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Synopsis of Winning Films
First Prize: Tales of The Night Fairies (2002, 74 minutes)
Direction: Shohini Ghosh
Synopsis: Five sex workers--four women and one man-–along with the filmmaker embark on a journey of story telling. The film explores the power of collective organising and resistance while reflecting upon contemporary debates around sex work. The simultaneously expansive and labyrinthine city of Calcutta forms the backdrop for the personal and musical journeys of story telling.
The film attempts to represent the struggles and aspirations of thousands of sex workers who constitute the DMSC (Durbar Mahila Samanyay Committee) an initiative that emerged from the Shonagachi HIV/AIDS Intervention project. A collective of men, women and transgendered sex workers, DMSC demands decriminalisation of adult sex work and the right to form a trade union.
Shohini Ghosh is Reader, Video and Television Production at Mass Communication Research, Jamia Milia Islamia University.
Second Prize: The City Beautiful (2003, 78 minutes)
Direction: Rahul Roy
Synopsis: The film is the story of two families struggling to make sense of a world, which keeps pushing them to the margins. Radha and Bal Krishnan are at a critical point tin their relationship. Bal Krishnana is underemployed and constantly cheated. They are in disagreement about Radha going out to work. However through all their ups and down they retain their ability to laugh. Shakuntala and Hira Lal hardly comunicate. They live under one roof with their children but are locked in their sense of personal tragedies.
Rahul Roy is an independent documentary film maker.
Third Prize: Turf Wars (2001, 41 minutes)
Direction: Sanjay Barnela and Vasant Saberwal
In 1999, the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), in the Kullu Valley of the State of the Himachal Pradesh in northern India, was finally notified and brought under the regulations of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act. As a result, local rights to graze animals and extract medicinal herbs within the national park were terminated. Simultaneously, however a part of the project was deleted from the originally demarcated boundaries of the park, to enable construction of a hydro-electric power project. Turf wars explores the contradictions that seem to characterise the governments policies towards conservation-wherein local livelihoods are expendable in the interest of biodiversity, but biodiversity must make way for national development.
The film engages with a number of debates in conservation. Eco-development as the latest recipe for humanising exclusionary conservation; the nature of scientific evidence, routinely used to support the notion that humans must be separated form nature; the notion of the "oppressive" state further marginalising "powerless" communities. it is an open ended film, one that aims to provoke discussion rather than provide answers to problems that are inevitable complex, contested and heavily politicised.
Sanjay and Vasant are part of a Delhi based production team with specific interests in the environment and development.
Synopsis of Films to be Screened on January 18
A Group Portrait (2001, 27 minutes) Direction: Reena MohanRed, Blue, Yellow, Pink...
Patches of different colour cloth, usually fragments from old sarees, were traditionally sewn together with a simple running stitch (sujni)to make quilts for babies...
In 1989, Viji Srinivasan of Adithi a Patna based NGO , started an income generation scheme aimed at assisting the many Rajput women who were living in poverty yet prevented from working b social custom.
The women ‘s centre is located in a double storied building in village Bhusura, Muzzaffarpur District in North Bihar. Women take the work home and embroider in the evenings after their household chores are done. Often 3-4 women work on the large pieces at the same time- sujni has opened a way from women to come together.
Viji Srinivasan was determined that the women were not going to be passive pairs of hands in an assembly line of doily sets and cushion covers. She wanted them to embroider large narrative quilts that would reflect their lives and tell their stories...of flora and fauna, of mythology and folklore , of social and potential themes. The project is unique for its transformation of a traditional craft into a project for expressing contemporary concerns.
This film documents their extraordinary journey.
Liquor Vs Living (2003, 17 minutes)
Direction: Jyoti Patil
Legal or illegal--nothing goes in the society without a reason. It is the society that labels something illegal and the fact that illegal activities go in the society shows the failure of the society itself.
While the anti liquor activists destroy the hathbhattis and government declares the production illegal–none have tried to get to the root of the problem. Vulnerable are targeted- no one dares to say anything against the so called branded liquor .It is advertised, it has the protection of the license and has the sanctity of the society when its addiction is injurious to health .The poorest class of the society produces the hathbhatti liquor is banned. When the society declares something illegal it is the societies duty to see to it that it does not remain in the society. The fact that bootlegging goes on despite the anti liquor movements government bans, proves that the system is somewhere at fault.
The Fire Within (2003, 58 minutes) Direction: Shri Prakash A poignant story of the Indian Coal Industry and the people/environment of Jharkhand spanning over 150 years. Circa 1774 - the first coal mine was blasted in the Raniganj Area. Today more then 6 lakh people are directly employed in this industry.The indigenous people owned this coal rich land till the British dispossessed them. Come 19th century, specially the world wars and after, the railways were introduced and the extraction of coal began in a big way. Owned by private parties, they engaged in ruthless exploitation of natural/human resources. It saw several committees & commissions diligently working out technical aspects - how to extract coal safely! Environmental & Human aspects of mining were never a central concern for any one. Then came our tryst with destiny. And the story continues without any twist. 25 years after the independence - the coal industry was nationalised and the situation worsened as mafia and corrupt bureaucrats ushered in an era of violent culture. Today, while approximately Rs. 1000 crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry.
And the people who owned these are left to languish as no one talks About their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law.
Aruvacode Diary (2001, 28 minutes) Direction: Sanjay Maharishi and Anuradha MaharishiThis is a story of grit and determination of the women of Aruvacode, a small village about a hundred kilometres from Kohzikode in Kerala. The erstwhile community of potters struggled hard to find a foothold in the changed environment of aluminium and plastics. Their economic condition had forced them to resort to sex work.
The women had now reorganised themselves into a co-operative, making beautiful pottery and other clay items in contemporary designs that have found new markets in major cities in India. Three years ago, even before the actually shooting began ,there was widespread discontent amongst the women and their families. Earlier attempts by the media to highlight this saleable story in local and national press had had a disastrous effect in the village. The co-operative shut down Husbands, fathers , brothers and sons did not allow their women to continue work. Their felt maligned and cheated. it was like the ghost of their worst nightmares revisiting them .
How was one to tell a story that would not jeopardise the on going process of rehabilitation. The story had to be told in a way that the participants would call their own.
The Bamboo Children (2003, 28 minutes)Direction: Aarti Bhasin
The Bamboo Children is a success story of coexistence of tribals with the mainstream world. The Biligiri Rangan Hills , located in the Chamrajnagar District of South Karanataka are home to the Soligas, its indigenous tribals. Soligas means one who has come from within the bamboo.
Over the last two decades Dr. H Sudershan (Padmashri) as the founder of Vivekananada Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) has progressively made Soligas self reliant , within the context of their distinct cultural identity and way of life
From 15,000 declining numbers in 1979 today there are 31000 increasing numbers of Soligas. They are educated, economically independent and manage an enterprise that conserves their forests with them as the masters of it. They represent the fact tribals are the lifelines of human civilisation.
Backstage Boys (2002, 30 minutes)
Direction: Meera Dewan
The film reflects the impact of globalisation on the century–old tradition immigration from Punjab to the West. Marginal Punjabi farmers, unable to survive on small land holdings are lured by the promise of plenty abraod. Despite the increasingly tough immigration laws there and the inherent risks involved in illegal international travel, there is a constant stream of brave, adventurous and perhaps foolhardy young man willing to take chances. The film maps this journey, fraught as it is with danger, deportation and even death.
