Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 14 : Mannu

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 14
From Friday 6 pm! For 72 hours only

Film : Mannu
Dir: Ramdas Kadavallur; 113 min; Malayalam, Tamil with English subtitles; 2020; Documentary



Synopsis : The documentary narrates the saga of encroachment of vast stretches of a hilly land, the eviction of its rightful owners, the blatant exploitation of the labourers and their struggle for existence. It also examines the social milieu in which these unorganised labourers are living.
It does not confine itself in narrating the evolution and impact of a labour struggle, but also focuses on another important social aspect in India, the significance of caste, the strangle hold it exerts on the psyche of the nation.

The documentary holds its mirror to the dichotomy of underlying neglect and discrimination meted out to the hapless people belonging to the lower echelons of society. It explores the ruthless impact of policies on the 'land' and 'soil', its lopsided distribution, the illegal encroachments carried out by the encroaches, the resultant irreparable and long standing damage it causes to the environment and fragile terrain, which is abound with precious flora and fauna.



About the filmmaker : RAMDAS KADAVALLUR is a documentary film maker from Kerala, and also a founder member of Clone Cinema Alternative, an independent film organization based in Delhi. Started his career as a journalist in Malayala Manorama, he was a news reader in All India Radio, Delhi since 2003. A Post Graduate in Mathematics, he later completed his post graduate diploma in Mass Communication. He has authored a book , and also assisted several documentary film projects.

His feature length documentary film ‘Mannu: Sprouts of Endurance’ has been screened at 8th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2020.

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction with the filmmaker on Sunday at 11 am via zoom; message 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 13 : Moti Bagh

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 13

From Friday, 28 Aug, 6 pm on wards; for 72 hours only!

Film: MOTI BAGH
Dir: Nirmal Chander; 59.23 min; 2019; Documentary

Produced by PSBT & Doordharshan 

Synopsis : 83 year old Vidyadutt Sharma holds the record for growing the heaviest radish in India weighing 23 kgs. He now aims to beat the world record of 31 kgs. Over the last five decades, he has built up Moti Bagh, his 5 acre farm in a small Himalayan village in northern India.

Around him lie 7000 ghost villages, left to die, with no one to till the land – a chilling testimony to large scale migration by locals in search of employment in the cities. With no manpower at their disposal, the few locals are employing Nepali labour. But there is unease because of this dependence and the growing influence of the Nepalis.

As market forces exert pressure, family dynamics are also changing. Vidyadutt's journalist son, Tribhuvan, lives and works in Pauri, a large town 35 kms from Moti Bagh. His two children wish to chase their own dreams in the metros.

Vidyadutt Sharma, farmer, activist and poet, chronicles the changing landscape in verses of resistance. As he and Ram Singh, his Nepali farmhand, plough the fields to keep a dream called Moti Bagh alive, we wonder if it will ever return to its old glory.

Credits: 

Producer & Commissioning Editor : Rajiv Mehrotra  /  Executive Producers : Tulika Srivastava and Ridhima Mehra  /  Camera, Sound & Research : Nirmal Chander  /  Editing : Nirmal Chander, Reena Mohan  /  Poems : Vidyadutt Sharma  /  Sound Design & Mix : Nirmal Chander  /  Colourist : Sonu Singh  / Poetry Translation & Subtitles : Ameena Kazi Ansari

Awards:
Best Long Doc, IDSFFK, Kerala, 2019
Special Jury Mention, CMS Vatavaran 2019

Festivals:
Entry to the Oscars, 2019
IDSFFK, Kerala, 2019
Film Southasia, Nepal, 2019

About the director: NIRMAL CHANDER is a multiple National Award winning filmmaker who has been working in the field of documentaries for over two decades. His films have received awards at many national and international festivals and have been telecast on NDTV and Doordarshan.

His latest documentary MOTI BAGH is the Entry to the Oscars for 2019.

He has also conducted workshops on documentary filmmaking and has served on juries at several film festivals.

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction via Zoom, on Sunday at 11 am; message 9940642044 for ID and password. 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 12

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 12

From 6 pm, 21st Aug, Friday; for 72 hours

Film : Coral Woman
Dir : Priya Thuvassery; 52 min

This will be a filmmaker's journey with Uma, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater world & the threat to coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, India. Born in a traditional family in Tamil Nadu 53 years old Uma, a homemaker, has been trying to bring attention to this alarming environmental issue through her paintings. It is, in fact, these corals that inspired Uma to learn how to swim, dive & paint in her 50s.

 
Credits:
Director : Priya Thuvassery; Producer & Commissioning Editor : Rajiv Mehrotra; Executive Producers : Tulika Srivastava and Ridhima Mehra; Camerapersons : Nitasha Kapahi, Nefertiti Chakrabarti, Arnav Kakkar, Priya Thuvassery; Location Sound Mixer : Amrith Shankar; Post Production Sound edit & Mix : Avantika Nimbalker; Editors : Reena Mohan, Priya Thuvassery; Music : Bindhumalini, Sridhar Varadarajan

About the director :
An independent documentary filmmaker and television producer based in New Delhi, Priya’s body of work has focused on women and gender, her stories windows into myriad experiences of the body, the environment, the community, mapped from a gender and feminist perspective.

