Diane Summers’s profession as a lawyer in the cut-throat music industry in the west deviated suddenly when she met Eric Valli, a photographer, by chance in a bus during a trip in Nepal. Diane and Eric went on to chronicle the amazing life stories of the nest gatherers of Tiger Cave in southwestern Thailand, the honey hunters in the foothills of the Himalayas and the Himalayan caravanners in northwestern Nepal. Diane’s exhaustive articles have appeared in 3 issues of National Geographic (1988, 1990, 1993) and many international magazines including Elle, Marie Claire, Life, Paris Match,   and Geo Germany and Geo France. Diane and Eric’s book Honey Hunters of Nepal was published by various publishers in New York, London and Paris.

The well researched articles and the documentaries on the honey hunters, the salt caravanners and the nest gatherers are vivid and the stories simply amazing. “...With only a cord around his waist to secure him, he dangles over a 120 meter cliff on a rope ladder to harvest the sweet treasure of Apis laboriosa, the world’s largest honeybee.” “...In a remote corner of the Himalayas, two distinct cultures preserve an age-old trade in life’s necessities. Buddhist yak herders of Dolpo...leave their mountain home each summer to trade for salt in Tibet, then for grain in the middle hills of Nepal. There they meet the Rong-pa, Hindu shepherds in need of salt, who travel the trail in caravans of their own, led by men like Nanda Lal Thapa.”

“...With nothing but skill to keep him from falling, 52 year old Sahat reaches out from a 90 foot bamboo scaffold to pluck a tiny bird’s nest from a cave wall...This prized treasure, once the home of baby swiftlets...but now abandoned is the essential ingredient of bird’s nest soup, a chinese delicacy.”

Caravan, a docudrama  made by Diane and Eric has been running in a movie hall in Kathmandu for over fifty five days now. The response of the viewers has been way beyond expectations of  the creators of the excellent piece of work.

Sushma Amatya of The Independent recently met with the lady who rediscovered herself in this mystical land.

Q: Diane, tell us about your work.

A:   The honey hunters are a tribe of Gurungs in central Nepal who follow the tradition of honey hunting, a tradition passed down since generations. The theme that runs through all my work is food, man’s quest for survival and natural history. They turned to honey hunting because their land was insufficient to support them.

We did not want the honey hunters film to be a dry documentary. We wanted the old man, the chief honey hunter called Mani Lal, to tell his story. After spending so much time with the people and getting to know them so well, we wanted this story to be spoken in their own words and so the text of the film is based on what they told us.

When the honey hunters saw the photographs and the book, they were very proud of it. They liked the idea. The honey hunters were very supportive of making the film because it was a testimony of their lives and of a tradition that was fast disappearing.

The Limau cave in Thailand is as big as a cathedral. It goes up to 300 feet. We saw the bird nest gatherers just slip away in the dark, barefoot with a torch in their hands and come back with birds nest that would be sold in HongKong for 2000 dollars per kilo. It is called white gold. Birds nest soup is a Chinese delicacy and is believed to be an elixir of youth. That’s where we got the idea for the book about the men who gather birds nests.

Q: How did Caravan come about?

A: It is a long story. In 1984, when I met Eric, we travelled together to Dolpo and met the salt caravans, one of the few caravans still alive in the world. He said he’d like to make a documentary about it.

Together we wrote a story outline and looked for funding. It was very hard to find a serious financer who was prepared to risk making a beautiful film about a remote region where the logistics would be costly and difficult. We put it on the back burner and went on with other work. We came out with the book and film Shadow Hunters, which was about the birds nest gatherers in Thailand. It was well received and was nominated for an Oscar for best short documentary. There we realised how difficult it is still to get funding to make high quality documentary films.

We decided to make a docu-drama since it has a more universal appeal. We re-wrote the treatment of the story and had a chance meeting with a French producer who decided to take on the gamble of making a film on the Himalayas. We got the funding in 1996.

Q: That must have called for a lot of patience!

A: Yes, you need be focussed and to have a lot of perseverance. You just keep going.

Q: How did you find the characters for the film?

