O Tapete Voador (The Flying Carpet)

O Tapete Voador ("The Flying Carpet") (2010), dir. João Mário Grilo.
Outside screening: April 26th, 7:30pm, CMA.

The film highlights the creation of an ancient art form; the wool carpets of Iran have made their way to Europe over 500 years ago. This documentary uses the relationship between Portugal and Iran as a conduit for showing the creation of the magnificent "flying" carpets at various stages of their lives.
I'm not going to lie, at the beginning of this documentary I felt fairly disappointed and uninterested. It failed to captivate my attention like most documentaries tend to do at the very beginning. We see pattern after pattern of carpet. I feel as though the design of the carpets mean so much more to the director than they do to someone like me. I could see the audience too shifting in their seats as well, seeming as though we were all uninterested. It was only after seeing the process of how the carpets are made and learning of their cultural significance did I look at the carpets differently and with a more considerate eye. If there was one problem he could fix, I believe it would be to draw in the attention of the viewer sooner with some element. However, there were definitely some good things I liked about the documentary, and I outline some of them below.
The sound was of particular interest to me in the documentary. He mostly used traditional chants by native Persians (I believe). In one sequence, there is a long track shot of the ceiling of a Mosque. During this shot, you hear a chant that was filmed in that same location. The vocals were rich with reverb and the visuals were beautiful. I think with both of these elements, Grilo was really trying to encapsulate the space as much as possible, and he did so pretty well.
After about 15 minutes or so, the documentary really began its narrative flow when it explored the different steps involved with the creation of a carpet. Grilo had mentioned that it was very difficult in choosing weavers as many of them are generally solitary individuals and do not want to talk to men, especially men with cameras. Although he did interview a few weavers, most of the footage of them was dedicated to a vérité style, in which we watch them do the intricate job of weaving. This after all seemed to be more paramount than the people themselves who are involved. The carpet was most definitely the protagonist in this film. It's also apparent in another way.
The visuals were also paid close attention. After the screening, Grilo had said that every shot was chosen and created just like a knot in a carpet is skillfully carried out, "[a] film should be made like a carpet." It was interesting to hear a philosophy about filmmaking translated from weaving and carpet making. It's evident now what influences Grilo in his filmmaking. Another interesting thing to note about the visual image was in terms of technology. He adamantly said that the film should be done on 35mm to give justice to the true beauty of the carpet, but they had to settle on DV because of budget restrictions. Unfortunately as a consequence, Grilo discovered while filming that there were interesting things happening with the patterns of the carpets and the DV rendering. The intricate patterns seemed to confuse the rastering of each digital frame and resulted in less than real replications of the patterns on screen.
Nevertheless, the film was beautifully done and gave a look into the life of a carpet with a level of artistic quality that would have been absent in more of an informational video on the topic.