The
rug may take years to finish, years of dedication to a single intricate
design, years of sitting at the loom with one aim - working at the
rug. The finished rug is too much in the future, too far ahead to
encourage her. It requires the patience of waiting. The principle
in craftsmanship that calls us to work with materials may be the
same principle which in a larger sense calls us to work with ourselves.
Carla Needlman, The
Work of Craft: An Enquiry into the Nature of Crafts and Craftsmanship,
1979
.
Potter Carla Needlman’s words resonate with my current
documentary Island Home Country (2008)
and diary films Maidens (1978) and To
The Other Shore (1996). It’s like starting out
on a journey and not knowing how far it will take you or where to,
but there's no doubt that at the end of it all, much has changed.
It was similar with the historical (collaborative) feature documentary
For Love or Money A History of
Women and Work in Australia (1983). We had
to take a waiting with approach too, as the collective process was
so complex and arduous. It had its own timing. The process itself
required the patience Needlman writes about. I think that’s
why I experience my filmmaking more like a craft, than part of an
industrial system. Possibly the digital era of filmmaking and distribution
breathes new life into filmmaking as a craft based practice
