Kathputli
(Kathputli / English & Hindi / 0:30:00 / 2006 / Delhi /
Sudheer Gupta)
Shot in Kathputli Colony, a slum in West Delhi which houses 12,000
families of folk artists, this film examines the conditions in which
they survive and carry on, and why their children unanimously do
not want to carry on with their forefathers’ professions.
A Shawl to Die For
(A Shawl to Die For / English / 0:21:00 / Oct. 2006 / Srinagar
/ Rita Banerji)
This film reflects the ban on the world’s finest wool, Shahtoosh,
extracted from the under fleece of the Tibetan antelope or Chiru,
found on the Chang Tang plateau in China. This wool has historically
been woven into fabric only in the Kashmir Valley in North India.
While the ban has been critical in conserving the Chiru, earlier
killed relentlessly for its fleece, it has also jeopardized the
livelihoods of thousands of people and almost wiped out this 600
year old tradition of glorious weaving in Kashmir. This film explores
this conflict and showcases an alternative livelihoods project that
is helping to preserve the traditional skills of Shahtoosh craftspeople
while helping them move away from shahtoosh weaving and towards
alternative earnings.
Of Land, Labour, and Love
(Of Land, Labour and Love/ Kondha , Parja & Oriya / 1:05:00
/ Jan 2008 / Dasmanthpur, Dist. - Koraput, Orissa/ / Ajay Bhardwaj)
Dasmantpur Block is located in the fifth schedule district of Koraput
in Southern Orissa. The fragile eco-system on the undulating upland
terrain has been destroyed by the felling of trees and the denudation
of the forests. This, coupled with the government neglect, as yours
of exploitation, has affected the tribal community severely, leading
to chronic malnutrition and ill-health, symptomised by yearly epidemics
and high rates of distress migration. This film is about the efforts
of a federation of tribal women’s organizations and the tribal
people of Dasmantpur to push back the limits of human endeavor and
overcome the crippling poverty of their lives.
Gaubolombe-Our Island
(Gaubolombe - our Island / English & Hindi / 0:30:00 / 2007
/ Andaman / Kaushik Gupta Ray)
A film on the Onge tribe of the Andaman Islands who are the last
living embodiments of creating sustainable models of environmental
management.
Buru Garra
(Buru Garra / Hindi /0:30:00 / 2007 / Jharkhand / Shrprakash
)
Poignant stories of a tribal journalist and a poet in Jharkhand
and how they express themselves through the new form and medium
of self-resurrection of tribal identity and culture.
Hollow
Cylinder
(Hollow Cylinder / English / 0:23:50 /9th July 2007 / North
East India
/ Nandan Saxena / Kavita Bahl)
The making of the Hollow Cylinder was partly triggered by the controversy
amongst India's Foresters and Policy-makers on whether Bamboo was
a tree or a grass.
This confusion led to a muddled up policy - bracketing a grass with
the trees and shackling it for fifty years or more. Little wonder
then if the livelihood potential of Bamboo has largely been unutilised
in India.
When we place this policy-lapse in the context of the lack of employment
opportunities in the rural non-farm sector in India, we realise
how policies impact lives. Bamboo grows easily in most parts of
India, barring the arid regions like Rajasthan and Ladakh. There
are pockets with abundant Bamboo forests. The irony is that these
are the pockets that are known for extreme poverty.
The Bamboo map and poverty map of India look the same. Our country
has a strong tradition and legacy of skill and craft. The resource
is there, so is the skill... and yet, the poor remain poor.
Bamboo is not a material that transports well because it traps
air and moisture.
This challenge is also an opportunity to create avenues of employment
in farflung areas, where it is otherwise difficult to create sustainable
livelihoods.
This hollow cylinder could have transformed millions of lives.
However, the potential of this hollow cylinder remains locked up
somewhere in the corridors of power.
Story Tellers
(Story Tellers / English & Tamil / 0:25:02 / Dec. 2006 /
India / Prashanth Kumar R, Daya J)
In an era of globalized mass media, television and cinema have
become the predominant sources of popular entertainment. As they
stride over cultural diversity and traditions, a sort of homogenization
is gaining force, making in roads into the social spaces enjoyed
by the traditional art forms and pushing them onto the sidelines,
into oblivion. The film is based on the art and life of L. Rajappa,
a shadow puppeteer from Pondicherry.
Agaria - The Sons of Fire
(Agaria - The Sons of fire / English / 0:27:00 / 1999 / Madhya
Pradesh / Nandan Saxena)
One of the world's oldest methods of iron smelting, indigenous
to India, has nearly been lost. The labour-intensive system has
been taken over and rendered obsolete by mechanisation and the economics
of mass production.
Agaria, an aboriginal community inhabiting the mineral rich areas
of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, discovered and practised this
technique in ancient India. Today, these custodians of a centuries
old Eco-friendly methodology are forced to work as casual labour
and as blacksmiths.
Agaria, tracing their lineage to the Asur of the Mahabharata period,
began smelting iron in simple clay furnaces around 700 years before
Christ. An oral tradition carried the nuances from one generation
to the other and ensured a continuum. It is ironical that not even
one Agaria furnace survives today. The continuum will come to an
end with the death of the few craftsmen who still remember the craft.
Voices from the Forest-India
(Voices from the Forest – India / English / 0:32:00 /
Oct. 2007 / Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa & Tamil Nadu / Rita
Banerji)
All across India, Non-timber Forest Produce (NTFP) spell a critical
source of income for indigenous peoples and forest dwelling communities.
