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RICE WALKERS

Rice Walkers was filmed during the 2016 harvest season in Ozgun, Kyrgyzstan. The subject overlaps my interest in food-production labor. Men, women, and children are engaged in the seasonal harvest. The communal field work somehow reinforces identity. There is a palpable equilibrium between the people and the landscape. Slow repetitive movements accentuate a trance-like quality suggesting a meditative state. Uzgen is located on the far eastern end of the Ferghana Valley. The red rice is harvested and processed by hand in a manner done for over 2000 years. Special handling and harvesting processes like rice walking are formally beautiful. The drying tarps remind me of color field painting and Agnes Martin compositions.

 

Rice Walkers was edited in New York by Heather Loughran.

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