Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 40

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 40
On 19 -21 March; 6 am to 6 am; 48 hours

Film: Naach Bhikhari Naach
Director/directors: Shilpi Gulati and Jainendra Dost
Duration: 70 min
Language: Bhojpuri, Hindi with English Subtitled
Year of production: 2019

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Synopsis: Naach is a form of traditional folk theatre from Bihar, India. In this tradition, male artists often cross dress as women on stage and are referred to as ‘laundas’. The most legendary name in this tradition is Bhikhari Thakur’s— who was an actor, playwright, and a social reformer popularly known as the ‘Shakespeare of Bhojpuri.’ The film follows the last four Naach performers to have worked him. As they share a lifetime of memories, they immerse us into the world where we begin to see a glimpse of budhau – the old man, himself.

Festivals and awards: Winner of Awards at Boston, Delhi, and Jakarta and screened at over fifteen festivals, including at Burlington, New York, Goa, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Moscow, and Seoul.

About the filmmakers :

Shilpi Gulati

Shilpi is a filmmaker, theatre artist, and educator. She locates her practice at the intersections of documentary and performance where she largely engages with community-based media practices, feminist histories, and intergenerational memory. She is a two-time recipient of the President's National Film Award in India for her documentaries Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story (2014) and Taala the Kunjee: Lock and Key (2018) which along with her other works have been widely screened. A Fulbright scholar, Shilpi is currently pursuing her doctoral research at Jawaharlal Nehru University and teaching documentary theory and practice at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

Jainendra Dost

Jainendra's work examines the social and political realities of Launda Naach and Bhikhari Thakur's folk theatre in Bihar. His theoretical inquiry closely ties into his experience as a theatre practitioner over two decades of experience. Jainendra is the Director of Bhikhari Thakur Repertory Training and Research Centre, Chhapra, and a Lecturer at the District Institute of Education and Training in Gaya.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 39

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 39

Date : 13 - 14 March 2022

Time : 6 am to 6 am (24 hours window)

Film : Dollar City

Dir: Amudhan R.P.
77 min; Tamil with English subtitles; 2016; Documentary

Produced by Raj Kajendra

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM





Synopsis:
Tirupur, a small town in south India is well known for its thousands of export oriented garment hosiery units and millions of migrant workers from both within and outside the state of Tamilnadu.

Once a small village now a city, Tirupur provides a development model where the state machinery, exporters, small and big entrepreneurs, commission agents, trade unionists and workers converge at a point where export, and welfare of the industry are the priority by sidelining, marginalizing and eventually breaking the laws that protect environment and workers' rights.

The film provides an inside view of a successful economic system where there is connivance and consensus between the masters, mediators and the workers, where the ambitions and loyalties collapse, where the rights become a privilege, where duty becomes an opportunity and where one‟s desperation is another‟s prospect.

The fact that there has not been a workers' strike in Tirupur in the past 20 years as proudly expressed by an exporter in the film can be a classical example for the Gramscian idea of manufacture of consent.




CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

23rd Madurai Film Festival 2021 : Retro II - Nina Sabnani

23rd Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2021

Retrospective II : Films by Nina Sabnani 

Mukand and Riaz (2005) (8.04 mins)is a story based on the fragmented memories of Mukand who remembers and misses his friend Riaz, his childhood friend. Although their interests were different they were the best of friends. Riaz always looked out for Mukand and was very protective of him. When the partition of India and Pakistan happened in 1947, Riaz helped Mukand and his family to escape safely. Mukand was fourteen when he waved goodbye to his friend. The two friends never met again and the hope is that this film may bring them together.

Tanko Bole Chhe (2009)(The Stitches Speak) ( 12mins) is an animated documentary which celebrates the art and passion of the Kutch artisans associated with Kala Raksha. The film traces multiple journeys made by the participants towards defining their identities and towards forming the Kala Raksha Trust and the School for Design. The film uses their narrative art of appliqué and embroideries through which they articulate their responses to life, and events as traumatic as the earthquake and as joyful as flying a kite. Through conversations and memories four voices share their involvement in the evolution of a craft tradition.

Baat Wahi Hai (2011) (It’s the same story) (13.38 mins)

In the film Baat Wahi Hai (It’s the Same Story) two storytellers argue about their version of a story on Shravan Kumar, as listeners are free to interpret it in their own ways. The art for the film uses the painted images from the wooden portable shrine called the Kaavad. The film is a collaborative work between traditional Kaavad storytellers and the Kaavad artists from Rajasthan, together with the filmmaker. A combination of animation and live-action, the film is an interpretation of two stories told by the storytellers, which are fused in the act of telling and retelling.

Bemata (2012) (8.13mins)

Based on a Kaavad narrative told by Kojaram Rav, the film Bemata is a collaboration between a traditional storyteller, a Kaavad artist, animators and the film maker. A folk tale is interpreted to include contemporary concerns. Job satisfaction is what we all seek. Bemata, a demi-goddess in heaven is no different, she is not at all happy grinding grains. Inspired by an event in which Raavan manages to get several boons from Lord Vishnu she finds a way to a satisfactory job.

Hum Chitra Banate Hain ( 2016) (We make images) (8.51mins)

“We Make Images” is an animated origin myth told together by the indigenous artist Sher Singh and the film maker Nina Sabnani that explains the reasons for painting by the Bhil community in Madhya Pradesh, India. The film has won the Rajat Kamal for the Best Animaton film at the 64th National Awards, INDIA

23rd Madurai Film Festival 2021 : Tarun Bhartiya Retrospective

23rd Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2021 

Tarun Bhartiya Retrospective

DAY 1

SONGS TO LIVE BY - a cycle of 6 Films (2016)

Direction/Editing

There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.
Wendell Berry

As they say, the world was sung into existence. The land ended where the songs faded away. What could not be sung or narrated did not exist. People of Khasi, Jaintia & Garo hills have always sung their lives- songs of the world, songs of seeds, songs of the hills, songs of harvest, songs of hunger, songs of desire...

a. BRIEF LIFE OF INSECTS

What makes folk music? Is it something frozen and event friendly? Is it still made in the fields to the bump and grind of physical labour? We are in Umpohwin, a Bhoi village on the Assam – Meghalaya Border in India. Here, Bah Hos Shadap & his friends are threshing their paddy. Threshing in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills involves free and voluntary exchange of labour and today Hos Shadap’s paddy field is the recipient of that voluntary exchange.

