Crafted (2015) by Morgan Spurlock is a documentary on 3 very different groups of makers. It stars 5 individuals who have a passion to apply their skills into the things they enjoy making. Luke Snyder and David Van Wyk are a pair of professional knife-makers and blacksmiths in Arnoldsville, Georgia. Courtney Burns and Nick Balla create exquisite and delectable dishes from unique and local ingredients for their restaurant in San Francisco, California. Yuji Nagatani is a Japanese potter making household goods in Iga, Japan.
Beautifully encapsulated with twilight and sunrise sequences, Spurlock portrays the diligence and passion of these 5 makers and their handcrafted techniques. From hand-rolled knife handles and grandmother recipes of third-world countries to sculpted pots of rich natural clay, these individuals all display the same irreplaceable trait of "handmade".
In Crafted, the viewer is brought into the life of these makers and brought through their process of making their specialized products. Snyder and Wyk started their business when word got out on Wyk's wife's blog about his knife-making hobby. Creating knives and knife handles out of objects of sentimental value, it has been their primary source of income since with over 18-month long waitlists. Their hands are the precious tools of the trade. If anything ever happens to them, they won't be able to feed their family. Burns and Balla, on the other hand, specialize in food. Specifically, they specialize in food made in developing, third-world countries that are made by grandmothers. They strive to use whole local produce and harbor their own preserved food experiments to be served in years to come. Furthermore, having been a potter for 50 years, Nagatani uses the rich organic mineral clay in Iga that had been buried under Old Lake Biwa 4 million years ago. Nagatani, the 7th head of the pottery workshop today, uses a large kiln to bake these clay pots. Earthquakes and natural disasters are a huge threat to his business. If one hits and damages the kiln, it imposes detrimental effects.
Though there are threats and risks in each of these three very different types of makings, it does not stop the determined makers in their endeavor to create products of high value and quality through their detailed and intricate respective processes. This film excellently depicts how each incorporate both art and science along with dedicated passion to produce their final products to share with the world.
It's really interesting to me to read a more positive review of "Crafted," since my own perspective on the film was essentially critical and largely negative. I agree completely that Spurlock's cinematography is beautiful, and I like the bookends of sunrise and sunset, too; what I struggled with was the shallowness of Burns and Balla and the brevity of the film itself.
ReplyDeleteDid you have a favorite story of the makers profiled? If so, why?