For
several generations in the village of Papanaidupet, some 140km
north-west of Madras, a large number of the inhabitants have
specialised in the manufacture of beads from tubes of glass that have
not been blown but drawn. Melting the raw glass, drawing out the tubes
only 3mm in diameter, cutting the tubes into tiny cylindrical beads,
reheating and polishing, stringing the beads onto a cotton thread to
make up the bundles, all these stages are required to create a finished
product that will eventually be sold throughout India and beyond. The
technical and manual processes still to be witnessed in these
traditional Indian workshops take us back the very beginnings of the
history of glass.
A film by Marie-Dominique NENNA
Production : CNRS (USR 3134) - Centre d’Etudes Alexandrines
13 minutes - © 2007 - CNRS / CEAlex
Distribution : Harpocrates Publishing - 9, Sesostris, Attarine,
Alexandria, Egypt
• Camera : Jean-Yves EMPEREUR
• Montage : Marie-Dominique NENNA,
assistée de Raymond COLLET
CEAlex 13’ AI01EN