As the paddy is pounded, a rhythm emerges inviting a song. Albinus Kharkongor, Umpohwin’s master of rhyme and verse, steps in and takes over. The simple rhythm belies the vast topical territory that Albinus sings. The village’s existing corpus of lyrical anecdotes get taken over by his irreverent wit and improvisation. Longings are cloaked, oppressors are made fun of, dinner is slipped through clumsy fingers and edible roots makes one fart. The language swings from the local dialect to pidgin to one that is plainly imagined.

Hos Shadap and Albinus Kharkongor filter a kind of history through their songs that will remain marginal to the canon of Khasi tribal culture.

Best Sound, MIFF , Official Selection Film South Asia, Kathmandu,

22 mins | Ktien Nongtung with English subtitles
Research : K Mark Swer
Camera : Arwat Challam, Raihun & Tarun Bhartiya
Sound : K Mark Swer & Rangdap Kharshiing
Editing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

b. LOVE SONGS OF SOTJAK AND RINGJENG

In the makeshift bamboo house in their shifting cultivation field, A.chik couple Ringjeng T. Marak and Sotjak Ch. Sangma of Selbalgre, Garo Hills celebrate their 45 years of life together with songs and music.

17 mins | A.chik with English subtitles
Research : Somu Ingty & Sembertush Sangma
Camera : Arwat Challam, Sembertush Sangma & Tarun Bhartiya
Associate Director: Sembertush Sangma
Editing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

c. ESCAPING MUSEUMS – LAK(H)EMPONG DIARIES

Are folk dances only about tourist festivals and Indian Republic and Independence Day celebrations? Are folk dances subservient to classical forms? Are border cultures loose bricks in the ethnic purity construct of the majority? In Umtlieh, in the disputed territories of Assam & Meghalaya of India, people of the multi ethnic ancient state of Nongtung come together for their annual post harvest dance called Shad Lakhempong. Is it a sacred dance or just about picking up your future mate? Debates continue as people sing their ribald dance music and songs of stolen nights together.

29 mins | Ktien Nongtung and Sohra Khasi with English subtitles
Script : K Mark Swer & Tarun Bhartiya
Associate Directors : K Mark Swer & Arwat Challam
Camera, Editing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

d. SONGS & SECRETS IN SADOLPARA

Sadolpara, Garo Hills, India, one of the few villages which still practise the old A.chik Songsarek faith. Bheemsingh is a recent convert to Christianity and yet he holds on to the traditional chants, rituals and stories. He sings while weaving his baskets and he sings while meeting and drinking with his friends in the weekly market.
20 mins | A.chik with English subtitles
Research : Somu Ingty & Sembertush Sangma
Camera : Arwat Challam & Tarun Bhartiya
Associate Director: Sembertush Sangma
Editing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

e. SOUNDS FROM THE TRUCK COUNTRY

Sounds are easy to find in Shangpung – both melodic and discordant. Songs too- both traditional and modern, religious and romantic. In local gatherings, Shangpung’s musicians invoke deities for pure fermentation as coal trucks wail in the village’s roads. Manbha Lamare and Heibormi Sungoh of Shangpung village, Jaintia Hills, are in the middle of one such gathering - a ritual called Koo-Iung. Sacred chants and the rhythms of lineage are performed in this house warming ritual but among the many layers of sanctification lies hidden the song and dance form called La Heh. How will it reveal itself?

39 mins | Pnar with English subtitles
Research : Arwat Challam
Script : K Mark Swer & Tarun Bhartiya
Narration : Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh
Camera : Arwat Challam & Tarun Bhartiya
Associate Directors : K Mark Swer & Arwat Challam
Editing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

f. KINGS HAVE THEIR RESORTS, PEOPLE HAVE THEIR SONGS

Why do songs die? Can they ever be revived? In Syndai village in the War Jaintia region of Meghalaya, a weeding song called Long Hai hasn’t been sung for 60 years. But in a village brimming with memories, a hierarchy has emerged. Relics in the forests of Syndai are being modernised to sell the image of a glorious, royal past to tourists yet Syngkor Pohplet strains to recall the lines of a song from her agrarian past. This is a past where cycles of cultivation have replaced one another as a matter of survival, and songs are lost in the wake of these life-altering cycles. So, is the loss of a way of life something worth remembering , if so, who should remember it? Should Long Hai be sung anymore? The women of Syndai Lyngkot revisit their memories to decide.

40 mins | War Jaintia & Pnar with English subtitles
Research : H Hamkhein Mohrmen
Translations : Dapmon Syngkor
Script : K Mark Swer & Tarun Bhartiya
Camera : Arwat Challam & Tarun Bhartiya
Associate Directors : K Mark Swer & Arwat Challam

DAY 2


BAD PLACES (2005)
Direction/Camera/Editing

On 15th August India celebrates its independence. On the same day many groups in North East India call for a shutdown protesting against Indian Colonialism. A short film set in Shillong about the contested nature of national liberation. A film in the series Tourist Information for Shillong.

