Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 9 : Aamakaar - The Turtle People

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 9
From 6 pm, 31st July / Friday!

Film: AAMAKAAR- THE TURTLE PEOPLE
Dir: Surabhi Sharma; 76 min; 2003; Documentary



Synopsis: This film depicts the struggles of a small fishing village in North Kerala that is fighting the assault on its estuary by sand mining. The villagers are also engaged in the conservation of Olive Ridley turtles that come to their beach to nest. They make a connection between a species fast becoming extinct and the fate of a community that could face displacement.

Produced by Sunil Shanbag
Cinematography Setu, Sudheer Palsane
Music Rajivan SA
Editing Sujata Narula
Audiography Suresh Rajamani
Production Company Chrysalis Films

Awards: Ramsar- Medwet Award, Eco-Cinema 2004, Greece
Bronze Trophy from Indian Documentary Producers Association, Mumbai

Festivals: FICA VI, Brazil, 2004
Planet in Focus, Toronto, 2003
Vatavaran, New Delhi, 2003
Opening film at ‘Women in Film’, The Substation, Singapore, 2003
Kara Film Festival, Karachi, 2003
Quotes from the Earth, New Delhi, 2004
Vikalp – Films for Freedom, Mumbai, 2004



About the filmmaker : Surabhi Sharma is a filmmaker based in Abu Dhabi and Mumbai. She has worked on several feature length documentaries apart from some short fiction films and video installations. Her key concern has been documenting cities in transition through the lens of labour, music and migration, and most recently reproductive labour. Cinema verite and ethnography are the genres that inform her filmmaking. She is currently teaching in the Film and new Media Programme at New York University Abu Dhabi.

We also invite you to the interaction with Surabhi Sharma and Sunil Shanbag at 11 am on 2nd Aug / Sunday; message 9940642044 for ID and password!

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!

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 7 : Invoking Justice

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 7

From 6 pm, 17th July, Friday; for 48 hours only!

Film : Invoking Justice
Dir: Deepa Dhanraj; 86 min; Tamil with English subtitles; 2012; Documentary



Synopsis: Fed up with male dominated Jamaats (Councils), where they cannot represent themselves, Muslim women in South India set up their own council in 2004. The Women’s Jamaat guides, arbitrates and decides on matters related to family law.

Invoking Justice tells the complex story of the inspired challenge posed by the Women’s Jamaat to a corrupt judicial system. The film follows Jamaat members as they investigate cases and negotiate with families, male Jamaats and the police with skill, tenacity and the courage of convictions grounded equally in faith and in a secular idea of justice.

Credits:
Producer : Deepa Dhanraj, Ryota Kotani, Sally Jo Fifer
Co-producers NHK Japan, ITVS USA, with support from the Jan Vrijman Fund
Cinematographer: Navroze Contractor
Editor/Script: Jabeen Merchant
Music: Konarak Reddy
Sound Recording: Kalaiselvan

Awards / film festivals:
Golden Conch best documentary 2014, Mumbai International Film Festival. QFX Cinema Jury Award 2013, Film South Asia, Nepal.



Deepa Dhanraj is a writer, director, and producer living in Bangalore, South India. She studied English Literature in Madras University. She has produced and directed numerous an award-winning documentaries, ”Something Like a War “ (Channel 4); “The Legacy of Malthus” (BBC 2); “Sudesha” (Faust Film/ARD). “Nari Adalat/Women's Courts" and “What Has Happened to This City?".

The films have been screened on ARTE, CBC, and SBS. Her films have been invited to festivals such as IDFA, Berlinale, Leipzig, Oberhausen, and Films de Femmes, Creteil France, Tampere, Vancouver and Chicago. She has a special interest in education and has created special video materials to address challenges faced by first generation learners.

Interaction with the filmmaker on 19th July, Sunday at 11 am; Message 9940642044 for ID and password

About the filmmaker:

1) Transcending testimony: an interview with filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj

2) Feminist Documentary in India : an interview with Deepa Dhanraj

3) Justice League : on Deepa Dhanraj

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 6 : The Slave Genesis

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 6

From 6 pm 10th July, Friday; for 48 hours only! (Extended for 24 hours more)

Film : The Slave Genesis (Dir: Aneez Mappilla; 62 min)



The film won the 65th National Award for Best Ethnographic Documentary!

Synopsis : The documentary, ‘The Slave Genesis’ deals with the ethnicity and the social transformation of Paniya tribals, who belong to Wayanad, the hill district to the south of Western Ghats in South India.

‘Paniya’ literally translates to a ‘labourer’. These tribals—who were deployed to work in the farms of migrants, who trickled into Wayanad from time to time - have distinct arts and songs that reflect their identities. The prime among their songs is Penappaattu (speech of ghost), which they recite as part of funeral rituals. The song begins with the origin of Paniya tribes.

Based on the contents of Penappattu, the documentary explores the social transformation of the Paniyas. It proceeds through the recollections of the director, who was born and brought up in close proximity to the Paniyas. The anthropological pitch forms the aesthetic build of the documentary.

We also invite you to the interaction with the filmmaker via Zoom on 12th July, Sunday at 11 am; message 9940642044 for ID and password.

Click here to watch the film!

