943
Yogis, sheikhs, wandering jains [etc] are all lost in greed!
Kabir says, listen seekers! Coming, going, they wander on!

That is deep. The guy doing viakhya, goes deeper still (and explains this verse, if one doesn't get it).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35943

Watched all of them, this is a treasure Spnadmin ji!

Bhagat Singh ji

I am thrilled you watched these films. I have not had time yet to do so. The project came recommended by a friend on a different network. Thanks for the positive feedback.