Not only do the NTFPs pay a crucial role in the livelihood of these
people, NTFPs are woven into the social and cultural fabric of these
communities living in India. Communities are working hand in hand
with grassroots NGOs, traders, and government to address the challenges
posed by low productivity, lack of technology, irrational NTFP laws,
and wide-scale contract-based extinction.
Chilika Banks-Stories from India’s
Largest Coastal Lake –1970-2007
(Chilika Bank$ / Hindi / 1:65:00 / 2008 / Orissa / Akanksha
Joshi)
In a canvass spread over four decades, a banyan tree on the banks
of the Lake Chilika, silently whispers tales of the lake and her
fisher folk. From the times when there was no export bazaar to the
time when there may be no lake.
I Sing, Therefore I am!
(I Sing, Therefore I am! / Kosi & Oriya / 0:19:00 / 8-02-2008
/ Balangir, Orissa / Subrat Kumar Sahu)
Why it is that 'blindness' becomes the primary 'identity' of a
person who does not have vision? I sing, therefore I am! is a humble
assertion by Pabitra Kumbhar - a blind singer - of his 'identity'
as an artist. An able bread -""inner for a family of six
members, he says, 'not having to see this physical world full of
bad vices is bliss'. His tenacity towards life, the fulfilment he
derives from his music and his worldview bluntly put aside the notion
that normal vision is an advantage; what makes a life worth-living
is rather the ability to see the finer truths of the world:
and one does not need eyes for that.
Our Family
(Our Family / Tamil / 0:56:00 / Oct. 2007 / Tamil Nadu / K P
Jayashankar, Dr. Anjali Monteiro)
What does it mean to cross that line which sharply divides us on
the basis of gender? Is there life beyond a hetero-normative family?
Set in Tamilnadu, India ‘Our Family’ brings together
excerpts from Nirvanam, a one person performance, by Pritham K.
Chakravarthy and a family of three generations: of trans-gendered
female subjects. Aasha, Seetha and Dhana, who are bound together
by ties of adoption, belong to the Community called Aravanis (aka
Hijras, in some part of India). The film juxtaposes the 'normality'
of their existence with the dark and powerful narrative by Pritham.
Weaving together performance, life histories and everyday life,
it Problematises the divides between 'us' and 'them'.
Stories of Change
(Stories of Change / Bengali /0:55:00 / 14-03-08 / 5 Contrasting
countryside of Bangladesh / Kamar A. Simon & Sara Afreen)
A testament to the resilience of the human spirit, this film is
a real life documentary about the lives of five women, aging from
16 to 60, coming from different professions, religions, and regions
of Bangladesh. Different yet common in their dreams, these women
face life’s challenges with confidence and belief in their
dreams. Knitted in five small shorts, Stories of Change takes us
to a sixth story, a distinct yet universal struggle of human existence.
Lakshmi and Me
(Lakshmi and Me / English, Tamil, Marathi & Hindi / 0:59:00
/ Nov. 2007 / Mumbai / Nishtha Jain)
“What sin did I commit to be born a woman?” Lakshmi
wonders aloud. A 21-year-old housemaid in Mumbai, she works ten
hours a day, seven days a week. One of her employers, Nishtha, begins
to make a documentary exploring their relationship. Lakshmi’s
is a precarious existence to begin with; illness and romance compound
her problems. As the filmmaker is drawn deeper into Lakshmi’s
life, she if forced to question many of the things she takes for
granted. During a year and a half of dramatic changes, the process
of filming has its own impact on the relationship between the two
women.
What is the Point of Stories
if They Aren’t Even True?
(What is the Point of Stories if they aren't even true? / Hindi,
English & Gujarati / 0:11:15 / 15-04-2008 / Ahmedabad / Aditi
Banerji)
This is a story of storytelling through the eyes of an eighty-year-old
storyteller. This film takes a look at the purpose of storytelling
in the past and current context. In doing so, it addresses the larger
purpose of life and art itself.
Hearts Suspended
(Hearts Suspended / English / 0:27:00 / July 2008 / Jersey City,
NJ, USA / Meghna Damani)
Hearts Suspended is a short autobiographical documentary that reveals
how highly educated South Asian immigrant women struggle to survive
in the United States on their H4 or dependent spouse visas, which
der them work authorization. Once independent, now completely dependent,
they face loneliness, depression, loss of self-identity, strained
marital relations and - in extreme cases - exploitation and abuse.
Through a unique expressionistic combination of visuals, monologue,
verite footage and interviews, the film takes us on a journey into
the director inner turmoil's, search for spiritual strength and
eventual resolve to bring hope and political change for other women
who are frozen in time because of the restrictive nature of this
visa.
When God Begs (Jab Bhagwan Bheekh
Mangta Hai)
(When God Begs / Hindi / 0:18:00 / Dec. 2007 / Ahmedabad / Manish
Saini)
A pair of worn out feet tread between the lanes and by lanes of
Ahmedabad. Morning after morning, miles after miles, below the layers
of caked paint, fading dyes, smudged kohl, and oil that at times
glitters in the sun is a performer. An artist who takes pride in
his profession and strives day after day to keep it living.
A bahrupia (bahu=many, roop=appearance) the mischievous artist,
the master of disguise, steps out of his dwelling as a different
self everyday. The street is his stage and entertainment for him
a form of business. People watch, people laugh, people clap, and
the bahrupia with faith in his performance and hope in his heart
expects to be rewarded. Sometimes he is, sometimes he isn’t.
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