3rd
Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2015:
Organized
by MARUPAKKAM in association with
Panuval
Book Store, Discovery Book Palace, Periyar Thidal, Department of Politics and
Public Administration. University of Madras and Films Division, Government of
India
Schedule
25
Jan: Panuval Book Store
6
pm: Inauguration with RV Ramani
6:30:
Films Division Package
I AM TWENTY
Directed by SNS
Sastry, English and Hindi, B/W, 1967, 20 min
Twenty years after India's independence, the film maker travels
across the country and interviews its youth, those born in 1947. What does
independence mean to them? What are their dreams? How do they see themselves
and the young nation that they symbolise? The answers have a mix of idealism,
irony, sarcasm, dismay, hope and optimism. This film is as relevant today as it
was over forty years ago.
INDIA 67 / AN INDIAN DAY (FD package)
Directed by S Sukhdev, Music, Colour, 1967, 58 min
“India 67” was commissioned to celebrate 20 years of India’s
independence. Sukhdev, working within the state-run Films Division, went on to
make a film that was far removed from propaganda.
26
Jan: Discovery Book House
10
am: Inauguration with Ajayan Bala
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10:30 Gulabi Gang: Dir:
Nishtha Jain; 96 min; Hindi with English subtitles; 2012; Documentary
In the badlands of Bundelkhand, in
central India, you find the Gulabi gang of women, who wrest justice for women
and dalits. This is a landscape of desolation, dust and despair. The film pulls
into the centre of blazing conflicts between officials and husbands and
uncovers a complex story, disturbing yet heartening.
12:30
Padmini My Love: Dir: Munmun Dhalaria and others; 19:30 min; Marathi and Hindi;
2014; Documentary
Padmini Fiat taxis, the symbol of Mumbai
road are facing a threat.
1:00
Lunch break
2:00
A Promised Rose Garden Dir: Lisa
Violetta Gab; 33 min; Vietnamese, German; Germany; 2014; Short film
Two
immigrant Vietnamese couples in Berlin search for support, comfort and above
all, a home. Fierce fights about territory between the cigarette dealers who
are also relatives greatly unsettle their lives.
2:35
Taweez – The Talisman Writer Dir: Alik Hakim; 20 min; Pashto; Afghanistan,
Germany; 2014; Short film
An
old talisman-writer who earns his money with prophecy and has already lost hope
for acknowledgement in life but he suddenly finds himself as a messiah as a
result of rumours in his village.
3:45 Viratham : Dir:
Prithvi K.Raj; 11 min; Tamil; 2014; Short film
Due
to his wife’s illness, an old man on a day of fast looks for fresh food at his
daughters’ homes. He does not find it and is reconciled with eating old food.
4:00
Kadamai : Dir: M. Balasubramanian; 14 min; Tamil; Short film
An auto-driver in Chennai tackles his
loans and the police and his wife’s hopes, while struggling to make it through
one single day.
4:15 Inmayin Padal (Song of Nothingness)
Dir: Sarwothaman Sadagopan; 14 min; Tamil; 2014; Short film
The indifferent attitude of an old man,
towards all forms of identities after experiencing the painful inward journey
of life.
27
Jan: University of Madras
10 am: Inauguration with Arul Ezhilan,
Journalist
10:
30 Red Ant Dream: Dir: Sanjay Kak; 119 min; English, Odiya, Hindi, Punjabi;
2013; Documentary
‘Let
us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist’ – Bhagat Singh.
The film takes us into the political world of those who live by the
revolutionary ideal in India. It moves between Orissa, Punjab and Bastar. It
includes the poetry of Pash, the famous late Punjabi poet.
1:00 Lunch break
2:00
Call Her Lotte!: Dir: Annakathrin Wetzel; 15 min; Germany; 2014; Short film
The
deep friendship between German Maria and her Jewish friend Lea gradually starts
to break as Maria’s husband Hans goes from being a young adventurer to a high
ranking SS officer.
2:15
A Good Story Dir: Martin-Christopher Bode; 20 min; German; Germany; 2013; Short
film
When
Helga Landowsky discovers a broken jug in an antique store near the
German-Polish border she has to get it. The antiquarian will only give it to
her when she tells her own story with the jug. They find an unexpected bond.
2:45
Films by Films Division
AMIR KHAN Directed by SNS Sastry, Hindi and Urdu, B/W, 35mm, 19 min, 1970
SNS Sastry’s portrait of the Hindustani classical master Ustad
Amir Khan is at once gentle and audacious in the way he sets up images of his
world of concerts, disciples, world travel, his adoring and nagging wife and
little child.