Review 01

Review 02
Review 03

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)

Resisting Super Emergency : Online Film Festival

RESISTING SUPER EMERGENCY : DEFENDING INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Online Film Festival : Organised by MARUPAKKAM

On 25 June, Thursday from 12 am onwards; for 48 hours only

List of films:

1) Ammi
Dir : Sunil Kumar; 90 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2018

Click here to watch the film

This is one woman's two-year fight for justice. Battered by the police, having been told by the myriad government agencies who investigate her son's disappearance, that there are no leads, she still stands with conviction.

2) Lynch Nation
Dir: Shaheen Ahmed & Ashfaque EJ; 43 min; Hindi with English subtitles; 2018

Click here to watch the film / password : LynchNation

A relentless journey across India listening to heart-wrenching stories of mob lynching that have torn apart families and shaken the entire nation.

3) Hora
Dir: Nachi; 24 min; Marathi, Hindi with English subtitles; 2018

 Click here to watch the film



Hora literally means a fortune teller in Marati language. It is part of a folk theatre form. Vilas Ghogre, a revolutionary poet metamorphosed the form to predict the political future of the world. Adapting that form in film’s narrative technique too we follow the life of Rupali Jadhav who is an activist singer in Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural political troupe using songs as a means of protest and revolt.

4) Campus Rising
Dir: Yousuf Saeed; 73 mins; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; 2017

Click here to watch the film



While the students' unrest continues in many cities, this film travels to some seven Indian universities (including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad Central University and Banaras Hindu University among others) to record what the students and some teachers have to say about how their freedom is being curtailed, and how this movement will not die until they bring some change of perception about the rights of the underprivileged.

5) Our Gauri
Dir: Deepu; 67 min; Kannada, Hindi and English (subtitles); 2017

Click here to watch the film



Gauri Lankesh was one of Karnataka's most prominent and fearless journalists. She was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru on the night of 5th September, 2017. Gauri spoke out against communal forces in the country and represented dissent and freedom of speech.

6) We, the People
Dir: Samarth Mahajan; 28 min; Multiple Indian languages with Eng subtitles; 2017

Click here to watch the film



"We, The People" is a film about protests on Jantar Mantar Road, the erstwhile protest street in Delhi. Through the narratives of three individuals who protested indefinitely at Jantar Mantar Road, the film questions the socio-political reality of India vis a vis the ideals the nation set out with.

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 4 : Bird Trapper or Beggar

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 4

Film : Sikkidre Shikari, Ildidre Bhikari (Bird Trapper or Beggar!)

Dir: Vinod Raja; 79 min; Kannada and Vaagri Boli with English Subtitles

Produced by Madhu Bushan & Vinod Raja

The Hakki Pikkis are a free spirited nomadic tribe who began their wandering many generations ago in the North Western part of the Indian subcontinent. Over time they travelled through and settled in different states of the country.

As they moved, they survived through trapping birds and hunting small game in the forests and selling them in cities and towns along with lucky charms and trinkets. If the trap failed, begging was the next best bet!

Exiled from the forest, reviled by the city, their traditional ways of life outlawed the Hakki Pikkis share their stories of wit and survival in the film that emerged through a series of community conversations held when we travelled with friends from a settlement in Bannerghatta, Bangalore to other settlements across Karnataka.

Vinod Raja

Graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India-FTII with a specialisation in cinematography 1984-85 . As the director of photography, filmed many advertisement commercials, documentaries.

FILMOGRAPHY as a Director

1995 -TOLI CHINUKA or ”The fragrance of the first rain” 22 minutes Hi Band u-matic, on the indigenous water harvest systems through tanks ponds and lakes in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Premiered at the Mumbai International film festival of shorts documentaries and animation films ,MIFF -1996.

The bee,the bear and the kuruba. 16mm, 35mm print. 66 minutes, on the indigenous people protesting against the opening of a luxury resort in the core area of the Nagarahole National park, while they were being forcibly thrown out. Shown across the world in more than 35 international film festivals.

2006- 35mm Cinemascope Photographed a Hindi/Dakhni feature film titled Doosra, premiered at the International film festival of Kerala in 2007

2007- Mahua Memoirs, DV, 80 minutes . Saloo, the bard and Thirku the Baiga take us on a journey through the lives of the many tribal communities who live in the mountain tracts and forests of the Eastern Ghats. The film unfolds the life visions and struggles of the indigenous people against mining.

Won 5 awards including the silver conch at the Mumbai Interntional film festival MIFF-2008 and the top award for long form documentaries at International documentary film festival of Kerala 2008.

2008- Vanishing trails, tales of the nomads. 40 minutes. Shown at many international forums including CHOTRO 2009

2017- Sikkidre Shikari, Ildidhre Bhikari (Bird trapper or Beggar) 79 minutes.currently doing its round across India.

2018- completed four short films on climate challenges facing the Adivasis and Indigenous peasants living living on the fringes of the Rajiv Gandhi national park, Nagarahole.

DO NOT FORGET TO ATTEND THE ZOOM INTERACTION WITH THE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER ON 21ST JUNE, SUNDAY AT 11 AM.
Contact : 994062044

Click here to watch the film!

From 19 - 21 June; 6 pm to 6 pm; available for 48 hours