EAST Storytellers

Rakugo is a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller sits on a stage, called Koza. They use only a paper fan and a small cloth as props to aid their story. Without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters. The difference between the characters is depicted only through change in pitch, tone and a slight turn of the head

There are many and varied oral storytelling traditions in the Caribbean. One of the most obvious, without doubt, is music. The stories told with the drums (from the bata drums to the steel drums) and the lyrics of the songs, are narrations of the past. This can be seen in calypso.

The film takes us on journey to different parts of India, to explore the different kinds of story telling arts in India- from Padvani, a story telling art in Chhattisgarh, to Kathakali, in Kerala.

The most common form of entertainment in the Middle East used to be that of the hakawati. Derived from the Lebanese word hekaya, it literally means the one who tells stories. A hakawati is a teller of tales, myths and fables—a storyteller, an entertainer, someone who earns their keep by entrancing an audience with a yarn.