25th Madurai Film Festival : SHORT DOCUMENTARY SECTION - India
1) 2 Chaak 435 Divas
Dir: Ganesh Rajkumar Dhotre; 30 min; Documentary; India
This film is a documentary about a girl who travels all over Maharashtra on a bicycle without money without any support ti spread awareness about conserving the environment, avoiding pollution and women empowerment. She journeyed a total of 17000 kilometers in 435 days.
2) The Long Road
Dir : Baylon Fonseca; 22.30 min; Documentary; India; Student film
Step onto a thought-provoking path of discovery in the compelling documentary "The Long Road," where the lines between "normal" and "abnormal," "abled" and "disabled" blur into insignificance. Directed with heartfelt curiosity, this documentary delves deep into the lives of individuals who have been blessed with unique abilities and challenges, inviting viewers to question society's perceptions of diversity.
3) Echelon Threads
Dir : Achin Phulre; 17.40 min; Documentary; India
Experience life on the rugged Changthang plateau, where each day is a symphony of tradition and survival. Witness as dawn unveils the delicate art of combing pashmina wool from goats, followed by men guiding herds to graze at 5400m. Women masterfully weave sheep wool into carpets and garments. Pashmina, sold to co-ops and buyers, carries dreams. Amidst breathtaking altitudes, resilience, and rich meals, this documentary paints a vivid portrait of a timeless community crafting its destiny.
4) Study
Dir : Abhilash Sunkesula; 17 min; Documentary; India
Numerous disciplines have emerged in the contemporary world. Yet, since the last few decades, students from Andhra Pradesh & Telangana have majorly chosen MPC (Maths, Physics, Chemistry) & BiPC (Biology, Physics, Chemistry) as their 11th & 12th study streams. Leading the students to only two professional career options which are Engineer & Doctor. The film finds all kinds of reasons existing for this scenario.
5) They are not meant to tell this story
Dir : Deepanwita Goswami ; 13.21 min; Documentary; India; Student film
It is one of the regular days in the life of one Santhal family where 3kg of rice yields up to 9 litres of handia approximately. It is mostly the womenfolk who participate in the making of this drink. The film addresses further points of the conflict in the intersection of culture and economics.
6) LEH 107
Dir: Zenobius; 11.38 min; Documentary; India; Student film
"Leh 107" is a observational/experiential film that focuses on the lives of migrant workers at Khalsi Camp, located at an impressive altitude of 10,000 feet. The film's setting in such a secluded area, devoid of powerlines and mobile network coverage, adds an intriguing layer of isolation and challenges to the narrative.
7) 21…
Dir : Liya Hitesh; 19.48 min; Documentary; India
20th March 2020, India. Prime Minister has just announced a 21 day nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of Corona virus. The film is an observational account of a desolate film institute campus. The spaces which were once swarming with young film students are now empty and frozen. There is no sense of progress of time. The only things that have kept this space still alive are the wildlife and the animals on the campus. Delving between the boundaries of realism and magic realism, the film depicts obvious and mundane everyday life cycle of the campus over a period of 21 days through intriguing audio-visuals.
8) Somewhere Near and Far
Dir : Gurleen Grewal; 23 min; Documentary; India
Set in a newly constructed landscape of suburban Delhi, the filmmaker turns the camera inward to the space of her home. Through silences, whispered conversations, and objects, the film examines the complex nature of gender and family dynamics. The parents’ routines—shared and solitary— become gateways to explore their inner and outer lives, while also looking at the urban alienation that surrounds them.
9) Cat’s Attic
Dir : Nundrisha Wakhloo, Daksh Punj; 24.56 min; Documentary; India
Brair Kani, or Cat's Attic, explores an ancestral house located in Srinagar, Kashmir. A document written by the filmmaker’s grandfather traces the history of the house to shed light on its changing ownership. Through architectural elements and objects with embedded histories, the house comes alive with stories.
10) Aravali - A Quest for Survival
Dir : Akshay Jain; 36.26 min; Documentary; India
In this documentary, I've primarily discussed and captured the efforts made by 'Pukar Foundation' which aimed at converting the barren lands of Alsigarh Village into highly fertile region by planting numerous plants and carrying out other activities. This has been done with the help of local farmers, their families and the local authorities involved to ensure that this initiative do succeeds and is officially documented for the coming generations to learn and carry on further.
11) January
Dir : Biswajit Das; 21.51 min; Documentary; India
January is a documentary film before and after their debut performance "Hei Heiya Hae Hou" by the Manipuri group Survivors in Guwahati in January 2023.