Priya has been directing, producing and editing documentary films & television programmes for New Delhi Television, Fox Traveller, CNA, National Human Rights Commission of India, Films Division of India, Public Service Broadcasting Trust & Khabar Lahariya for over a decade now.

Her independent films include Khanabadosh (2009), My Sacred Glass Bowl (2013), Survey Number Zero (2016), Coral Woman (2019) and Bawra Lake Your Water (A Chambal Media production, work in progress). Her films have been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals.

She has been Co-Director of the IAWRT Asian Women' s Film Festival, New Delhi, from 2019-2020 and is currently a board member for IAWRT India chapter 2020-2022. She is also recognized as a Canon Cinema EOS Platinum Associate. Currently, she is working on a series of climate change films and the impact of Coral Woman film.

Priya has a Master’s in Mass Communication from the Anwar Jamal Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre, at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction with the filmmaker via Zoom on Sunday at 11 am; message 9940642044 for ID and password.

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 11 : Are You Going to School Today?

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 11

From 14 Aug (Friday), 6 pm

Film : Are You Going to School Today?
Dir: Anupama Srinavasan; 60 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019

The film takes us to rural schools in the predominantly tribal district of Dungarpur in southern Rajasthan. Children come from difficult contexts with very limited material resources, absentee fathers and younger siblings to attend to. How do teachers respond to this situation? How do they bring children to school and create an environment in which they are motivated to learn?

Even as the film observes the efforts that teachers make, it explores the fragile relationship of children with schools. It seems that everyday the question needs to be asked anew, Are you going to school today?

Credits
Script & Direction: Anupama Srinivasan
Location & Post-production Sound: Sandeep Singh
Camera & Editing: Anupama Srinivasan
Colourist: Divya Kehr
Produced by PSBT

Festival screenings/selections:
Film Southasia, Kathmandu 2019; Vibgyor Film Festival 2019; Madurai International Film Festival 2019; Bangalore Human Rights Film Festival 2019; Peloponnisos International Film Festival, Greece 2020; Chennai International Documentary & Short film Festival 2020; Realtime International Film Festival, Lagos, Nigeria 2020; Award for Best Film by a Female Director; Finalist at European International Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia 2020; Liberation Docfest Bangladesh 2020; Selected for Kino Otok Festival, Slovenia 2020; FILUMS International Film Festival, Lahore, Pakistan 2020



About the filmmaker:
Anupama Srinivasan is a filmmaker based in Delhi. An alumna of Harvard University and FTII, she has been making documentaries for the past 17 years, often shooting and editing her own work.

Her films I Wonder..., On my Own and On my Own Again have been screened at various film festivals including 100 Years of Cinema Centenary Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, FIPA Biarritz, Mumbai International Film Festival, ImagineIndia Madrid and Kara Filmfest.

The documentary Nirnay that she co-directed and edited won the Pramod Pati Most Innovative Film Award at MIFF 2014. She has also collaborated with CIET, NCERT to make short documentaries on gender and education.

Anupama was the Festival Director of the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival for three years (2013-15), and of the Peace Builders International Film Festival in 2016.

Online interaction with Anupama Srinivasan : On 16, August, Sunday @ 11 am; text 9940642044 for ID and password.

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 10 : Koothu

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 10

From 6 pm, 7 Aug, Friday

Film : Koothu
Dir: Sandhya Kumar; 52 minutes; Tamil & English; 2018

Synopsis: In many villages in Tamil Nadu, a theatre tradition still links people with a past. Closely connected with religion and caste rituals, koothu brings to life stories about gods, demigods, kings and demons from the Indian epics. A typical koothu performance is an all-night show in which performers wear elaborate make-up, costumes and wooden ornaments, and simultaneously sing, dance and act on stage.

During the festival season, many koothu companies tour the countryside, often commissioned by villages to perform for several consecutive nights. Yet, in spite of its enduring rural popularity and because of its low-caste associations, koothu struggles to find place and patronage in urban art circles. Who decides what is classical? Who decides what is sophisticated? Through the work of two koothu masters, P. Rajagopal and Sambandan Thambiran, this film presents the art and the aesthetics of koothu and looks into several questions surrounding Koothu.

Awards / festivals :
IDSFFK 2019
SIGNS 2019
Mumbai International Film Festival 2020
21st Madurai Film Festival 2019
7th Chennai Film Festival 2019
International Theatre Festival of Kerala 2020

About the filmmaker : Sandhya Kumar is a film and communications graduate of San Francisco Art Institute and Jamia Millia University, New Delhi. Her 2012 documentary, ‘O Friend, This Waiting!’ won the Indian National Film Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film, for its unconventional exploration of the Devadasi tradition in South India through the medium of love-poetry. 

Sandhya’s films have traveled in India and internationally, with screenings at the Mumbai International Film Festival, The Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, SF MOMA, The 3rd I South Asian Film Festival, Film South Asia, Kathmandu and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. She had received film grants from the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) and the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and has been an ATSA fellow at ARThink South Asia.

Interaction : Via zoom on Sunday, 9 Aug @ 11 am!
Message 9940642044 for ID and password