Kerala’s skilled hand-weavers struggle to survive the rising tides of modernity

The Indian-born, US-based filmmaker Natasha Nair’s short documentary In the Wake brings viewers inside the colourful and tactile world of a weaving community in Kerala, the state on India’s southwest coast still recovering from the wreckage of flooding in 2018. The skilled weavers produce textiles for sarees, the traditional South Asian women’s garments, and must fully engage their bodies and minds in their work, the craft of which has been passed down through generations. In addition to natural disasters, the mostly female workers must also contend with competition from power-loom machines producing sarees that can be sold at half the price of their own hand-loomed products. Nair skilfully captures the vivid hues and kinetic sounds of the work, while her brief portrait of craft ponders if the rich tradition of the Kerala weavers can ultimately survive the rising tides of modernity.