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Pots of Millet, Faces of Gold: Transformation

Pots of Millet, Faces of Gold: Transformation is the first in a series of experimental ethnographic films that draw from Richard K. Wolf’s research with the Kota people of South India over the past 35 years. As an indigenous community with a population of fewer than 2,500, the Kotas have, in their own telling, weathered periods of enormous loss—death through disease, the trauma of forced migration, and disruptions in transmission of traditional knowledge. This first film is presented as a time capsule, addressed to Kota people 100 years in the future, and narrated in the Kota language by Wolf’s Kota collaborator Duryodana in a way that connects the action on screen to himself and to Wolf. The Kotas have long been famous in the ethnographic record for their roles as craftspeople and musicians for other communities in the Nilgiri Hills. Wolf’s own research has focused on the more elaborate artistic and ritual activity by and for members of the Kota community themselves. The film thematizes music and the transformation of materials, bodies, and spiritual entities, moving from making pottery and musical instruments, to using these items in multiday mortuary ceremonies. Incorporating Wolf’s own footage in multiple formats transferred to film, as well as archival movie footage and cylinder recordings from 1938, the film provides striking impressions of village life over time from the perspectives of researchers and the Kotas themselves. Runtime 79 min. Kota and Tamil with English subtitles.

  • Richard K. Wolf
    Director
    Two Poets and a River
  • Richard K. Wolf
    Writer
  • Richard K. Wolf
    Producer
    Two Poets and a River
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 19 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 7, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    multiple
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Village screenings
    Nilgiri Hills
    United States
    July 16, 2024
  • New Delhi
  • C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Center in collaboration with the American Institute of Indian Studies
    New Delhi
    India
    June 6, 2025
  • Kaleidescope Centre for Alternate Education, Art and Culture
    Madurai
    India
    June 9, 2025
  • RLMA Tamil Music College,
    Madurai
    India
    June 10, 2025
  • Inner Mongolia Normal University
    Giqika
    China
    July 23, 2025
  • Keystone Foundation
    Kotagiri
    India
    December 15, 2025
Distribution Information
  • Documentary Educational Resources
    Country: United States
Director Biography - Richard K. Wolf

Richard K. Wolf is an ethnographic and experimental filmmaker, photographer, and ethnomusicologist based in the Boston area. His filmmaking grew out of research in South and Central Asia beginning in the 1980s. Wolf currently teaches in the departments of Music and South Asian Studies at Harvard University. His works include academic publications as well as an experimental ethnography in the form of a novel (The Voice in the Drum). He is also an active performer on the vina, a South Indian classical stringed instrument. His first film, Two Poets and a River, explored the lives of two prominent poet-singers on both sides of the river that divides Tajikistan and Afghanistan (2012-2020).

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Director Statement

In my work I explore what motivates musicians to be creative and why music matters. As a scholar, I immerse myself in the lives of musicians, learn to perform music, learn to speak their languages, and write articles and books to convey the insights I have gained over decades of research in South and Central Asia. As an artist, I try to evoke what straightforward academic discourse does not handle well—the ambiguity, emotion, and aesthetics of everyday life.