BAMAKO CHIC: THREADS OF POWER, COLOR AND CULTURE (working title)

Short Synopsis

Bamako Chic, Threads of Power, Color and Culture, tells the untold story of self-empowered African women, who turned their artistic creativity and resourcefulness into a force for alleviating their own poverty and fueled the hand-dyed cloth industry to become a lucrative business for women in Mali, West Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world. Through the personal stories of five characters, the film explores the triumph of women’s creativity in the context of poverty, disease and corruption.

Description/Treatment

“They have a secret, a natural gift from God. They’re really artists. They’re as famous here as singers and soccer players. They’re stars.” – Samou Keita, patron at the annual concert celebrating cloth dyers

Bamako Chic, Threads of Power, Color and Culture, a one-hour documentary film, recounts the previously untold story of how a small group of women cloth dyers in the 1960s, through their own initiative and resourcefulness, re-enlivened the hand-dyed cloth industry to become a thriving commodity in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world. Maxine Downs had the original idea for a film about the cloth dyers, after she spent two years interviewing many of them for her doctoral dissertation on Malian women’s economic development and their micro-credit use. She was so inspired by their compelling stories, and the ingenuity, creativity and spirit of these women that she sought a way to go beyond her academic work to bring their story to the world. She believes cinematic language is the perfect medium to communicate the beauty and complexity of these women’s lives. She called on Maureen Gosling, a veteran filmmaker, to collaborate and co-produce the film.

The film represents a fresh, contemporary image of African women, as self-empowered agents of their own destinies and participants in an important cultural tradition throughout West Africa, for which Malian women are revered. Concurrently, film offers a venue from which to explore larger questions, concerning the impact global economic policies are having on real peoples’ lives in developing countries. Additionally, Bamako Chic strives to provide a much-needed alternative vision of Africa, a continent more commonly portrayed, in the media, in terms of its tragedies (famine, HIV/AIDS epidemic, war, corruption).

BACKGROUND
In Mali, as in other West African countries, cloth has served as social-capital, equity, wealth and inheritance for hundreds of years. In the words of cloth dyer Sanata Magassa, “Cloth is the most important thing money can buy. If you give someone cloth they will never forget you.” Cloth and clothing are valuable possessions in a country where material goods are few. Cloth also serves as an article of beauty, as valuable as food and water for sustenance in an environment of extreme economic, food and health challenges. Sanata told us, “I know people who will buy ‘bazin riche’ (the most expensive and prestigious cloth), even if it means going hungry. For some, they won't die before getting it.”

In the early 1960s, a group of Malian women cloth dyers became inspired by the vibrant colors made possible by using the newly available color-fast dyes. The dyers experimented with innovative hue combinations and created designs, using techniques of: wax-resist, tie-dye, hand and machine stitching, stamping and batik. The vibrant colors grabbed the attention and favor of Malian people. Even political leaders and celebrities “threw down their European coats and ties and took up the benefits of bazin,” in the words of one dyer.

What began as the dyers’ attraction to something bright and beautiful had unpredicted, yet far-reaching repercussions. Mothers taught their daughters, sisters and neighbors to dye cloth — through an intricately expanding web of women’s social relations, hand-dyeing cloth grew into an attractive economic activity. Many cloth dyers were able to lift their families out of relative poverty with their new enterprise. When micro-credit programs came to Mali, in the late 1980s, many dyers perceived it as an opportunity to start, or increase their business. Their innovations helped to re-invigorate the hand-dyed cloth industry in West Africa by expanding the palate of colors and designs, which continue to evolve even today. Thanks to the women’s creativity, hand-dyed cloth is now a lucrative national industry in Mali, providing a source of asset building for many women and jobs for many men. This is occurring at the same time as trends in the West trumpet "Cheap Chic" and disposable clothing, not to mention ubiquitous Western styles that are marketed throughout the developing world.