A: We had a long casting process. We wanted to have all Dolpo actors and had selected all the roles from local people there. Tinle is a salt trader and chief of his village. He was our central character and the film is based on him. We took video tapes of  all the people and sent it to France but we were told to recast them all except Tinle as they could not act sufficiently to convey their characters. It was very difficult to find people who had the look of rugged caravanners and who also had the ability to act. We scouted all over Nepal to find the people. It was a painstaking process that took us about a year. A professional acting coach trained them for about 12 months.

Q: What was the most difficult part about making the film?

A: The actual physical shooting when we spent 10 months up in the mountains. Such a long shooting even for a feature film is unheard of. The French film crew suffered a lot in the high altitude which was between 4000 to 5000 metres. It was tough on the equipment and the crew. We shot from August to December and then from February to June which included   winter months. It was tough on the equipment and the crew.

Q: What was the most memorable part of the shooting?

A: The landslide shoot. The safety crew fixed up the lake trail that would collapse at the right moment. They had to ensure that no one was injured. The yak which you see falling in the film is actually artificial. The body was constructed and brought all the way from France. It was covered  with yak skin and  looked very natural.

Q: How do you feel about the response you are getting now?

A: A mixture of amazement and delight. I’m so happy that it has been so well received, especially in Nepal. We thought it would be screened for only one week in Katmandu because it is so unlike other movies. It made us realise that we misjudged our audience here. There is a huge potential here for movies based on this country; films using Nepali flavour, the local actors, the dialects and the works. People do like quality movies here. We should not be dictated by outside forces and need not follow the Hindi model.

Q: What do people like the most about Caravan?

A: The story is about an old man who represents the old religious and cultural values, who comes into conflict with the younger generation who are discarding the old beliefs and   have more pragmatic approach to life. This conflict is very typical in real Nepali life so they  relate to that  well. My friends tell me that they liked the simple and classic story very much. The breath taking landscape was also appreciated by everyone.

Q: What are the challenges you faced while making this docu-drama?

A: Funding,  casting and the story- we had to go deep into developing a story that would touch people’s hearts. Then the actually filming was very tough. Having a crew who are not used to the weather in the mountains,  also poses a challenge.

Q: How do you manage your family life?

A: I used to take my two daughters with me up to the mountains. My reasoning was if the local people travel in the mountains with their kids then so can I. That was pretty naïve but I wanted to combine my life as a journalist with that of being a mother. I took my youngest daughter when she was only 3. They would travel in a Doko, well packed up. But when my elder daughter got very sick, that scared me and I realised that it was not fair and just not worth my children’s lives. Then I made a compromise. While they were doing the actual shooting of the film, I stayed back with my children and did the production work from Kathmandu.

Q: What do you like about living in Nepal?

A: It’s like being in love. There are so many positive things. I love the quality of human relationships here, there is time, unlike in the west; where people are just spinning like cogs on a wheel with this frantic need of having to do, to achieve without reflecting why they are doing it.  I find the west very materialistic where they   talk about the kind of car they drive, the house you own.

Q: Have you not realised that the trend is creeping here too?

A: That is exactly what a friend of mine was telling me. He said that he has observed some of the wealthy, the business people thinking and doing exactly the same.  I feel that the atmosphere here is soaked with spirituality and you can not help but be touched by it. And I love the landscape. Nepal has given me so much. My children have been raised here. I found my career and met the father of my children here. I have learnt many lessons of life by living in Nepal.

Q: What have you learned from the people whose lives you have explored?

A: They teach you about survival, respect for nature and resilience. They  have strong connection with their land a strong spiritual sense that keeps them well balanced. I hope my films can reflect their deep humanity and respect for the earth.

The most amazing thing is how unfazed these people are even in the most dangerous circumstances. Like Mani Lal, the honey hunter. He is on the cliff dangling hundreds of feet in the air on a ladder  without any safety measures, and he just takes out a cigarette and starts smoking. I think it has something to do with their attitude. The honeyhunters do not talk about fear or death. They think it attracts malevolent spirits. It is faith in their gods that gives them a lot of physical as well as inner strength.

Q: How has all this experience changed you as a person?

A: It makes you a deeper person. It  puts things more into perspective and teaches you to respect nature and the spirit in yourself.