THIS BIT OF THAT INDIA Directed
by SNS Sastry, English, B/W, 20 min, 1975
“This Bit
of That India” is a layered refection on several things – youth, diversity,
progress, education and technology.
AND THE
STARS LOOK ON Directed by OP Sharma, Music, B/W, 12 min, 1968
Night
comes to give peace and rest to the tired soul. But in modern cities hubbing
with industrial activities it is not rest for all. How different sections of
the community spend their hard-earned and well-deserved rest is depicted in
this film.
ARRIVAL Directed by Mani Kaul, Music, Colour, 1980, 20 min
Concerning the arrival of commodities such as vegetables and
livestock as well as human labour into a city from rural areas, this film
explores the product-commodity-exchange value relationship. Representing in
itself a variety of exchange values, money as capital destroys the natural
specificity of people and things. In the process, the labourer is reduced to a
mere commodity.
4:15 The
Backstage of tradition Dir: Sarah Yona Zweig; 46:49 min; English; Germany
Ten
year old Sreehari is a young actor in the Kutiyattam tradition, the last
remnant of an ancient Indian theatre tradition. Backstage, in the secular
theatre constructed by his parents outside the temple walls, Sreehari witnesses
the paradox of tradition – in order to keep a tradition alive, one has to
change it.
28 Jan: University of
Madras
10 am The Red Data Book – an appendix: Dir:
Sreemith, Deepu; 75 min; Malayalam; 2013; Documentary
A stunning indictment of infant
mortality in Attappady, Kerala, which also exposes the life and culture of
advisasi from their own narration and activism. The film exposes the hollowness
of the notion that infants die because of malnutrition.
11:15 Discussion with Deepu
11:45
The Safest Nuclear Power Station in the World : Dir: Helena Hufnagel; 28 min;
German; Austria, Germany; 2012; Documentary
Life
in and around a nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf, Austria, which has never
been operational. Shortly before it was set to open, popular vote prevented the
start of the plant – it was never put to use until today. This is the safest
nuclear power station in the world.
Parvati, Mallika and Heena haven’t met each other
but they share more in common than you would think. For they are amongst those
women who are taking extraordinary steps to reclaim the spaces that are
rightfully theirs, fighting the often invisible barriers that keep women from
freedom.
1:00 Lunch break
2:00 pm films on
sexualities
Guest speaker: Pritham
Chakravarthy
2:00 Kaaye Kaaye Sexual Dir: Gitanjali
and others; 29 min; Marathi, Hindi and English; Documentary
There are different kinds of
sexualities.
2:30 Coming Out Dir: Gina Wenzel; 9:21 min;
German; Germany; 2014
A
satirical drama about the “coming out” of a young girl to her family, where
nothing goes as planned.
2:40
Ants Pact Dir: Benjamin Martins; 20 min; German; Germany; 2014
Paul
is 16 years old and earns his money working the street as a prostitute.
Fleeting encounters shape his daily routine. However, a gang of teenagers who
attack him shake the boundaries he has built between reality and his
imagination.
3:00
ELECTRIC
INDIGO Dir: Jean-Julien
Collette; 24 min; Belgium/ France; 2013
It is sometimes
complicated for a little girl to face peer pressure and becoming aware of her
own identity, especially that she never knew her mother and that the only
reference is the love of two heterosexual fathers united by the bonds of a
“non-carnal” marriage.
3:30
Beat, Beat, Beat Dir: Christin Freitag; 29:50 min; German; Germany; 2013
Late
summer in Berlin. The city is pulsating and Fabian, Bene, and Richard are
wandering aimlessly through the urban jungle. Friends ridicule the outsider
Jakob. Fabian confronts his friends, but perhaps it’s too late.
4:00
The Heat Dir: Bartosz Kruhlik; 23:30 min; Polish; Poland; 2013
This
is a disturbing dark drama, about young male sexuality and a devastating attack
in some woods.
29 Dec: University of
Madras
Guest speaker:
Dr.M.D.Muthukumaraswamy
10 am : Films by Films Division
DILLY
DALLYING Directed by KL Khandpur, English, 10 min, B/W, 1957
A
short-fiction film set in the city of Mumbai, focusing on the importance of
punctuality in the life of the individual towards the service of the nation.
