Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 8 : Have You Seen the Arana?

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 8

From 6 pm Friday (24 July); for 48 hours only

Film : Ningal Aranaye Kando? (Have You Seen The Arana?)

Dir: Sunanda Bhat; 73 minutes; Malayalam with Eng subtitles; 2012

In a world that has grown more dynamic and uncertain, where diversity and differences make way for standardization and uniformity, the film explores the effects of a rapidly changing landscape on lives and livelihoods. Set in Wayanad, in South India, ‘Have you seen the arana?’ is a journey through a rich and bio-diverse region that is witnessing drastic transformation in the name of ‘development’

A traditional healer’s concern over the disappearance of medicinal plants from the forest, a farmer’s commitment to growing traditional varieties of rice organically and a cash crop cultivator’s struggle to survive amidst farmers’ suicides, offer fresh insights into shifting relations between people, their knowledge systems and the environment.

Interwoven into contemporary narratives is an ancient tribal creation myth that traces the passage of their ancestors across this land, recalling past ways of reading and mapping the terrain.

As hills flatten, forests disappear and traditional knowledge systems are forgotten, the film reminds us that this diversity could disappear forever, to be replaced by monotonous and unsustainable alternatives.

CREDITS:

Cinematography: Saumyananda Sahi

Gaffer & Editor: Tanushree Das

Editing Consultant: Bina Paul

Location Sound: Christopher Burchell

Sound Design: P M Satheesh

Stereo Mix: Tapas Nayak

Research & Production: Sibi Pulpally & Arun P A 

FILM FESTIVAS:

Mumbai International Film Festival, MIFF 

International Film Festival of India, Goa. 

27th Parnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia. 

Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto, Canada. 

6th International Documentary and Short Film Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. 

23rd African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival, Milan, Italy. 

Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival, Toronto, Canada 

32nd Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, France. 

International Festival Signes de Nuit, Paris. 

8th Seattle South Asian Film Festival. 

Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Fest. 

10th Salento Film Festival, Tricase, Italy. 

TiNai Eco Film Festival, Goa. 

Verzio Human Rights film Festival, Budapest, Hungary 

International Food Film & Video Diversity Festival, Trento, Italy 

Moab International Film Festival, UT, USA 

International Intangible Heritage Film Festival 2014 (IIHFF 2014), S. Korea 

International Health Film Festival, Belgium 

Madurai International Film Festival 

International Women's Film Festival, Hyderabad 

IAWRT Asian Women's Film Festival, New Delhi. 

Dhaka International Film Festival 

Jeevika Livelihood Film festival, New Delhi. 

AWARDS: 

Golden Conch for Best Documentary, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Awards, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2014. 

“Monde en Regards” award, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris. 

Best Documentary Mark Haslam Award at Planet in Focus Film Festival, Toronto. 

John Abraham National Award for Best Documentary, Signs Film Festival, Kerala 

Honorable Mention, Documentary Feature, Int. Film Festival for Environment, Health and Culture, Jakarta.

Special Mention, International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala. 

Best Eco documentary Feature Award, Tinai Eco Film Festival. 

Best Cinematography and Best Editing Awards, Jeevika Asia Livelihood Film Festival 

Best Documentary, Professional, Dada Saheb Phalke Award. 

Best Documentary & Best Director, National Short & Documentary Film Awards, Thrissur, Kerala. 

Best Documentary & Best Director, Kerala State Television Awards. 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Sunanda is a Bangalore based documentary filmmaker.  Her interest in non-fiction films is to represent people living on the margins of an intricate and stratified Indian society. She looks at ways to bring in textures of landscape with layers of lives of her characters.

Her latest independent work 'Have you seen the arana?' won critical acclaim with  screenings at film festivals in India and outside. Among the prominent awards are the  Golden Conch at Mumbai International Film Festival, Mark Haslam Award at Planet in Focus in Toronto, ‘Monde en regards’ at the Jean Rouch Ethnographic Film Festival in Paris, the John Abraham National Award for Best Documentary at Signs Film Festival, among others.

She was invited to present her film at Metropolis Kino, an art-house cinema theatre in 

Hamburg and showcase her film at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. 

Her first film “Bol Ayesha Bol” premiered at the International Documentary Film 

Festival, Amsterdam. 

Sunanda has made several short films on sanitation, dry land farming and micro 

enterprise. She is an active member of Vikalp Bengaluru, a collective of filmmakers 

that has been showing the best in documentary films in the city for over 10 years.

Don't forget to attend the interaction with the filmmaker via Zoom@ 11 am on Sunday, 26 July!

Message 9940642044 for ID and password!