Bad Places - a poem by Robin S Ngangom
Low on the Thrill - a song by The Ceremony from the album Scary Truth
TV Footage - Peitengor Cable News
Camera & Editing - Tarun Bhartiya
Mumbai International Film Festival


La Mana / Not Allowed / मना है (2018)
Direction/Camera/Editing

The streets of Shillong, North East India are fraught with arguments... La Mana (Not Allowed) a common phrase in Khasi localities listing the things, which are not allowed in public places. A Bihari filmmaker married to a Khasi finds himself using the phrase as the title of his new documentary to start discussions on the much-debated topic, the existential crisis of the matrilineal hill tribe. Are the men of the Indian plains stealing Khasi women’s affections? Will influx of outsiders and mixed marriages prove apocalyptic for the indigenous people? Is matrilineality a curse in disguise? Amidst the night filled with rum, music, poetry, local cable tv, social media and love, La Mana / Not Allowed explores the marginal multicultural dreams of Khasi Shillong.

Khasi & English 38 mins

Produced by Films Division with Samaj Pragati Sahyog Associate Director: K Mark Swer Sound Mix : Andrew Lyndem Songs : Sambok Mawnai, Freedom Marba Ñiang, D Mc Drumnoc Animation : Benjamin Syiem & Treibor Mawlong Aerial Photography: Nathaniel Nampui Majaw Local TV: Batesi TV news & entertainment & T7 Camera, Edit & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya


DAY 3

DARJEELING HIMALAYAN RAILWAY (2010)

Direction/Writing

From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a line so close to the people that it flows like a river through their lives. The relationship between the train and the people is changing, however, as a new generation of Gurkhas populates these hills, demanding an independent state and fighting for a new identity as they journey into the modern Indian world.

English 60 mins

Produced by BBC 4 and 3Di Television | Research : Rajesh Shinde & Zorba Laloo | Narrator : Bernard Hill | Camera : Ranjan Palit & Apal | Editor : Barry Reynolds | Associate Producer : Pallavi Biswas | Series Producer : Gerry Troyna | Writing & Direction : Tarun Bhartiya

Film Southasia, Mumbai International Film Festival, Royal Television Society Award, Best documentary series 2010


DAY 4

RED ANT DREAM (2013)
Editing / Writing

Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist’, the revolutionary patriot had said, almost a hundred years ago, and that forewarning travels into India’s present, as armed insurrection simmers in Bastar, in the troubled heart of central India. But in the east too, beleaguered adivasis from the mineral-rich hills of Odisha come forth bearing their axes, and their songs. And in the north the swelling protests by Punjabi peasants sees hope coagulate–once more–around that iconic figure of Bhagat Singh, revolutionary martyr of the anti-colonial struggle.

But are revolutions even possible anymore? Or have those dreams been ground down into our nightmares? This is a chronicle of those who live the revolutionary ideal in India, a rare encounter with the invisible domain of those whose everyday is a fight for another ideal of the world.

‘Maoism teaches us that self-preservation is possible only through war’ the disembodied voice of an ideologue fills the forest, now peopled by armed guerillas. This subterranean war broke out more than half a century ago, and the continuing battle is shaped not just with bullets and explosives, but also ideas.

‘Population is the center of gravity’, says the officer charged with training policemen in jungle warfare in Bastar, with turning them into soldiers who can take-on the Maoist rebellion – ‘whichever side the population tilts, that side wins’.

This is the struggle that the Indian Prime Minister has referred to as the ‘single greatest internal security threat to the nation’. And as if in answer, the words of the radical Punjabi poet Pash return to haunt us – ‘If the security of the land calls for a life without conscience… then the security of the land is a threat to us’. His words draw us back into a zone of conscience, of those who resolutely resist the inequalities and injustices of the present, in defence of another utopian ideal of the world.

120 minutes | Language : Gondi, Oriya, Punjabi with English subtitles | Directed by Sanjay Kak | Written by Sanjay Kak, Tarun Bhartiya | Music - Word Sound Power / Delhi Sultanate & Chris McGuiness | Cinematography - Sanjay Kak, Ranjan Palit, Setu Pandey | Edited by Tarun Bhartiya | Sound Design - Madhu Apsara

10th Social Justice Film Festival 2021

10th Social Justice Film Festival 2021 
Online & offline screenings; online interactions!

Celebrating Periyar's 143rd birthday!

Jointly organised by Periyar Self Respect Media & Marupakkam
Curated by Amudhan R.P.

Online Screening :

Click the film names below to watch them online 

From 6 am, 17th Sep to 6 am, 20th Sep / for 72 hour only



Online Interactions with the filmmakers on 19th Sep @ 7 pm via Zoom platform : message to 9940642044 for the link to attend the interaction

Offline / Physical Event : Screening Schedule

ENTRY FREE with Covid Related Restrictions*

17 -19 Sep, Annai Maniyammaiyar Hall, Periyar Thidal, Chennai

17 Sep, 5 pm
Opening film : Oruthi (feature film)

password : akfilms123
Dir : Amshan Kumar

18 Sep

10.30 am to 1.15 pm
1) One Cube (Dir : Pramod Dev; 27 min)
2) At My Doorstep (Dir : Nishtha Jain; 70 min)
3) When Shankar Nag Comes Asking (Dir: Sushma Veerappa; 66 min)

2 pm to 5.15 pm
1) Campus Rising (Dir: Yousuf Saeed; 73 min)
2) A Little Revolution - A Story of Suicides and Dreams (Dir : Harpreet Kaur; 59 min)
3) Night Hawks (Dir: Umadevi N Tanuku; 51 min)

5.30 pm to 8.30 pm
1) The Outside In (Dir: Hansa Thapliyal; 25 min) password : gotravel

2) Nagapattinam: Waves from the Deep (Dir: Swarnavel Easwaran; 72 min) password : Nwfd2021

3) Those Stars in the Sky (Dir: Debaranjan; 58 min)

19 Sep

10.30 am to 1.30 pm
1) Butterfly Standstill (Dir: Suma Josson; 23 min)
2) En Dino Muzzafarnagar (Dir: Shubradeep Chakravorthy & Meera Chaudhary; 147 min)

2 pm to 5 pm
1) Bottle Masala in the Moile (Dir : Vaidehi Chitre; 38 min)
2) Tribal Scoop (Dir: Beeswaranjan Pradhan; 53 min)

password : thelastkingofsundergarh
3) Recasting Selves (Dir : Lalit Vachani; 80 min)
password : CRESTFINAL2019

5.30 pm Moksha (Dir: Pankaj Butalia; 80 min)

7 pm Online interaction with the filmmakers

Curated and programmed by Amudhan R.P.
Jointly organised by Periyar Self Respect Media and MARUPAKKAM

Periyar Special!

