The Brilliance!

I’m a news editor for DesignIsKinky, so between that site and this site, I see lots and lots of links. Not all of them catch my eye or attention, in fact, most of them don’t. I guess it’s just hard to make whatever news you’re submitting sound exciting in just a few words and a link. But every now and then, one will come through that I can’t ignore for some reason and I want to post it here, on DiK, and everywhere else that I can. ‘The Last Calligraphers’ is one of those. Sent in by Premjit Ramachandran (whose work I should mention is very nice…check the link), I was instantly intrigued - “An important (upcoming) film about the last handwritten newspaper in Asia and probably one of the few left in the world.” Handwritten newspaper?! Like, the whole thing!??! Ha…yes. The whole thing. Truly mind-numbing work it sounds like, but it’s fascinating to watch this trailer for the film which I’ll have to keep everyone posted on. I find this really just incredible but simultaneously humorous when I try to think about this being done here in the states, for example. To think there is anyone in the U.S. that would hand-write an entire newspaper is laughable if not ridiculous. It’s not that our alphabet can’t be beautiful - many typographers and artists have proven the opposite - but there is a mystic, wild quality to Urdu script. I am really pretty floored about it - these people are truly passionate about keeping a superrare artform alive, and for pennies a day. Check the link below…thanks Premjit for sharing.