12) Lullaby of Wave
Dir : Ayon Pratim Saikia; 15.20 min; Documentary; India; Student film
This film is a part of the filmmakers’ journey towards understanding and accepting the sense of belonging respective of space and time. The search for identity through the mother's voice and the relation to the river, which guides the events that have followed and will continue to create in the future.
13) Vattam - The Holy Sin
Dir : Vivek K.A.; 28.20 min; India; Documentary
Cows are revered as sacred in Hinduism, practiced by nearly 80 percent of India's 1.3 billion people. Many states already prohibit cow slaughter. Though cow is worshiped as god in many parts of the country, for the percussion artists in God’s Own Country, the skin of the slaughtered cattle is a means of livelihood as chenda and other percussion instruments are made of the tanned skin of cattle.
14) Kambadwane
Dir : Gulson Nayak; 20 min; Documentary; India
15) Messi
Dir : Anilava Chatterjee; 22.24 min; Documentary; India
Does everyone's dream come true? No, it doesn't! But does that mean the race of life comes to an end? No, it doesn't. Instead, the race continues relentlessly. One after another, it challenges the hurdles. Is this race not like Messi’s?
16) Taanaa-baanaa
Dir : Shubhangi Bansai; 19.25 min; Documentary; India
Set in one of the last surviving weavers’ colonies of Delhi, the film follows the journey of a thread while intricately weaving the rhythms of the space with the conversations of the people who inhabit it.
17) A Candid Conversation about Butterflies
Dir : Nisam Asaf K J; 7.35 min; Documentary; India
Bhagyaraj, a wildlife watcher at the Parambikkulam Tiger Reserve, talks about his passion for learning about butterflies among a few other things about forest and nature.
18) My Dream is…
Dir: Riya Hayaran; 16.30 min; Documentary; India; Student film
This is a short documentary about the power of education, the accessibility of safe nurturing environments to little girls and how these spaces and opportunities shape their dreams in a society where many drop out by the 10th grade.
19) Madan Veri - breath of the Ghasis
Dir : Somnath Mondal; 33 min; Docu-fiction; India
This Docu-Fiction film is a factual documentation of the struggle to preserve the culture & heritage of Madan Veri alias 'Turi’, a metallic blowing instrument producing a very loud and distinct sound, played by a singular sub- caste called 'Ghasis' during specific Hindu rituals or delivering some messages since centuries in the Manbhum region of the state of Jharkhand and West Bengal, India.
20) The Legacy from Beyond
Dir : Harsh Raj Gond; 26.21 min; Documentary; India
The Legacy from Beyond is a documentary provides an insightful exploration of Gond art and depicts the lives and struggles of Gond artists who are passionately keeping the Gond art form alive even today. Residing in Patangarh village, they carry forward this art legacy left by the legendary Gond tribal artist Late Shri Jangarh Singh Shyam.
21) I am Limited Edition
Dir : Suresh Menon; 38.38 min; Documentary; India
A young lady has been struggling with a rare disease - Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS) - for the past 14 years. For more than 9 years she was treated by several physicians but unfortunately, her condition only deteriorated. Even though she knows there is no complete cure for this disease, she is determined to walk again. She just wants to walk enough to at least do all the everyday mundane things by herself.
22) A Star is Born
Dir : Napoleon RZ Thanga; 27.44 min; Documentary; India
This is the story of that little girl named Esther Hnamte from a remote village in Mizoram, who became that singing sensation. It traces her life story through the lens of a camera.
23) Picture Abhi Baaki Hai
Dir : Prasad Vasant, Nikhil Harish Salian; 23.47 min; Documentary; India; Student film
A memoir celebrating yesteryears of cinema and how silver screen has evolved over the years, this documentary is an ode to cinema by the audience, for the audience.
24) Vavad, A family memoir
Dir: Rohan Sindgikar; 31 min; Documentary; India
150 years of lives paving their way towards the present, the memories, the laughter, the sadness and the love that keeps this long standing household together is the story of the Somans of Vadad.
25) Balloon Underwater
Dir : Sivakumar K; 22 min; Documentary; India
Balloons fly, balloons float but they never submerge until the pressure is more than their buoyancy. This documentary is about a physically challenged woman trying to remain afloat despite her social, economic, and cultural pressures with nothing but her unnaturally positive attitude.
26) Introspection of different cultures in my life
Dir: Amizhthan Madasamy Athimoolam; 14 min; Documentary; India; Student film
A process of overcoming my own fears hoping to embrace my vulnerabilities as a 20 year old boy through the introspection of different cultures in my life by being as truthful as possible!
27) Myzrab
Dir : Swarnayu Maitra; 28 min; Documentary; India
Tathagata Deb was born deaf and dumb. Later on, he had been diagnosed with a mental illness called "Delusion Disorder". But his mother was steadfast to get him cured. Due to her relentless effort and cooperation from other family members, doctors. teachers. Tathagata is now on a steady path to recovery.