The message of the film is that the habit of procrastination and vacillation
can ruin a man and harm society at large.
OUR
NATIONAL ANTHEM / HAMARA RASHTRAGAN Directed by Pramod Pati, Hindi, 10 min,
1964
The
film uses the medium of animation to helping children to learn the correct way
to sing our National Anthem.
CLAXPLOSION
Directed by Pramod Pati, Music, 2 min, B/W, 1968
A
Stop-motion animation film on family planning.
STINKING
STORY Directed by Loksen Lalvani, Hindi and English, 16 min, B/W, 1980
In
large cities, there are sky-scrapers, cinema houses, five-star hotels, race
courses and petrol pumps but very few public urinals and latrines. It is an
uncivilized and unhygienic act to urinate or defecate anywhere and everywhere.
A hybrid film that combines comic fictional and stylised documentary elements
urging people not to ease themselves in public.
VOICE
OF THE PEOPLE Directed
by S. Sukhdev, English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali
with English subtitles, B/W, 1974, 17 min
“On the 16th of
April, I read a news item that there is going to be an all India railway
strike. I got a little worried. We decided to take the camera out to the people
and ask them a few questions.” Film maker S. Sukhdev proceeds to interview the
labour force and the average traveller in the city to make a compelling
anti-strike argument for the state. The strike was called by labour leader
George Fernandes who does not feature in the film.
11:20
Hindustan Hamara Dir: RV Ramani; 98 min; Marathi, Hindi, English; 2013;
Documentary
R.V. Ramani, a cinematographer and an auteur in
his own right, follows Anand Patwardhan, the preeminent social justice film
maker, as the latter goes about screening his films across diverse audiences in
the country
1:00
Lunch break
2:00
La parka Dir: Gabriel Serra; 29 min; Spanish; Mexico; 2013; Documentary
Efrain,
known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We discover
his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.
2:30
A Tres Pesos Dir: Rosalie Hubl; 19:59 min; Spanish; Mexico; 2013; Documentary
The
film narrates an ordinary day in the subway of Mexico City.
3:00 Theevaraivu (Endogamy v. Evolution) Dir:
Poonguzhali; 60 min; Tamil; 2013; Documentary
In a society where social, political,
economic aspects along with caste and religious pride continue to remain the
overriding factors in arranging marriages, the film drives home the point of
the risks of genetic disorders in close-kin arranged marriages.
4:00 Discussion with
Poonguzhali
30 Jan Periyar Thidal
10 am Inauguration with Jayarani, journalist/writer
10:30 Dammed Dir: Nandan Saxena, Kavita Bahl;
Hindi; 64 min; 2013; Documentary
The film questions the paradigm of
development that holds the assumption that mega dams are critical to progress.
A current look at the villagers in Madhya Pradesh adversely affected by a dam
on the river Narmada, as they are denied all rehabilitation or relief.
11:45 Godhra Tak: the Terror Trail: Dir: Shubradeep Chakraborthy;
2003; 62 mins; English; Retrospective
It
is an investigative documentation of the barbaric incident of 27 Feb 2002, in
which coach S6 of Sabermati Express was burnt down at Godhra railway station in
Gujarat, India. Fifty-nine passengers including several Karsevaks died in that
fire.
1.00
Lunch break
2:00
Films Division package
I
AM TWENTY Directed by SNS Sastry, English and Hindi, B/W, 1967, 20 min
Twenty years after India's independence, the film maker travels
across the country and interviews its youth, those born in 1947. What does
independence mean to them? What are their dreams? How do they see themselves
and the young nation that they symbolise? The answers have a mix of idealism,
irony, sarcasm, dismay, hope and optimism. This film is as relevant today as it
was over forty years ago.
INDIA 67 / AN
INDIAN DAY Directed by S Sukhdev, Music, Colour, 1967, 58 min
“India 67” was commissioned to celebrate 20 years of India’s
independence. Sukhdev, working within the state-run Films Division, went on to
make a film that was far removed from propaganda.
3:30 Bintou Dir:
Simone Catharina Gaul; 64 min; French; Germany
Bintou
is from Burkina Faso. She dreams of becoming a famous dressmaker. Her life
turns upside down when she has to take responsibility for her daughter who has
been living in a children’s home.
4:30
La parka Dir: Gabriel Serra; 29 min; Spanish; Mexico; 2013
Efrain,
known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We discover
his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.