Trailer of the short film 'Icon and the Iconoclast' : directed by Vilasini Ramani

Click here to watch the trailer

*Covid Related Restrictions for the Offline / Physical Event :
1) Limited seats only
2) No permission without mask
3) Temperature will be checked for every session
4) Hand sanitizer will be provided

Online Interaction with the filmmakers :

19th Sep @ 7 pm via Zoom platform

Message to 9940642044 for the link to attend the interaction

Film Festival on Justice, Peace and Harmony

National Solidarity Forum

presents

Film Festival on Justice, Peace and Harmony

On the occasion of 13th Anniversary of the Kandhamal Day

24th Aug 6am - 31st Aug 6 am; for 7 days!

Curated by Amudhan R.P.

Coordinated by KP Sasi

Online interaction with the filmmakers on 24th Aug @ 6 pm

For more details : kpsasi36@gmail.com

Film Festival on Justice, Peace and Harmony

Human beings have suppressed, oppressed, mutilated, humiliated and neglected their own fellow human beings due to many reasons throughout history. There are economic, cultural, social and political reason for such human rights violations. One of the reasons for such human rights violations in India is on the basis of identity. People have been killed, abused, lynched, molested, raped and burnt. The victims and survivors of these identities like Dalits, adivasis, fisherfolk, women, religious minorities, marginalised nationalities, sexuality minorities and many other marginased sections are still struggling in India. The human rights violations on the people of Kandhamal took place within this context.

The 13th Anniversary of the Kandhamal Day is on August 25, 2021. Major attacks on Adivasi Christians and Dalit Christians took place in Kandhamal, Odisha in 2007 and 2008. Over 360 churches and worship places were attacked, 5600 houses were destroyed, over 100 people were killed, over 40 women were raped, molested or abused, thousands were displaced and the education of over 12,000 children was disrupted. The victims and survivors have not yet received justice.

In this context, over seventy groups came together to raise the issues for justice for the rights of Kandhamal victims and survivors, under the banner of National Solidarity Forum. Many actions have taken place locally, nationally and internationally through this effort for more than 12 years. This film festival which is being organised during the 13th Anniversary of Kandhamal Day is to remind us that no marginalised identity can fight this battle alone and there must be a unity among all marginalised identities in India. Hence, the National Solidarity Forum is organising a film festival for 7 days from 24th 6am to 31st 6am, August 2021.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILMS

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 38 : Shramjeevi

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 38

From 10 am on 14th April; for 48 hours

Film : Shramjeevi
Dir: Tarun Bhartiya; 43.50 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2020; Documentary



SHRAMJEEVI narrates the hopes and tragedies of the working class lives in Kapasehra village, one of the largest settlements of migrant workers in India.

Tarun Bhartiya is a filmmaker, film editor, a poet in the Hindi language and a political activist based in Shillong.


CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 37 : We Have Not Come Here to Die

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 37

On 2-4 April, 6 pm to 6 pm; 48 hours

Film : We Have Not Come Here to Die
Dir : Deepa Dhanraj

On January 17th 2016 a Dalit, Phd research scholar, and activist Rohith Vemula unable to bear the persecution from a partisan University administration and dominant caste Hindu supremacists hung himself in one of the most prestigious universities in India. His suicide note, which argued against the “value of a man being reduced to his immediate identity” galvanized student politics in India.

Over the last year thousands of students all over the country have broken the silence around their experiences of caste discrimination in Universities and have started a powerful anti-caste movement. The film attempts to track this historic movement that is changing the conversation on caste in India.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM  

 password : sama.stories  

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 36 : MOD (The Turn)

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 36 

From 6.30 pm today! Till 6 pm, Monday!

Film : Mod (The Turn)
Dir: Pushpa Rawat; 69 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2016



Mod is an attempt by the filmmaker at communicating with the young men who hang out at the ‘notorious’ water tank in her neighbourhood in Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad. The water tank is a space that is frequented by the so-called ‘no-gooders’ of the locality, a place where they play cricket, play cards, drink and smoke up. When she enters the space with her camera, the boys are curious and at the same time wary of it and her. They sometimes resist, sometimes protest, and at times, open up. As the film unfolds we get a hint of the lives the boys lead and the fragile world they create for themselves at the water tank.



About the filmmaker : Pushpa Rawat has been involved in film projects in her own community in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. She was one of the filmmakers of the 2007 short documentary Kyon, a group project around gender-based violence. Her debut film Nirnay (2012) was a deeply personal film looking at her own life and those of her women friends. It was the winner of the Pramod Pati Award for the Most Innovative Film at MIFF 2014. She is the recipient of the TISS-SMCS Early Career Fellowship and her second film Mod was made as a part of this.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 35 : Foreigner in My Home Land

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 35

FROM 6 PM TODAY!

Film : A Foreigner in My Home Land
Dir: Nishajyothi Sharma; 55 min



Nepalis (Gorkhas) of Assam are not foreigners or outsiders, except for a few who may have migrated to Assam (India) post 1971. However, the prevalent sentiment among the Assamese masses is quite contrary to what history says and the Assam Accord of 1985 has agreed to.

