25th Madurai Film Festival 2023 : IDEAS Centre

25th Madurai Film Festival 2023

Screening Schedule

 9 December

IDEAS Centre, Vazhaithoppu

10 am : Inauguration 

10.30 am 

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.

Interaction with Somnath Mondal, filmmaker

11.15 am Tea break

11.30 am 

The Leopard’s Tribe 

Dir : Miriam Chandy Menacherry; 40 min; Documentary; India 

Mumbai authorities axe thousands of trees to expand a mass transit system. Home to 10,000 indigenous tribals led by Prakash Bhoir a scuffle unfolds to protect forest and the leopard they worship. A battle to save the green lungs of India’s financial capital unfolds. 

Canvas

Dir : Sanjai Chandrasekaran; 18.40 min; Short fiction; India 

This is the story of a Therukoothu artist, it depicts how he challenges his problems and what all he goes through behind the screen (offscreen) due to his challenging phase in life.

1 pm  Lunch break

2 pm

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. 

Interaction with Ratheesh Mon Panampatta, filmmaker

2.35 pm 

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. 

3.10 Tea break

3.20 pm 

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.

Sirithu Velicham (Ray of Hope)

Dir : Balaji SBR; 12.43 min; Short fiction; India 

A man returns from his incarceration after 13 years. He goes to meet his beloved daughter. But the daughter amidst her wedding preparations sends him back.

Loo

Dir : Chanakya Vyas; 14.22 min; Short fiction; India 

Struggling to find a place to pee, a domestic helper working in an apartment building decides to secretly use the toilet in the house where she works leading to the breaking of unsaid norms between her and the employer, as class bias comes to the fore.

4.10 Closing remarks