Krystle Klein

Waking up to Gandhi Krystle Klein

You can't hide from yourself in India. That's what four amateur American filmmakers discovered as they set out to create a documentary chronicling the journey of an artist as he painted one hundred paintings in one hundred days across India. For three months, the crew traversed the country, cramming themselves and their gear into jeeps crisscrossing the Himalayas or atop camels in the Rajasthani desert. They danced to Diwali music in the Bollywood capital, floated on Mother Ganga during evening puja, and dodged donkey carts and bodies in the suffocating streets of Delhi. And while they created, they were forced to face stark truths about life, about the world, and about themselves. John, the alcoholic jock turned sober artist; Kevin, the spiritual guru with a nicotine addiction; Casey, the cool, laid-back director who put the crew through grueling shoot schedules and C-class sleeper trains to save money. Sabi, the Indian photographer who couldn't travel without his girlfriend, who in turn couldn't travel without her mother. And me, the grad-school film student, eager to embark on a wild adventure but utterly changed in the process. Waking up to Gandhi is the story for anyone in need of a reminder that the world is filled with magic, and that we are all more alike than we are different.