Through this self-reflexive film, the filmmaker (who herself is an Asameli Nepali/Gorkha) explores the notion of identity of the community in Assam.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 34 - Scratches on Stone

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 34

Film : Scratches on Stone
Dir: Amit Mahanti; 62 min; Ao, Chen, Nagamese, English; 2018

Zubeni grew up in the 1980s-90s in the midst of a 50-year war for Naga independence. She says its traces still exist today – in her memories, in the photographs she takes, in herself. Elsewhere in Nagaland, 98-year old Cheno Khuzuthrupa remembers the war through a wooden engraving outside his house, while Shoupa and Zubeni talk about an Austrian ethnologist’s photography in the area in the 1930s. Meanwhile, Zubeni’s niece, Hannah will turn 3 in a few months, and Zubeni has been wondering how to capture her image.

In Nagaland, the past lingers on, framed through photographs, casting shadows over the present.‘Scratches on Stone’ is an exploration of the textures and residue of violence in Nagaland – through Zubeni’s personal experiences; through people and images that remind us of the political violence that the place has been through; and the legacy of the anthropological photographic tradition that has always foregrounded the idea of ‘violence’ among the Naga people.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM 

Password : stones

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 33 - The Battle of Bhima Koregaon

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 33
Showing Now!

Film : The Battle of Bhima Koregaon - an unending journey 
Dir: Somnath Waghmare; 49 min; Marathi, Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2016

History speaks about great wars fought, brave warriors and clever kings and emperors. What history doesn't do is justice to the wars, warriors and leaders of the oppressed. This documentary is about the 500 Mahar soldiers (the untouchables) who offered to fight alongside their countrymen, against the colonisers. Rejected by the ruling class they joined forces with the colonisers and fought in the 'Bhima Koregaon Battle', defeating the Brahminical rule of the Peshwas. Just as history did, so do the media and ruling class today conveniently forget to acknowledge them. 

On​ the 1st of​ January, every year, 20 lakh (2 million) people gather at Bhima-Koregaon, Pune, Maharashtra to commemorate that battle. No national or local media covers the largest annual gathering in the region. The documentary captures the history of Bhima Koregaon and its relevance to contemporary Dalit issues and politics in the country. It tells the history of the​ ​Bahujans through the coverage of the events of this gathering.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 32 - A Dream in their Songs

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 32
From tomorrow / Friday, 6 pm!

Film : A Dream in their Songs
Dir: Deba Ranjan; 29 min; Odia with Eng. subtitles; 2020

Synopsis: Songs are an important part of the community life as well as their resistance to dispossession. The dream of these singers of Odisha has always been the strength of people’s struggle of saving their own lives and resources.

These singers are very much the same people who compose the songs, sing the same, participate in the rally, and encourage own people to dream. For the last few years, they have been in front of all resistance struggles in the eastern part of India.

This film is based on the life and dream of a few composers-cum-singers of such resistance struggles of Odisha/India.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 31 - The Color of My Home

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 31
From 6 pm, Friday; for 72 hours only!

Film : The Color of My Home
Dir : Sanjay Barnela & Farah Naqvi; 48 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

Synopsis : Violent winds of hate carrying human beings like so much debris - this is what is called internal displacement. A reality for hundreds and thousands across the globe, and for many Indians. These are the people the world calls IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in dispassionate officialese.

What is lost when people attack you and your home, forcing you to flee? What is the human cost that violent displacement extracts for generations? When the media has left, and public attention gone, forgotten uprooted lives still need to be rebuilt. But can they? Be really rebuilt? What does ‘rehabilitation’ mean? A new roof over ones head? Or, monetary compensation given by the State? Is the home that was lost ever regained?

'The Colour of My Home' follows a group of people, violently displaced after ‘riots’ in the
North Indian town of Muzaffarnagar in 2013, seeking answers to these questions.

About the filmmakers : 

Sanjay Barnela, based in India, is founder of Moving Images, a team of documentary filmmakers and academics, making a range of award winning films over the last twenty years, many in the niche area of conservation and livelihoods, at the political interface between the environment and local communities. His body of work was recognized by the CMS VATAVARAN Prithvi Ratna Award (2014). In 2012, Sanjay joined the Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Bangalore, where he heads Srishti Films, a center dedicated to teaching professional non-fiction film making.

Farah Naqvi, an alumnus of Columbia University, is a writer, feminist and activist from India. Her work has spanned a range of media (including the book Waves in the Hinterland about Dalit women journalists, 2007), and locations - from remote villages to public policy spaces (including the National Advisory Council, 2010-2014) – engaging with gender, caste, and minority identity, towards justice, democratic rights and freedom from violence. For nearly two decades, she has worked on the issue of hate-based communal violence and internal displacement in India.

Credits : 

Directed by  Sanjay Barnela and Farah Naqvi
Executive Producers- Madhavi Kuckreja, Geeta Narayanan, Sandeep Virmani
Music- Shantanu Moitra
Produced by: Srishti Films, Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Sadbhavana Trust,
Hunnarshala Foundation. 

Project Partners: Moving Images, Vanangana

Associate Producer: Janvi Karwal

Camera: Sanjay Barnela, Janvi Karwal

Location sound: Janvi Karwal, Aisha Khatoon, Kahkashan Beg


Assistant Camera: Kahkashan Beg, Aisha Khatoon, Saira Khan (Santkada Film Studio)
Additional Camera: Hoshedhar Shroff, Vivek Sangwan, Savyasachi Anju Prabir
Editors: Janvi Karwak, Varun Kurtkoti, Debashish Nandi
Lyrics: Annu Rizvi
Voice: Turab Naqvi
Field Production: Vineet Goyal,Radhey Shyam, Mamta Verma

Festival Screenings:

2017: Kathmandu International Film Festival
2018: People Film Festival, Kolkatta
2018: Chennai International Doc Film Festival
2019: Artists United Event, New Delhi
2020: Vikalp @ Prithvi, Online screening

Interaction : We invite you to interaction with the filmmakers on Sunday @ 11 am via Zoom. Message to 9940642044 for ID and password. 

