If I could document the workmanship of builders we work with here in southern Ontario, the work would be just as impressive, but my videography would be no where near as beautiful as Chris McKee’s production of Mujann (translation: The Craftsman). Though this is more documentary style, its up there with Babett’s Feast in story development and if you could only watch one documentary this year, take the 25 minutes and make it Mujaan!
Regarding the documentary, the liner notes read:
Mujaan (The Craftsman) is a twenty-five minute poetic record of how Mongolian nomads have built their yurts by hand for the past 1,000 years. Released in 2005, it was featured in dozens of film festivals around the world, including Slamdance, Cinequest, the Banff Mountain Film Festival and the Japanese World Expo, as well as broadcast on UPN Detroit’s show The Indie Film Café.
Here’s a snippet from it:
For me, it highlights the fact that humans can live happy, fulfilled lives with very little and that good design is usually simple, durable, beautiful and above all – loved. As Tom Waits sings about in The House Where Nobody Lives:
They remind me that houses
Are just made of wood
What makes a house grand
Ain’t the roof or the doors
If there’s love in a house
It’s a palace for sure
Without love…
It ain’t nothin but a house
A house where nobody lives
No matter how many stones I buy from Lee Valley I struggle to keep a chisel sharp but the Mujaan keeps all his rustic tools sharp as a scalpel. To watch him cut, hew and shape wood reminds me of watching my grandfather build wood furniture when I was a kid. It also reminds me of my obsession with fine tools and that really, to do good work very few tools are needed – just time, skill and effort.
Unfortunately, I can’t find the free stream anymore, but you can buy and stream it from Chris’ web site and or if you live in the city of Ottawa you can get it at the Public Library!
Spoiler Alert: Please don’t be telling your kids “its like Mulan!”, they’ll never get over the fluffy snuff scene.