THE LAST LOOM WEAVER

Meet Bernard Nyerere Kimuli: one of the last loom weavers in Kenya. Bernard produces every single rug and mat sold by The Basket Room himself, and this four-minute film introduces Bernard and the story of his rare craft in more detail.
Images evoke a day-in-the-life of Bernard: arriving by bicycle at his rural workshop, setting up his machines, preparing sisal fibres, heading outdoors to hoe his fields, and returning to his workshop to train his young apprentices - a complex process that takes months. Being a time-consuming as well as physically and technically very demanding craft, Bernard struggles to recruit and retain new trainees to the hand loom.
Bernard explains in interview pieces interspersed throughout the film that weaving rugs and mats has enabled him to send his four children to school. That this a source of income that fits in conveniently with farming work - his main occupation - and brings work to his wider community, since he employs other people to prepare and dye the sisal fibres for him.
Weavers like Bernard are few and far between, and his mats and runners are pieces of an extremely rare and precious craft.