28) Lost Lore
Dir : Maheswari Shekhawat; 30 min; Documentary; India
Through this documentary we have tried to capture the essence of values and traditions of the people of the village Momasar and how itʼs folk culture fabricates the sense of identity in people. This Documentary not only showcases the lives of people of Momasar during the festival of Holi but also goes far beyond to experience the art and craft of the people of this village, located in the Bikaner district of Shekhawati region of Rajasthan.
29) And I call him my father
Dir : Hanna P A; 17 min; Documentary; India
Since 2016, Musthafa has been restoring a piece of degraded mining land tucked away in a village of Kerala into a greenland of his mind. The land then witnessed substantial changes which has since then been known as Greenara. Six years later, His daughter retraces the steps of his journey developing the land.
30) The Last Journey
Dir : Suraj Gunjal; 21 min; Documentary; India
Praful (52) is a coffin-maker and has a very conventional run of the mill attitude towards his unconventional work; working for the dead. Delivering coffins, crosses, dead bodies on order while juggling between mortuaries, houses and cemeteries, his life gets weaved with the stories of the dead ones.
31) Seaside
Dir : Iniya Vasanthan; 18.50 min; Documentary; India; Student film
Kasimedu fish market is one of the major fish markets in Chennai. It is a very lively place all day. From boats bringing fish to people buying it fresh directly from there, everything is quite interesting to observe. Kadaloram(seaside) is a short documentary film made on that place and the people.
32) Our Odyssey is Red
Dir : Neha Chaturvedi, Ayushi Shriramwar, Tahir Ahmed Qureshi, Naomi Fleur Jahan; 37.47 min; Documentary; India
20 diverse young women choose to stay together in a home run by the NGO Kranti in Mumbai, India. What brings them together? Their past, they are all daughters of sex workers, and a very un-common goal to heal themselves and to live a life on their own terms. These women identify as Krantikaris/revolutionaries.
33) I Run into Chairs
Dir: Barnali Ray Shukla; 23 min; Documentary; India
Meet Divyanshu Ganatra and this may not be the only place you see him. He became the first blind Indian to take his first solo flight, and realized his childhood dream of becoming a pilot. In 2016 he was the first Blind Tandem cyclist to cycle from Manali to Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable road. In 2018 he climbed MT. Kilimanjaro the highest free standing mountain in the world becoming the first Blind Indian to do so.
34) In Memories
Dir : Jayshankar Ramu; 23.41 min; Documentary; India
An exploration of memory, utilizing a hybrid of digital video and 35mm black-and-white film photographs, through the contrast in the old and new spaces and faces of Pune city. While relating to, and visualizing the people’s memories of the space, time, art, sound and objects around them in relation to the changing city.
35) Mulsotan - The Rooted
Dir : Janatik Shukla; 27.36 min; Documentary; India
‘Mulsotan’ is a documentary on the non-violent struggle of the Vasava tribal community in south Gujarat and their non-violent struggle for their land and forest rights spanning three decades.
36) Dukhu Majhi - Son of the barren land
Dir: Somnath Mondal; 28:25; India; Documentary
This documentary is regarding a relentless struggle of a solitary man in his unique way to save the mother earth.
The old man - Dukhu Majhi lives in the district of Purulia (W. Bengal), where the temperature rises upto 50 degree Celsius in the summer. He had somehow been inspired by his father in childhood and later on by a Govt. campaign on the need of plantation. There he came to know how trees invite rain and supply oxygen in the environment. He also feels that people need shadows from the scorching sun.
37) Submerged
Dir : Iqbal Hussain; 25 min; Documentary; India
Kotmir, a village in the Dharaji Panchayat, was under the submergence area of the Omkareswar Dam built in the Narmada River. But many of the people from Kotmir had refused to leave the village due to unsettled compensation packages and they lived a subsistence life as migrant labourers in the cities. When they were forced to return homeduring the country wide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these migrant labourers faced a unique situation.
38) The Unjust and Beyond
Dir : Ratheesh Mon Panampatta; 22.43 min; Documentary; India
Landslides are often conceived as natural disasters. It becomes an issue of justice when it disproportionately affects different sections of society. In the Indian state of Kerala, it disproportionately affects the Dalits (“Lower caste”), Adivasis (Tribes), and the poor. The present work engages with the spatial injustice faced by the lower caste and class people in Kerala.
39) Tam-brahm Cooking
Dir : Sraiyanti, Prem Akkattoos; 9 min 20 sec; Documentary; India
A man who works as a security guard in an apartment complex goes about his day, while the residents who live there express their views on caste, identity and their own social standing. But actions speak louder than words.
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