To Earn Our Bread: Performing for Pabuji (2010)

The film provides a glimpse into the sacred musical tradition of an indigenous tribe in Rajasthan and highlights the lives of four women singers who, as children, married male musicians and overcame traditional barriers against social equality to achieve enhanced status and economic success as performers of epic. Accompanied by their husbands on 'ravanhattas', these women sing this epic in honor of their patron deity, Pabuji, to bring blessings of their god, heal animals and bring rain. Excerpts of the epic story and performance against a magnificent painted scroll reveal the unique way these singers engage audiences, and while Rajasthani women would traditionally remain demure and veiled, these singers speak proudly of the beliefs and motivation which propel them to practise their ancestral vocation.