A new press release went out this week on the project. It was picked up by various news sources across the United States and Southeast Asia. Links to the releases will be available in the press room on the informational site.
Scholar Jarrod Brown has teamed up with videographer Andrea Frazier to film a documentary tracing Sanskrit epics across the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim cultures of South and Southeast Asia.
Honolulu, HI, March 15, 2011 ---- Jarrod Brown's fascination with the the Sanskrit epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata began in 1999 with a month long research trip to study shadow puppets in Malaysia.
“I was attracted to Malaysia because of the diversity of cultures,” explains Brown. Malaysia's population consists of Malays as well as large Chinese and Indian populations in addition to numerous aboriginal groups, also known as orang asli.
“The shadow puppet theater, or wayang kulit, had a particular attraction for me because it was the intersection of two such cultures—conservative Muslims performing a play that has its roots in Hindu sacred texts, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It was beautiful. It was also the beginning of a lifetime engagement not only with these texts but also with the people they are important to.”
Brown returned three months later to spend nearly two years studying and working in Malaysia and traveling extensively in Southeast Asia. Later Brown traveled to Japan to conduct research on Hindu gods in Japanese culture before finally moving to India for nearly four years, building the world's largest online tutoring company and India's first international direct-to-consumer service.
“Rather than go to graduate school to study cultures and their texts, I wanted to engage with them.”
While working, however, these texts were never far from his mind. “When I arrived to work in India, I had two volumes of the Ganguli's English translation of the Mahabharata with me. After nearly five years in working in for-profit education, however, I was feeling restless.”
In 2008, Brown founded Woodford & Wheeler International Cultural Consulting, a consulting firm working to help individuals and organizations work more effectively in cross-cultural environments and used these stories extensively in developing his programs.
“When you understand the stories that a culture shares, you have an insight into it—the heroes the people share, the morality that they champion—and even though these texts are thousands of years old, they can help you understand and build rapport with your colleagues in amazing ways.”
Brown also returned to his studies, beginning his graduate studies in Sanskrit and comparative philosophy at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, the world's foremost institution for the study of Asian and comparative philosophy.
“Business was good, and then there was the economic collapse and there was no business. So, I decided to go home to Southeast Asia.”
The next four months were spent mountain climbing in Borneo, diving in the Sulawasi and South China Sea, dirt-biking to see abandoned jungle temples in Cambodia and eating the strangest foods he could find.
The result was someone found him: Andrea Frazier, a camera woman and media instructor with FCA-TV. A relative had sent her Brown's blog. After looking at it, she realized what she wanted to do.
“My first thought was, 'I'd like to follow this guy around with a camera,' and so I contacted him,” explains Frazier. “I had been thinking about a travel documentary, and this Jarrod seemed a perfect fit.”
“I was a bit reluctant at first,” admits Brown, “but in speaking to Andrea, I immediately suggested that instead of focusing on me, why not focus on how these stories are alive across the cultures of South and Southeast Asia, from Hindu India across Islamic and Buddhist Southeast Asia. Thus, the Stories Without Borders Documentary Project was born.”
“It became immediately clear, though, that it was not going to be easy,” explains Frazier. “To produce a quality digital film we were still looking at close to a $65,000 investment. Therefore, while we are working on story-boarding and research, the major task now is to raise the initial funds necessary for shooting the film.”
The team is currently in its initial fund raising effort, with a goal of $15,000 needed for purchasing the video equipment needed, to help pay for additional fund-raising efforts, and for the first three months of filming. The additional funds would be used for a second round of filming and then editing, itself projected to be a year-long project.
“We've had lots of generous individual donations already that have helped fund shooting in Cambodia and India for the initial fund-raising reel,” says Brown. “Now, we really require an upgraded camera to begin shooting and also to pay the fees to set up a non-profit so subsequent donations can be tax deductible for our supporters. If we can raise these funds in the next three months, in the end we'll save nearly $5,000.”
As the editing is in progress, the team would begin actively looking for distributors. “We'd certainly like to see this air on public television or another quality station, but we also believe it will be a great teaching resource as well. Our video clips are already being used in classrooms in Indonesia,” says Frazier. “And we've already had interest expressed by a few promoters, but it is too early in the game to make any decisions.”
For those interested in supporting the project, you can visit
www.storieswithoutbordersdocumentary.org in order to learn more or to make a donation.
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