Interaction will be moderated by Shreya M 

Shreya M - born and brought up in Lucknow and graduated in journalism and mass communication. Awarded as the best student at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, she specializes in Community Media. Since 2014 she has worked with several organizations as communication officer and documentary filmmaker. She worked as the Project Coordinator for the ChangeChitra program - a US Embassy funded program for young Indians to be trained in documentary filmmaking for social activism.

She also runs an online forum named Paaq Bandhu for people in India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue and work on issues which are common in both the nations.

She has recently become a part of the United People Global (UPG) - an international community of Changemakers, as the UPG Champion and also the Changelooms fellowship as a Mentor.

Click here to watch the film (from 6 pm, Friday) 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 30 : Nicobar, a long way

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 30
From 6 pm, Friday / 15 January 2021; for 72 hours only

Film : Nicobar, a long way
Dir : Richa Hushing; 60 min; Nicobarese, Hindi, English with English subtitles; 2016

Synopsis : Deep down the Bay of Bengal on an ancient trade route to the far east, in the Nicobar archipelago lived the Nicobarese. The islands once upon a time were much frequented by passing traders for sojourns. The Nicobarese used to barter coconuts with them for fancies like an old hat or a coat, silk handkerchiefs, sometimes even empty alcohol bottles.

In 1956, after being annexed to the Indian state, the islands came to be protected under the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation. Free Passage was restricted. No one, not even Indian citizens could visit the islands and the Nicobarese got cut off as if living in a time capsule until the Tsunami of December 26th, 2004.

Seven years after Tsunami, the film looks at the erstwhile self-contained universe now scattered and fragmented to eventually amalgamate in a much larger world order over which they have little control.

Credits :

Produced by Films Division 

Camera : Rrivu Laha

Festivals and awards :

Madurai International Film Festival 2018 

Pêcheurs du monde, Lorient, France, 2018
Film South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2017
Viscult - The festival of Visual Culture, Joensuu, Finland, 2017
'Special Mention' award Millennium Film Festival, Brussels, Belgium, 2017
World Film Festival, Tartu, Estonia, 2017 (At the National Estonian Museum)
Festival Film Library of the RAI FF, Bristol, 2017
Ethnografilm Festival, Paris, 2017
Smaragdni Eco Film Festival, Hrvatska Kostajnica, Croatia, 2017
International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, India, 2016

About the filmmaker : 

After graduating (2005) from Film and Television Institute of India in Direction, Richa Hushing was associated with the digital image archive at Majlis - a centre for rights discourse and multidisciplinary arts in Mumbai. She is one of the founding contributors to the Public Access

Digital Media Archive (www.pad.ma). She began making short documentaries since 2008. Her films observe intangible cultures through characters resisting social norms or responding to social flux. 'Nicobar, a long way...' is her first feature length film. She is currently engaged in raising resources to create an online repository of over 120 hours of annotated footage from the Nicobar archipelago

Interaction : We invite you to the interaction with the crew on Sunday @ 11 am via Zoom. Text to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INTERACTION 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 29 : Our Metropolis

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 29
From 8th Jan, Friday, 6 pm!

Film : Our Metropolis
A film by Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao
India, 2014 October, 87 min
Language: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi (Dakkani) with English sub-titles

Synopsis : The promise of a global city is being used to bulldoze Bangalore, India's I.T. capital, at the expense of the people who live in it. To whose advantage?

Bangalore is being refashioned as a 'world-class' metropolis. Livelihoods and homes make way for flyovers, glitzy malls and a shiny Metro. Threatened with violent transformation of their city, residents confront the authorities. Beneath the State's ideal of a 'global city' lurks the intent to clear a pasture for big business.

Director's Statement :
The global city erases everything in its path. As we move from metro to mall, there is nothing to remind us of those who lived and worked where we now stand. This film is our attempt to let these stories live on.

Festivals
Busan International Film Festival, Oct 2014
Dubai International Film Festival, Dec 2014
Tromso International Film Festival, Jan 2015
Cinema Verite, International Documentary Film Festival, Teheran, Iran 2015
Mumbai International Film Festival, India 2016
World Film Festival, Tartu Estonia 2016
NAFA, Bergen 2016

OUR METROPOLIS continues to be screened at several educational institutions and at workshops for urban activists, city planners and architects.

Honours
Supported by Asian Network of Documentary (Busan, South Korea), 2013
Selected for DocWok (Magic Lantern Movies and DOK Leipzig), 2012-13

Main Credits
Direction / Camera
Gautam Sonti
Direction / Location Sound
Usha Rao
Editing, Visual Effects, Sound Design
Abhro Banerjee
Original Music
Anant Menon and Snehal Pinto
Produced by
Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao

Brief Bios

GAUTAM SONTI

I've done my share of commissioned films - and survived. Since 2016, I have been simultaneously making three independent, feature-length documentary films. It's crazy, don't try it! Perhaps the only thing that links all my films is me. But if one is looking for a thread, one could say that some of my films (Coding Culture (2006), Our Metropolis (2014) and TechnoCats (under production) are broadly about technology and society. Which is not surprising: half a lifetime ago, I found myself enrolled as a student at IIT Delhi.

                       

USHA RAO
My career has crisscrossed many paths and jumped several professions from HR trainer, teacher, consultant anthropologist to independent researcher. Over the past two decades I have been trying to make sense of what makes a city and what development’ does to the way we live our lives in them. Our Metropolis (2014) is my first foray into documentary film. Sound and image are central to the work that I do.

INTERACTION WITH THE FILMMAKERS on Sunday @ 11 am via Zoom; Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the program.

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INTERACTION 

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 28 : Twin Films on Agrarian Crisis by Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 28 : Twin Films on Agrarian Crisis 

Directed by Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl

On 1-4 January 2021; from 6 pm - 6 pm!

