Social Justice Film Festival # 7, Bangalore

Social Justice Film Festival #7 

4, 5 May 2018 @ ECA - 8, 100 Feet Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

Organised by Clone Cinema Alternative, NECAB Matinee & East Cultural Association

Curated by Amudhan R.P.

Screening Schedule

4 May, Friday

4 pm : Up Down & Sideways
Dir: Anushka Meenakshi & Iswar Srikumar; 83 min; Chokri with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India

Up Down and Sideways’ is a musical portrait of a community of rice cultivators and their memories of love and loss, created from working together on the fields.

It is the first feature film from the u-ra-mi-li project, a larger body of work that looks at the connections between music and labour.

5:45 Inauguration

6:15 Our Gauri
Dir: Deepu; 67 min; English 9subtitles); 2017

Gauri Lankesh was one of the 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.

The film is more than a personal tribute and follows her political journey, envisaging what she stood for and her struggle for communal harmony until her last breath.

And her life story has become the history of Karnataka’s fight against right-wing communal forces.

7:45 pm Survey Number Zero
Dir: Priya Thuvassery; 31 min; Gujarati with Eng subtitles; Documentary 

Story of three women from Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. The Salt they make and a Land which has never been surveyed.

8:35 India’s Forbidden Love
Dir: Sadhana Subramaniam; 25 min; Tamil with Eng subtitles; 2018; Documentary

In March 2016, Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India. Shankar, who came from a Dalit caste, died of his injuries.

Kausalya survived and accused her parents of orchestrating an honour killing. In the film, she fights for justice through the courts, testifying against her parents in a trial where they face the death penalty.

Kausalya’s now estranged grandparents and brother, Gautham, also await the verdict, desperately hoping Kausalya’s mother and father will be released.

The unique access to both sides shows a family torn apart by a caste hierarchy that remains deeply-rooted in India's social fabric.

5 May, Saturday

11 am Voices from the Ruins
Dir: KP Sasi; 94 min; Oriya, Hindi and English; 2016

The state of Orissa was born in 1936 as a result of the social reform movement initiated by Madhusoodhan Das, who was called 'The Father of Orissa'. Madhusoodhan Das was a converted Christian.

Kandhamal District in Orissa is mainly inhabited by Adivasis and Dalits and among them a large population are Christians.

The hate campaign against the Christians in Kandhamal started in late 1960s and sustained for several decades culminating in violence on the minorities in 1980s, 90s and 2000s.

The year 2008 saw the biggest violence on the Christians in modern India, resulting in the destruction of over 350 churches, displacement of over 56,000 people, destruction of over 6,500 houses, deaths of over 93 people and abuse of over 40 women.

The victims were Adivasi Christians and Dalit Christians. The survivors of Kandhamal violence are still struggling against the improper compensation, improper rehabilitation and improper justice delivery systems.

The documentary film 'Voice from the Ruins - Kandhamal in search of Justice' brings out the concerns of the survivors, through their own voices as well concerned sections, analysing the historical roots of violence, the impact of violence on various sections of the communities and the struggle for justice by the survivors of Kandhamal violence.

2:00 Dollar City
Dir: Amudhan R.P.; 77 min; Tamil with English subtitles; 2016; Documentary

Tirupur aka Dollar City, well known for its thousands of export oriented garment hosiery units and millions of migrant workers, symbolizes a development model where the state machinery,

exporters, small and big entrepreneurs, commission agents, trade unionists and workers converge to prioritize export and to earn dollars by ignoring, marginalizing and eventually breaking the laws that protect the 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 seen as classic example of the Gramscian idea of manufacture of consent.

3:40 The Slave Genesis
Dir: Aneez K Mappila; 64 min; Malayalam with English subtitles; 2018; Documentary

The documentary ‘The Slave Genesis’ deals with the social transformation of Paniya tribals, who belong to South India’s hill district of Wayanad. ‘Paniya’ literally translates to ‘worker’.

These tribals—who were deployed to work in the farms of migrants (belonging to other religious sects) 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 story of Paniya community’s origin. The documentary explores the social transformation of Paniyas based on the contents of Penappattu.

It proceeds through the recollections (and their rectifications) of the director, who belongs to a different religious community, but has been born and brought up in close proximity to the Paniyas.

5 pm Tea break

5:30 I am Bonnie
Dir: Farha Katun,Satarupa Santra, Saurabh Kanti Dutta; 45 min; Documentary

Bonnie (33) is again on the run. He has been on the run from his family and sports fraternity since failing 'sex test' before the Bangkok Asian Games, 1998.

A born intersex, raised by poor, illiterate and confused parents as a girl named 'Bandana', s/he became one of the finest strikers of Indian Woman's football team in her/his short career.

A Sex Reassignment surgery later transformed her/him to a man but left him without home or career. He left home, took up idol-making for a living.

He met Swati (F24) then; they fell in love and married soon but had to move once again fearing social backlash.

His fight to establish his identity, struggle for existence is met by a sarcastic society which is yet to learn to take 'other genders' seriously.

6:30 Mod
Dir: Pushpa Rawat; 69 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India 

'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.

8:00 Closing Ceremony