Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 20 : Some Stories Around Witches

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 20
From 6 pm, 16 Oct (Friday); for 72 hours only

Film : Some Stories Around Witches
Dir: Lipika Singh Darai, 53 min; Odia with Eng subtitles; 2015; Documentary
Produced by PSBT

Synopsis : The film does not deal with witchcraft as a practice. It depicts the humanitarian crisis surrounding the cases of witch hunting taking us closer to the people, who have been accused, ostracized, tortured and the circumstances that have led to it.

The film primarily engages in three cases from some parts of Odisha, India, which finds resonance in other parts of the country as well. A teenage girl kills an old woman, one of her relatives thinking that she is a witch and the cause of her father’s death. A village turns into a mob overnight to kill three people, a man and two women who were identified as witches by a witch doctor. A family believed to bring ill fate, ex communicated and threatened after they cooked meat.

Talking about the nuances of the incidents, the film tries to explore the politics of witch hunting - how superstitions, greed, ignorance, fear, insecurity, power in combination can result in immense suffering.

Crew Details :
Director & Editor : Lipika Singh Darai
Associate Director and Cinematographer : Indraneel Lahiri

Production Assistant: Archis Maan
Sound Editor: Alok Shanti Jha
Sound Mixing: Gandhar Mokashi

Film Festivals :
SIGNS Film Festival, Kerala 2016.
Queen City Film Festival, Maryland, US 2016
Equality Film Festival, Kiev 2016
Free Net World Film Festival, Serbia. 2016
15th International Images Film Festival for Women, Zimbabwe, 2017
Mumbai International Film Festival, MIFF 2018
Shimla International film festival 2017
Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 2018
Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2018
Indigenous Film festival of Odisha, 2019
And many independent screenings by film societies and educational institutes across the country.

About the director : Lipika is a filmmaker based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. She is an alumnus of FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) with a specialization in film sound recording. Her journey as an independent filmmaker has taken her all across the culturally diverse state, while documenting the work and lives of folk artists, recording traditional songs of her native Ho tribal community and following the voice of resistance in communities.

Lipika’s films are characterized by strong personal narratives. She is inclined towards mix media work , art research and art performances. Her works try to reflect on the times we are in through a sense of introspection in her films. While her documentary, “Some stories around witches” investigates the humanitarian crisis surrounding the cases of witch-hunts in recent times, her short fiction film “ The waterfall”, specifically made for schools, underlines the need for the voice of resistance to reduce the growing distance between human beings and nature.

Lipika was one of the artists in "City as Studio project" under SARAI, CSDS. In 2017, She participated in “Seoul Biennale of architecture and urbanism” as a visual artist and filmmaker from India. She has been in the jury Panels for various film festivals including IFFI( international Film Festival of India) - Indian Panorama.

Lipika's films have been screened across various national and international platforms. She has received four National Film Awards in non-feature film category in various capacities in the period of 2010-2017 presented by the President of India.

She is currently finishing a feature length documentary produced by Films Division, India, on the folk art form of puppetry in Odisha.

Interaction : We invite you to an online interaction with the director on 18th Oct, Sunday @ 11 am.

Click here to watch the film (from 16th Oct, Friday @ 6 pm )

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 19 : Songs of our Soil

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 19
From 6 pm, 9 Oct, Friday; for 72 hours!

Film : Songs of our Soil
Dir: Aditi Maddali; 52 min; Telugu with Eng subtitles; 2019

Original title: పని పాట పోరాటం (Pani Paata Poratam)
English title: Songs of our Soil
Language: Telugu with English subtitles
Duration: 52 mins

Synopsis: Uyyala songs are an agricultural tradition rooted in the political expression of women in Telangana. Through these oral traditions, Songs of our Soil traces the histories of resistance and memories of disillusionment experienced by women across political assertions in the region.

From women’s participation in the historical Telangana People’s Movement to the demands of justice from the contemporary Mallana Sagar Irrigation project, this film attempts to complicate the relationship between memory, history, and cultural production in women's political journeys.

