MILAAP - ENCOUNTERS process to the big screen. Which confrontations do the dancers and musicians come across to result into a contemporary crossover performance in which not the variety, but the endless encounters between people, dance and music are the main point? This behavior documentary would like to register very accurately the evolvements of the protagonists Maya Sapera and Khatu Sapera while getting to a creative product. This will be viewed from both cultures: the Western and the Indian point of view. The process of creation is the central theme. How do different artists with heterogenic experience and expertise come to a unique composition of dance and music? The developments of the main characters Khatu and Maya make the leitmotiv of the documentary; their close environment, the Indian and Belgian musicians Mahabub Khan, Sattar Khan, Nathan Daems, Guinevere Schneider, Mohamed El Mokhlis, Jan Marmenout are the musical actors. Each one is a very talented as well as experienced musician with a worldwide stage experience. Each one enters an intense relationship and co-defines the artistic process as well as the result. Their story will be included in the movie. The specific Kalbeliya context will become a peculiar and fascinating road. In this documentary the filmmakers will play with ‘rhythm’ and ‘time’. While following the process which Maya and Khatu are going through, they are very aware of the way in which they are able to transfer in depth a versatile amount of information to the audience by means of the images. Thus the film is about ‘a’ process and not ‘the’ artistic process. The makers of the documentary choose how to display the object. Naturally, their choices will be subjective. The fragments will be selected carefully in order to achieve the goal. In this documentary, the process will be approached through the dance and through the protagonists themselves, with the rather rational approach from the Western community on the one hand and the rather intuitive, spontaneous and emotional approach on the other hand. These are two completely different cultures. The process will not be approached from the differences, but from the persons. People often think in categories, which is in contradiction with the evolution of the world toward globalization. This presentation is not anymore about the European musician merging his music with Indian musicians, but it is rather focusing on the universal character of music and dance. Good and experienced musicians work across (country) borders. The music is created by people experiencing music as a common tongue. ‘How do the protagonists manage, during the strenuous time in which they work together, to create a high-level cross-cultural dance act that pleases both the Western and Indian society?’ is the main question. The choice for a human behavior documentary is obvious. The particular behavior of the dancers and musicians inherent to the artistic process will be followed in their specific context: India-Belgium. The human behavior that will be recorded is of a very special kind. Few people in the world are conscious about it or have an active part in it. On the one hand the documentary makers show something they do not know, on the other hand they show the creative nature of the human being in his everyday actions, regardless his cultural background. >>
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