Sunday, June 28, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 5 : Janani's Juliet

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 5
From 6 pm, 3 July, Friday onwards! For 48 hours only!

Film : Janani's Juliet
Dir: Pankaj Rishi Kumar; 53 min; Tamil with Eng subtitles; 2019




Synopsis: Kausalya lost her husband (Shankar), when they were attacked by her own family. They had married against their families wishes.

Deeply disturbed by a spate of honor killings in India, Indianostrum, a Pondicherry based theatre group sets out to introspect the implications of caste, class and gender. They adapt Shakespeare's ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

What emerges in the process is a critical reflection and commentary of the contemporary Indian society where love struggles to survive.



Awards / Film Festivals :

India's Official entry to the Oscar's
Best Long Documentary Prize at IDSFFK, Trivandrum, India
Best Film, Signs Film Festival, Thrissur, India
Best Film, Panchjanyam Film Festival, India

Official Selection Competition, Kolkata Film Festival, India
Official Selection Competition, FSA Kathmandu
Official Selection Competition, Auroville Film Festival, India
Official Selection Competition, South Asia Short Film Festival, India
Official Selection, Indian Film Festival of Bubhaneswar
Official Selection, Open Frame Film Festival: New Delhi, India
Official Selection, Madurai Film Festival, india
Official Selection, Kolkata People's Film Festival, India
Official Selection, Chennai Film Festival, India
Official Selection, International Theater Festival of Kerala, India



Pankaj Rishi Kumar :

After graduating from the FTII Pune, India, in 1992, with a specialisation in Film Editing, Pankaj was assistant editor on Sekhar Kapur's ‘Bandit Queen’.

After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he made his first film Kumar Talkies. Subsequently, Pankaj has become a one-man crew producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films under the banner of Kumar Talkies. (Pather Chujaeri, The Vote, Gharat, 3 Men and a Bulb, Punches n Ponytails, Seeds of Dissent, In God’s Land).

Since 2012 he has been actively documenting in Pondicherry (a former French colony). Two Flags, Janani's Juliet and To Die a Frenchman (in post production) are 3 films based out of Pondicherry. The films engage with the Tamil French community, its people and reflect on the historical past.

Janani's Juliet was India's official entry to Oscars. It won the best film at IDSFFK, Signs and Panchjanyam film festival.

Pankaj’s films have been screened at film festivals all over the world. Pankaj has won grants from Hubert Bals, IFA, Jan Vrijman, AND (Korea), Banff, Majlis, Sarai and Pad.ma. Pankaj was awarded an Asia Society fellowship at Harvard Asia Centre (2003). He is an alumnus of Asian Film Academy (Pusan) and Berlin Talents (2016). Pankaj is a visiting faculty at Whistling Woods International, and lectures at FTII and SRFTI. He is a regular mentor with Let’sdoc -- A DRI initiative, Kolkata. (kumartalkies.blogspot.in)

Don't forget to attend the interaction via zoom with the filmmaker on 5 July, Sunday at 11 am.
Text message to 9940642044 for ID and password for the Zoom meeting.

Click here for the film
(password : prk18dd)

8 comments:

  1. Wow!!!
    Thank you so much Marupakkam Online Film Screening Team.
    Thank you Pankaj Sir.
    Glad to learn from one more of your gems sir.
    Romeo Juliet with real life cast discrimination and the hope is the play in which child will take birth to destroy this evil system.
    Big thanks sir 🙏

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please let me know the details of zoom meetinh for session with Pankaj Sir.

      Delete
    2. Message to 9940642044 for Zoom meeting's ID and password

      Delete
  2. Very unique style of film-making, I must say!
    I loved how it gives enough scope to the viewers to visualise and join the dots.

    Overall, I found this as a very interesting process of critiquing the society, as a whole.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi. Where can I still watch this film? The password for the Vimeo link isn't working anymore.

    ReplyDelete

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