This project is made possible with a grant from India Foundation for the Arts under the Arts Research programme, with support from Titan Company Ltd.

Crew details:
Editing: Lavanya Ramaiah
Cinematography: Kevin Jason Crasta, Fazil NC
Sound: Nagarjun Thallapalli
Translation: Shalini Mahadev, Pranoo Deshraju
Research: Aditi Maddali

About the director: Aditi Maddali is a researcher and multimedia producer based in Mumbai. She is interested in engaging with affect and everydayness in political journeys of women.

Pani Paata Poratam is her first independent documentary film.

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

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 18 : So Heddan So Hoddan

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 18

From 2nd Oct (Friday) 6 pm; for 72 hours only!

Film: So Heddan So Hoddan (Like Here Like There)
Dir : Anjali Monteiro and K P Jayasankar; 52 min; Sindhi, Kachchhi, Hindustani with English subtitles; 2011; Documentary



Synopsis : Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a medieval Sufi poet, is an iconic figure in the cultural history of Sindh. Bhitai's Shah Ji Risalo is a remarkable collection of poems which are sung by many communities in Kachchh and across the border in Sindh (now in Pakistan). Many of the poems draw on the eternal love stories of Umar-Marui and Sasui-Punhu, among others. These songs speak of the pain of parting, of the inevitability of loss and of deep grief that takes one to unknown and mysterious terrains. Umar Haji Suleiman of Abdasa, in Kachchh, Gujarat, is a self taught Sufi scholar; once a cattle herder, now a farmer, he lives his life through the poetry of Bhitai. Umar's cousin, Mustafa Jatt sings the Bheths of Bhitai. He is accompanied on the Surando, by his cousin Usman Jatt. Usman is a truck driver, who owns and plays one of the last surviving Surandos in the region. The Surando is a peacock shaped, five-stringed instrument from Sindh.

The film explores the life worlds of the three cousins, their families and the Fakirani Jat community to which they belong. Before the Partition the Maldhari (pastoralist) Jatts moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. As pastoral ways of living have given way to settlement, borders and industrialisation, the older generation struggles to keep alive the rich syncretic legacy of Shah Bhitai, that celebrates diversity and non-difference, suffering and transcendence, transience and survival. These marginal visions of negotiating differences in creative ways resist cultural politics based on tight notions of nation-state and national culture; they open up the windows of our national imagination.



Credits : Direction: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar Camera: K.P. Jayasankar Location Sound: Harikumar M. Editing: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar

Film festivals: Film South Asia 2011, Kathmandu, Nepal Open Frame 2011, New Delhi Indian Panorama 2011 Vibgyor International Film Festival 2012, Kerala, India 11th Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2012 Mumbai International Film Festival 2012 International Festival of Folk Music, Kathmandu, 2012 Madurai International Film Festival, 2012 IntimaLente festival, Caserta, Italy, 2012 RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2013 Parramasala, Sydney 2013 Sydney Intercultural Film Festival 2013

Awards : Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) 2011 Awards: Silver for Cinematography, Silver for Sound Design and Silver for Script Best Film Award, International Festival of Folk Music, Kathmandu, 2012 Basil Wright Prize, RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, Edinburgh, 2013



About the filmmakers : Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are Retired Professors, School of Media and Cultural Studies (www. smcs.tiss.edu), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and research. They have played a key role in setting up the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS and the MA programme in Media and Cultural Studies. They teach courses in documentary and video production as well as theoretical approaches to image making practices. They have done pioneering and innovative work in critical media education with various groups including government officials, activists, school and college students, parents and teachers.

Their documentary films, which have been screened across the world, have won 33 national and international awards. A presiding theme of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates.

Interaction : Zoom interaction with the filmmakers on 4th Oct, Sunday at 11 am. Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

Click here to watch the discussion with the filmmakers 

Marupakkam Special Online Film Screening : Naachi Se Baanchi

MARUPAKKAM SPECIAL ONLINE FILM SCREENING!

To commemorate the death anniversary of Dr Ram Dayal Munda!