Interaction with the filmmakers on 4 Jan, Sunday @ 11 am! Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

Synopsis and other Details : 

Film 01 : Cotton for My Shroud
Dir: Nandan Saxena, Kavita Bahl; 72 min; English, Marathi with English subtitles; 2011

'Cotton for my shroud' is an investigation into the failure of Bt. Cotton crop in India. Empty promises, escalating costs, dwindling yields and depressed cotton prices played havoc. Since 1995, a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide - the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history.

The Majority of them were cotton farmers from Vidarbha. While the state and the media label these deaths as suicide, the cotton fields of Vidarbha remain a mute witness to genocide.

Crew details
Camera: Nandan Saxena
Script: Nandan Saxena & Kavita Bahl
Edit & Sound Design: Nandan Saxena
Production Assistant: Priyank Saxena

Awards:
Silver Lotus - Best Investigative Film: National Film Awards (2011)
Gold award for script @ IDPA Awards for Excellence (2013), India.
Best Film, Development Film Festival (2012), Chennai, India.

Festivals/Screenings
National University of Singapore (2016)
Monash University, Australia (2016)
Headline Film: World Investigative Film Week, London (2013).
8th Development Film Festival, Madurai (2013)
IAWRT film festival, New Delhi (2013)
Indian Panorama, IFFI (2012)
CMS Vatavaran, Delhi (2012)
The Indian Film Festival- The Hague (2012)
Quotes from the earth, New Delhi (2012)
Mumbai Film Festival, MAMI.(2011)
SiGNS Film Festival, Kochi (2011)
ViBGYOR Film Festival, Thrissur (2011)

Film 02 : Candles in the Wind
Dir : Nandan Saxena & Kavita Bhal; 54 min; English, Punjabi with Eng subtitles; 2013
Produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust

Synopsis : Punjab, the food bowl of India, is in the news for policy-induced non-remunerative agriculture and escalating farm-suicides. Where men found an easy escape in death, the widows bear the burden of their debt, and yet affirm their faith in life - taking care of children, ageing parents and the chemically-abused fields.

'Candles in the wind' witnesses the silent march of these women as they re-negotiate the rules of engagement and the politics of domination in their bid to survive. Their struggle gives us a window into the social-economic flux in rural India. The strategies of survival and re-negotiation of spaces lends itself to a nuanced understanding of the silent under-currents of a gender-specific struggle in the larger narrative of surviving as a farmer in these times.

Crew details :
Camera: Nandan Saxena
2nd camera: Kavita Bahl, Sanjay Malakar, Sidharth Saxena
Edit & Sound Design: Nandan Saxena
Production Assistant: Sarjeet Kajla, Vipin Sharma

Awards :
Special Mention, National Film Awards (2014)
Best Documentary- John Abraham National Film Award, SiGNS film festival (2014).
Special Jury Mention, (2014) IDSFFK, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Best Film – Livelihoods category, CMS Vatavaran Film Festival (2015).
Best Documentary, Human Rights Film Festival, Nepal

Festivals/Screenings :
CMS Vatavaran, Delhi (2016)
Human Rights Film Festival, Nepal (2016)
7 Islands Film Festival, Mumbai (2016)
SiGNS film festival, Kochi (2015)
CMS Environment Film Festival (2015)
School of Asian Studies, London (2015)
Prasar Bharti (2015)
Trento Film Festival, Italy (2015)
Millennium Int Docu film fest Brussels (2015)
Indian Panorama, IFFI, Goa (2015)
Men & Boys for Gender Justice film fest (2015)
Jawaharlal Nehru University (2014)
Tasveer Film fest, Seattle (2014)
Open Frame Film Festival, PSBT (2014)
Chandigarh Cinema Film fest (2014)
IDSFFK, Thiruvananthapuram (2014)
Thessaloniki Int. Docu Film Fest (2014)

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 27 : Are they better off

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 27

From Friday (25 Dec) 6 pm; for 72 hours only

Film : Are they better off
Dir : Aditya Seth; 60 min; Khasi, English with English subtitles; 2016

Synopsis : A place in India where people rejoice when a girl is born and houses bear the names of women is Meghalaya. Khatduhs are the youngest daughters of Khasi matrilineal clans from Meghalaya, where the lineage is from the mother’s clan line or kur but their importance is diminishing. Economic development has fuelled migration & the voices of dissent against Matriliny are getting louder. Given this scenario the documentary Are they better off, is an exposition of Matriliny in Meghalaya & it’s socio-political complexities, contextualized with the status of women, nationally.

Three women Hulda Kynta,52, Selinda Kharbuki, 29 & Jubelee Kharmujai, 23 reveal their customs & traditions as we journey to Shillong to celebrate Christmas in their Matrilineal homes.

Crew :
Cinematographer: Santosh Swarnakar
Sound Recordist: Jatin Sharma
Anatil Mahato
Line Producer & Subject Consultant: Hulda Kynta
Editor: Ketan Adhia
Producer: Films Division of India

About the director : Based out of Mumbai & Delhi, India, Aditya Seth is an internationally acclaimed independent award winning Documentary, Short & Corporate Film Maker & Academic with a sound grounding in Theatre & Music and has been involved in the making of Short Films, Documentaries & TV programmes in all genres for national as well as international audiences. He is an Academic & Professor of Film & teaches Filmmaking & related media at the Under Graduate, Post Graduate & PhD levels. He has been in the film industry for the more than 30 years and has been an academic for over 20. He is an Academic Consultant for University of South Wales, Cardiff, Wales, (UK)

He is a Certified Master Trainer & Master Assessor for Media & Entertainment Skills Council, Skill India. Aditya is a founder member of Vikalp: Films For Freedom, was the Treasurer of the Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA) from 2004 -’08 & is currently the President of IDPA.

