2nd Chennai Film Festival on Democracy 2015
Jointly organized by
MARUPAKKAM and Periyar Self Respect Media
14-16 Aug; Periyar Thidal;
11 am to 7 pm
Section 01 : Films from India
1)
Naga Story: the otherside of silence
Dir:
Gopal Menon ; 62 min; Nagamese, Manipuri, English and 14 Naga languages with
English subtitles.; 2003
The
Nagas are a 3 million-strong indigenous people who occupy the North-East
frontier of the Indian subcontinent. The The Naga political struggle is one of
the oldest nationality movements in South Asia, continuing till present times.
The film Naga Story provides an introduction to the history of the Naga
struggle, and documents the human rights abuses suffered by the Naga people in
more than 50 years of the existence of Independent India. Naga Story, which took 5 years to
complete, is the first comprehensive film about the Naga struggle for identity,
self-determination, peace, and justice.
2)
India Untouched – Stories of a People Apart
Dir:
Stalin K; 106 min; 2007; Many Indian languages
“India Untouched - Stories of a People Apart” is perhaps the
most comprehensive look at Untouchability ever undertaken on film. Director
Stalin K. spent four years traveling the length and breadth of the country to
expose the continued oppression of "Dalits", the "broken
people" who suffer under a 4000-year-old religious system.
3)
Words on Water
Dir:
Sanjay Kak; 85 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2002
"Shasan
valo, sun lo aaj - Hamare gaon mein hamaara raaj" (Listen to us, you who
rule - our villages, we control). A boat carrying that cargo of defiance begins
an urgent journey through the Narmada valley. For more than 15 years, people of
the valley have resisted a series of massive dams on their river, and in their
struggle have exposed the deceptive heart of India’s development politics. The
struggle has forged unusual alliances. Adivasis in the hills, farmers from the
Nimad plain, sand-quarriers and fishermen on the river, and middle-class
activists. They are ranged against the powerful apparatus of this chosen model
of development - ministers, magistrates, police commissioners, the World Bank,
and in this era of privatization, multinational corporations.
4) A
Pestering Journey
Dir:
K.R.Manoj; 66 min; Eng subtitles; 2001; India
A
pestering journey’ unravels the many interwoven layers of culture and
agriculture and foregrounds the logic of green revolution. Taking a pestering
turn, the journey blurs the boundaries of nature and culture, of self and
other, of life and death and many other comfortable binaries we inhabit. It
tries to ask how much regard for life a culture should have to ponder over the
question, what a pest is. In an atypical move, it challenges and changes the
idioms of pesticide and genocide and reveals the claims over knowledge and
expertise, which pushes a pesticide like Endosulfan to a dubious position
between poison and medicine.
5) Mounam
Pesumpothu
Dir: Nisha
Ponthathil; 56 min; Tamil with Eng subtitles; Documentary; 2014
The film
Mounam Pesumpothu portrays the violence against women, despite incredible
social changes achieved by our country. Though the film narrates the
experiences of women in Tamil Nadu specifically, every Indian woman can relate
to these narratives. From sexual harassment to rape, acid attack, female
infanticide, female foeticide, marital rape, domestic violence, dowry
harassment, police atrocities, this film unravels the horrific ways our
patriarchial society treats women. The film also discusses the root cause for
the violence and proposes the different ways by which these violence can be
mitigated.
6) Godhra
Tak : The Terror Trail
Dir:
Shubradeep Chakravorty; 60 min; English; 2003
The film
investigates the Godhra train burning and subsequent rioting that killed 3,500
Muslim in Gujarat, India. Chakravorty retraces the route of the first batch of Karsevaks
from Gujarat to Ayodha and back, and documents the terror they unleashed en
route, and the incident at Godhra railway station.
7) Assam:
The Endless Attacks
Dir: Maga
Tamizh Prabhagaran; 24 min; Tamil; 2015
Violence and
clashes are not new for Assam, because the conflict is bonded with the land and
identity. A wave of violence on 23, Dec 2014 have displaced 30 million people
from their own land. And this is said to be the world’s highest Internally
Displaced Persons (IDPs) where people are displaced in their own land and the
aftermath still continues. News7 Tamil journalist Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran
traveled to the most dangerous parts of the Assam borders along with the
International Boundary Line to reveal the base of blood-bath violence.
8) My Name is Palaru
Dir: RR Srinivasan; 63 min;
Tamil; 2008
Palaru
is an ancient river of Tamilnadu, some archeologists say Palaru, river is the
"ancient Cauvery" [paleo cauvery]. Palaru begins from Nandi hills,
Karnataka and flows to Andhra Pradesh, then to Tamilnadu. Breaking the 1892
mysore samasthanam agreement Karnataka built two major dams and stopped the
water to Tamilnadu, Within the stretch of 32 kms Andhra Pradesh built 22 dams.
Once a perennial river now become a desert, for five decades there is no water
in the river. In Tamilnadu from Vaniyambadi to Ranipet nearly 1000 tannery
industries pollute the river with very dangerous chemicals like chromium and
nickel. In Kancheepuram once a Buddhist capital. The Palaru changed in to
complete sand mining sight. Both the private contractors and the government of
Tamilnadu dig the river up to 40 feet to take the sand. In the age of mineral
water bottle, a great drinking water source is completely destroyed by the
central and state govt.
9) First Cry
Dir: Ajay TG; 52 min; Hindi,
Chattisgarhi, Bangla with Eng. Subtitles; 2014
Of the people, by the people, for the
people are grand words that rarely find a meaning in reality. Shahid hospital
is a rare exception. In 1981, under the leadership of Shankar Guha Niyogy of
the Chhattisgarh Mazdoor Shramik Sangh, the mine workers of Bhillai Steel Plant
in Dalli Rajhara, in Chhatisgarh, India, acted on a need sorely felt by them,
to have a hospital that would not turn them away, to cater only to the middle
class. Over 10,000 workers donated their wages and built the hospital, brick by
brick, with their own hands. The workers invited doctors like Dr. Binayak Sen,
Dr Saibal Jana and others to join and they themselves trained as auxiliary
staff to assist them.
Today, the hospital runs itself and provides the best of modern healthcare to all, at minimal cost. First Cry, tells us the wonderful story about how this remarkable hospital came into being and even today how it continues to be an oasis of hope.
10) Radiation Stories Part 2: Kalpakkam
Dir:
Amudhan R.P.; 28 min; 2012; Tami with English subtitles; Documentary
Dr.Pugalendi,
a brave warrior against nuclear energy has been fighting a battle against
nuclear establishment of Kalpakkam for the past 20 years. When the famous
scientists of this country are claiming that nuclear energy is safe,
Dr.Pugalendi’s argument can give us the suppressed version of the story.
11)
Hope Dies Last in the War
Dir:
Supriyo Sen; 80min; Bengali; 2007; Documentary
54 Indian soldiers taken as Prisoners of War
during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 are yet to return home. While waiting for them,
some of the parents died, some of the wives remarried and some children lost
hope and committed suicide. But the real ordeal has been for those who did not
give up. For them life has become a tight rope walking between hope and
despair. But they have fought the mental battle of attrition for almost four
decades and are still not willing to resign.
This film is
a saga of these families' struggle, spanning three generations, to get their
men back. It records a tragic stalemate, sufferings of love and shining moments
of humanity, courage and hope.
Comments
Post a Comment