From 6 pm, 29th Sep; for 48 hours!

Film : Naachi Se Baanchi
Dir: Meghnath & Biju Toppo

 
Produced by Films Division




Synopsis: In his lifetime itself Dr. Ram Dayal Munda has become a symbol of indigenous cultural reawakening. 

Born in an Adivasi Family of Tamar in Jharkhand he went for his higher studies in The United States of America. Later, he taught at the University of Minnesota. He came back to India to teach at Tribal and Regional Language Department of Ranchi University and subsequently became the Vice Chancellor of the same University. Ram DayalMunda was the leading intellectual who has contributed to Jharkhand movement immensely.

Dr. Munda has represented Adivasi voices in Rajya Shabha and United Nations. He has been awarded with Sahitya Academy Award and Padmashree in 2009.

He passed away on 30th September 2011.

Filmmakers: 

Biju Toppo is an anthropological and National award winning tribal documentary filmmaker from Ranchi, Jharkhand. He is one of the first Adivasi filmmakers to have effectively used a camera to counter the misrepresentation of his community by the ‘mainstream’ media. His films have received National and international recognition. In this regard, Biju Toppo was awarded the two prestigious - National Film Award by President Pratibha Patil in the 58th National Film Awards (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India) and another National Film Award by President Ram Nath Kovind in the 65th National Film Awards.

Meghnath is a activist working in Jharkhand for last 30 years. He has been with the people’s struggle against destructive development. As a film maker he has tried to document the voice of those sections of people who remain unheard. Meghnath was awarded prestigious National Film Award in 58th & 65th National Award.

Biju Toppo and Meghnath are founders of AKHRA, a group working in the field of culture and communication.

Interaction with the filmmakers on 30th September, Wednesday at 6pm via Zoom; message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INTERACTION WITH THE FILMMAKERS

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 17 : If She Built a Country

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 17

From 25 Sep, Friday @ 6 pm ; for 72 hours only

Film: If She Built a Country
Dir: Maheen Mirza and Rinchin; 60 min



Synopsis : Walking behind them, through the coal mines that have ravaged their lands and lie now like open wounds, the film follows the stories of the brave tribal women of Raigarh, as they struggle not only to save their lands and livelihoods, seeking justice for themselves, their communities and the generations to come after them, but also, as they reimagine a future for us all, asking one of the most brutally honest and pertinent questions of our times – what does development really mean?

For over a decade now, private and public mining corporations have been encroaching upon and digging up the coal-rich forested lands of North Chhattisgarh – sometimes by blatantly violating the law and at other times by circumventing it, but always, at the cost of lives of the most marginal of peoples. They have displaced whole villages, polluted the lungs and bodies of whole populations and dispossessed whole generations from what is rightfully theirs, all the while making profits from the sale of coal. The true costs of production, however, have been borne by those who have both laboured for and resisted against the process of extraction – the women at the forefront of the struggle, into whose everyday lives the violence of this extraction is folded.

Credits :
Cinematography – Maheen Mmirza
Editing – Puloma Pal
Location sound – Priyanka Gaikwad, Pushpa Rawat
Sound design and mixing – Bigyna Bhushan DahalMusic/ Songs – Kaladas Deharia, Pavitri Majhi, Bharthari Dada, Bhagwati Bhagat

Awards and film festivals :
International Association of Women in Radio and Television, 2019
International Documentary and Short Film Festival Kerala, 2019

About the filmmakers :

Maheen Mirza is a cinematographer committed to cinema that is born of collective practice. She has worked with several organisations and peoples’ movements on socio-political and educational issues, and has made fiction and documentary films across the country. Her work strives to challenge the grammar of commercial cinema and serves to nurture a culture of independent filmmaking.

Rinchin writes stories, film scripts and pamphlets. She works in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh on socio-political issues especially with the anti displacement peoples’ struggle. For over two decades she has been a part of the women’s and queer movement.Both are a part of ektara collective, a strong proponent of the independent cinema movement that seeks to build inclusive & collective cultural spaces.