Bamako Chic tells a story of African women taking control of their own lives and shaping their own destinies, in the context of extreme economic, health and nutritional instability, as well as cultural challenges. By utilizing the beauty and art of the women’s creations to reveal the intrinsic role of culture for survival, we experience multiple dimensions of West African peoples. The film will join a new small, but growing, group of films about inspiring African women, such as The Iron Women of Liberia and Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. But unlike these films, Bamako Chic focuses uniquely on the strength of community relationships and indigenous grass-roots groups, rather than solely charismatic individuals, as sources of social change.

OUR MAIN CHARACTERS

By following the daily lives of five women, Bamako Chic allows us to examine the intersection of a variety of vital issues intertwined and reflected in their stories: cultural, social, economic and environmental. The film recognizes and documents the legacy of the pioneering women dyers and the impact of their endeavors on their families, communities and the West African region. It is mostly a positive story, but not without contradictions and complexities. For example, there are gender disparities in the cloth dyeing business: only men are allowed to import the white cotton cloth and sell it wholesale and retail; the popularity of cloth dyeing and the availability of credit has created a saturation of hand-dyed cloth in the market place; and there is growing concern about the health and environmental impact of the spent dyes.

- Kadiatou Diallo, in her 20's, has recently begun using micro-credit for start up capital for her cloth-dyeing business. She faces the challenges of an out-of-work husband, a sick baby, and high interest rates on her loan. Then she hears about an NGO, which offers nutritional and health education, along with the loans.

- Sanata Magassa, in her late 40's, is a moderately successful dyer who works with two co-wives in a polygamous household, supporting an extended household of eighteen people. They have just hired twenty disabled people to work and train as apprentices. Sanata has good credit, but is concerned with the high fees, which corrupt government agents exact for disposing of the spent dyes.

- Tantou Samake, the most celebrated and financially successful cloth dyer in Bamako, has built her own home, started the first cloth dyeing factory in Bamako, and sends her children to universities in Europe. She balances a busy life of training cloth dyeing to girls newly arrived from the countryside and providing them with basic education, traveling to trade shows, as well as participating in government-sponsored seminars on women, management and marketing.

- Madame Bass, one of the original pioneers, provides a historical context. She was able to lift her family out of poverty with her hand-dyed cloth business and taught her daughter and neighbors to dye cloth. Now retired, her daughter, Maiga Diali Bass, continues to sustain and build upon the family-run business. Maiga has become interested in “une teinture de qualité dans un environement saint" (quality dyeing in a clean environment).

- Aminata Traore, an ex-Minister of Culture, entrepreneur and community advocate, offers an alternative point of view, providing commentary on the socio-political, gender disparities found within the industry. Concerned about the environmental contamination and health hazards of chemical dyes, she promotes a return to using traditional, plant-based dyes. She also advocates the use of indigenous African cotton rather than white, undyed cloth from Germany and China. She claims that European and Chinese manufacturers (major bazin exporters) have profited greatly from decades of selling tons of cloth throughout the West African region, but have done little to improve the lives of Malians.

STYLE
Shot in wide screen HDV, Bamako Chic will be designed to educate and entertain, as Gosling did in her film, Blossoms of Fire, and in previous films she made with Les Blank. The style of the film will be largely cinema verité, minimizing “talking head” interviews. We will use two cinematographers, one from the U.S. and one from Mali, to enhance filming and allow us to shoot in different locations simultaneously such as open-air markets and concerts; and to incorporate a native [Malian] cinematic point of view. Scenes with live Malian musicians, internationally and lesser-known, will be in the form of stylized music videos, shot with two cameras, interspersed throughout the film. For the soundtrack, we have had initial personal introductions to Salif Keita, Toumani Diabaté, Habib Koite and Oumou Sangare.

The film’s story will be crafted during editing, using the power of visual imagery, music and song lyrics to convey feeling, as well as information. A variety of elements will be intertwined: the stories of five women cloth dyers, told in their own voices and activities; other characters whose lives intersect with the women’s; music from recordings and live performances; historical photographs and film footage; and a sprinkling of narration told in the expository, but poetic, voice of a traditional Malian story-teller, a griot (poet and keeper of oral tradition).