His critically acclaimed documentary Bahadur The Accidental on Nepalese Labour migration & HIV won the Best Documentary award at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival. It has been screened at various prestigious International Film Festivals in India, Nepal, Spain, Indonesia, UK, Iraq & Iran. The film won Documentary Short Award of Excellence at the International Film Festival For Peace, Inspiration, Equality, Jakarta, Indonesia. It also Won Best Feature Film (Non-Fiction) award at The Indian Independent Film Festival, Bengaluru, 2013 & was an official entry in the Indian Panorama @ the 45th Indian International Film Festival, Goa, 2014.

He is a recipient of the prestigious "Inspiring Citizens' Award" from The Institute of Self Reliance for his contribution to Film & Media Education, 2019.

He has mentored, supervised & executed over 250 student films & productions in the disciplines of Fiction Film making, News Broadcast, Advertising, Documentary & Radio Programmes.

He is the Founder & Course Director of The Indian Academy of Shorts which is based out of Noida, Mumbai & Kathmandu.

Interaction :

We welcome you to the interaction with the filmmaker on 27 Dec (Sunday) @ 11 am via Zoom. Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

INTERACTION WITH ADITYA SETH

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 26 - 21 Hours - of Toil, Travel and Trade

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 26

From tomorrow (Friday), 6 pm; for 72 hours!

Film : 21 Hours - of Toil, Travel and Trade
Directed by : Sunitha C. V.
Producer : Magline Philomina Yohannan
Duration : 28 minutes
Language : English, Malayalam
Subtitles : English
Year of Production : 2020

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM

                                                         password : cacim21

Synopsis: This documentary film records the life of Rajamma, a woman fish vendor in Trivandrum, Kerala, who travels daily to Thoothukudy harbour 200 km away to procure fish and sell it back in her hometown. It highlights the struggle and strength of unorganised working women, who survive because of sheer grit, in spite of overwhelming odds.

Write up about the filmmaker : Sunitha studied Electronic Journalism at the Press Club Institute of Journalism, Trivandrum. Later she learned acting for films at the Prague Film School. She worked as journalist and program producer for various Television Channels in Malayalam before she moved into films as an actor, casting director and Executive Producer. 21 Hours is her first independent documentary.

Interaction with the film crew on Sunday @ 11 am via Zoom.

Participants :
Sunitha CV, director of the film 

Magline Philomina Yohannan, producer of the film

Time: Dec 20, 2020 11:00 AM Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 816 8095 6793 Passcode: 925062

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM 

password : cacim21

INTERACTION WITH THE CREW

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 25 - At My Doorstep

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 25

From 6 pm today (27 Nov); for 72 hours only

Film : AT MY DOORSTEP
A film by Nishtha Jain
Documentary / 70 min / Hindi with Eng subtitles / India / 2009




Synopsis : A closer look at those who come to the filmmaker’s door becomes a way of entering a parallel world of garbage collectors, domestic workers, delivery boys, watchmen — all those who labour long hours in difficult conditions to make middle and upper class lives in the city of Bombay more comfortable.

These providers of services and goods often remain faceless and nameless. They are, like the people who enjoy their services, mainly migrants, but their presence here is more sharply defined by the lack of survival options back home. Nothing else explains why they should bear with such harsh living and unfair working conditions.

The film looks at the crisscrossing of various lives in the filmmaker’s housing colony, gleaning from this microcosm a sense of how millions work, interact and struggle for a firmer foothold in an indifferent, often hostile megacity. 

Crew Credits

Direction & Editing Nishtha Jain
Research & Script Nishtha Jain, Smriti Nevatia
Film Consultant Smriti Nevatia
Cinematography Rakesh Haridas
Location sound Indrajit Neogi
Sound design Niraj Gera

Film Festival Screenings

Premiere – Isola Film Festival, Slovenia, 2009
Dokma, Croatia, 2009
FFPDM, Montreal, 2010
IFFLA, 2010
Dokfest, Munich, 2010
IDSFFK, 2010

Best Documentary Award Indian Film Festival Los Angeles, 2010

About the Director

Nishtha Jain is an internationally-recognized filmmaker based in Mumbai best known for Gulabi Gang (2012), Lakshmi and Me (2007) and City of Photos (2004). Her films interrogate lived experience at the intersection of gender, caste and class. They explore the political in the personal and uncover the mechanisms of privilege.

She’s a Chicken & Egg Award winner (2020); Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (AMPAS); Film Independent Global Media Maker Fellow (2019-20); Recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2019).

After postgraduate training at Jamia Mass Communication Research Centre, New Delhi, she pursued Film Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune prior to launching a career in independent cinema.

She’s been working across various platforms –documentary, narrative, virtual reality and TV series. Her films have been widely screened at film festivals and art-house cinemas and broadcast on TV. They have won over 25 international awards and have been reviewed by print-media and academic journals.

Nishtha has served as a juror at IDFA, ZFF, Cinema Verité and IDSFFK. She’s given lectures and master classes at numerous universities internationally, including Stanford, NYU, Wellesley College, UCSB, Northwestern University, UT Austin, Cambridge University, University of London, St. Andrews University, Heidelberg, Danish Film School, FTII Pune, India, Satyajit Ray Film & TV Institute.

Select Filmography (Direction)

The Golden Thread (WIP) Summer with Roxanne (WIP) Saboot (Proof) (2019) Submerged (2016) Change the Story (2015) Gulabi Gang (2012) At My Doorstep (2009) Lakshmi and Me (2007) 6 Yards to Democracy (2007) (Co-director - Smriti Nevatia) Call it Slut, 2006 City of Photos, 2005





The film was supported by HIVOS, Netherlands Alter-Ciné Foundation, Canada

Watch Trailer here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9bWWx1GeqA

Email: raintrefilms@gmail.com

Websites: www.nishthajainfilm.com

Produced by Raintree films © 2009

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INTERACTION WITH THE FILMMAKER