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction with the filmmakers on 27th Sep, Sunday @ 11 am; message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

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

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 16 : Red Data Book - An Appendix

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 16
From 6 pm, Friday (18 Sep)

Film : Red Data Book : An Appendix
Dir: Pradeep Dipu & Sreemyth Myth; 72 min; Malayalam with Eng subtitles; 2014; Documentary




Synopsis : The film is a layered examination of the factors, both contemporary and historical, that have led the Adivasi (tribal) communities of Attappady (Kerala, South India) to the verge of extinction. The film focuses on the phenomenon of rising infant mortality to probe the entire range of underlying factors.
Is it mainly due to malnutrition, as the State claims? Is it their exclusion from the fruits of so-called development? Is it their refusal to 'modernise'? Or is it our inability to comprehend and preserve their centuries-old harmonious way of life? Have our prescriptive interventions helped? Or have they caused great harm?
The film attempts to understand the gamut of 'alienations' responsible - social, cultural, economic and political while gently posing the core question: Is it they who are alienated from the onward march of progress or is it us who are alienated, blinded by the discourse of modernity?

About the filmmakers: 

Pradeep K.P. (Dipu) co-founded Pedestrian Pictures in 2001, a Bangalore-based film collective, actively engaged in film screenings, documentary-making andcultural/ political activism. He’s also a cinematographer with several narrative fiction films, ad films and documentaries to his credit.

Sreemith N, a young activist film maker, has made several documentaries on issues like caste/gender, displacement/ development and community/ indigenous rights in Kerala. Get up, Stand up - his film on the anti -nuclear movement in Koodankulam was nominated for the Yellow Oscar at the International Uranium Film festival (2013) and won the Kerala State award for the best documentary.

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction with the filmmakers on 20th September, Sunday at 11 am via Zoom; message to 9940642044 for ID and password to take part in the interaction.

Click here to watch the film : (from 6 pm, Friday, 18th September)

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 15 : The Death of Us

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 15
From 11th Sep, Friday, 6 pm!

Film : The Death of Us
Dir: Vani Subramanian; 76 min; English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu with
English subtitles; 2018



Synopsis : The debates on the death penalty today are marked by a cacophony of strident assertions. Going against this tide is The Death of Us - a quiet contemplation on a range of cases in which the death penalty was pronounced, ending in execution, commutation to life sentence, acquittal or even pardon. Speaking only to those who have been on death row or those very closely involved with the cases, we engage in complex conversations on crime and punishment, revenge and justice, popular rhetoric and personal experiences. Only to find ourselves confronting larger ethical and moral questions across time and space.

Credits:
Camera : Desmond Roberts, Rusha Bose, Vani Subramanian
Sound Pratik Biswas
Editing Vani Subramanian, Kuldeep Gaur
Producer Public Service Broadcasting Trust

Awards and film festivals :
18th Open Frame Film Festival – PSBT, New Delhi
20th Madurai International Film Festival
15th South Asia International Film Festival, New York
6th Kolkata Peoples’ Film Festival
7th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival
Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai
18th ImagineIndia International Film Festival
Habitat Film Festival, IHC, Delhi
International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Trivandrum
Signs Film Festival, Trissur
Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai
Human Rights Film Festival, Bangalore
Gandhi Film Festival, Madurai
Vikalp@Prithvi - Online Screenings



About the filmmaker : One-time advertising writer, Vani Subramanian has been a women's rights activist and documentary filmmaker since the nineties. Her work as a filmmaker explores the connections between everyday practices and larger political questions, be they around questions of justice and revenge, or in the areas of culture, food production, primary education, urban development, communalism, sex selective abortions, or even matters of identity embedded in our food practices. Her films have been screened and received awards, both nationally and internationally. More recently, Vani has extended her practice to video art in performance, as well as a mixed media installation.

Interaction : We invite you to Zoom interaction with the filmmaker on 13th September, Sunday at 11 am. Message 9940642044 for ID and password to take part in the interaction.

Click here to watch the film