30 Jan: Panuval Book Shop
6 pm Films by Films
Division
Guest speaker Sadanand
Menon
AMIR KHAN Directed by SNS Sastry, Hindi and Urdu, B/W, 35mm, 19 min, 1970
SNS Sastry’s portrait of the Hindustani classical master Ustad
Amir Khan is at once gentle and audacious in the way he sets up images of his
world of concerts, disciples, world travel, his adoring and nagging wife and
little child.
THIS BIT OF THAT INDIA Directed
by SNS Sastry, English, B/W, 20 min, 1975
“This Bit
of That India” is a layered refection on several things – youth, diversity,
progress, education and technology.
AND THE
STARS LOOK ON Directed by OP Sharma, Music, B/W, 12 min, 1968
Night
comes to give peace and rest to the tired soul. But in modern cities hubbing
with industrial activities it is not rest for all. How different sections of
the community spend their hard-earned and well-deserved rest is depicted in
this film.
ARRIVAL Directed by Mani Kaul, Music, Colour, 1980, 20 min
Concerning the arrival of commodities such as vegetables and
livestock as well as human labour into a city from rural areas, this film
explores the product-commodity-exchange value relationship. Representing in
itself a variety of exchange values, money as capital destroys the natural
specificity of people and things. In the process, the labourer is reduced to a
mere commodity.
31 Jan; Periyar Thidal
10 am 'Encountered on Saffron Agenda?'
Dir: Shubradeep Chakravorthy; 2008, 94mins, English; Documentary
A
film based on investigative documentation of encounters of Sameer Khan Pathan
(22 October, 2002), Sadik Jamal (13 January, 2003), Ishrat Jahan-Javed Seikh
(16 June, 2004) and Shorabuddin Seikh (26 November, 2005), all happened in
Gujarat.
12:00
Padmini
My Love: Dir: Munmun Dhalaria and others; 19:30 min; Marathi and Hindi; 2014;
Documentary
Padmini Fiat taxis, the symbol of Mumbai
road are facing a threat
12:20 CAN’T HIDE ME
Dir: Madhuri Mohindar; 26 minutes; Hindi, English, Kannada; 2014; Documentary
Parvati, Mallika and Heena haven’t met each other
but they share more in common than you would think. For they are amongst those
women who are taking extraordinary steps to reclaim the spaces that are
rightfully theirs, fighting the often invisible barriers that keep women from
freedom.
2:00
Out of Court Settlement Dir:
Shubradeep Chakravorthy; 2012, 66 mins, English; Documentary
It is based on the tales of
killings, beating up and intimidation of several defence lawyers across the
countries that were appearing in terror related cases.
3:30 Films Division Package
DILLY
DALLYING Directed by KL Khandpur, English, 10 min, B/W, 1957
A
short-fiction film set in the city of Mumbai, focusing on the importance of
punctuality in the life of the individual towards the service of the nation.
The message of the film is that the habit of procrastination and vacillation
can ruin a man and harm society at large.
OUR
NATIONAL ANTHEM / HAMARA RASHTRAGAN Directed by Pramod Pati, Hindi, 10 min,
1964
The
film uses the medium of animation to helping children to learn the correct way
to sing our National Anthem.
CLAXPLOSION
Directed by Pramod Pati, Music, 2 min, B/W, 1968
A
Stop-motion animation film on family planning.
STINKING
STORY Directed by Loksen Lalvani, Hindi and English, 16 min, B/W, 1980
In
large cities, there are sky-scrapers, cinema houses, five-star hotels, race
courses and petrol pumps but very few public urinals and latrines. It is an
uncivilized and unhygienic act to urinate or defecate anywhere and everywhere.
A hybrid film that combines comic fictional and stylised documentary elements
urging people not to ease themselves in public.
VOICE
OF THE PEOPLE Directed by S. Sukhdev, English,
Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali with English subtitles, B/W, 1974, 17 min
“On the 16th of
April, I read a news item that there is going to be an all India railway
strike. I got a little worried. We decided to take the camera out to the people
and ask them a few questions.” Film maker S. Sukhdev proceeds to interview the
labour force and the average traveller in the city to make a compelling
anti-strike argument for the state. The strike was called by labour leader
George Fernandes who does not feature in the film.
31 Jan : Panuval Book Shop
6 pm Kaaye Kaaye Sexual Dir: Gitanjali and others;
29 min; Marathi, Hindi and English; Documentary
There are different kinds of
sexualities.
6:30
Coming Out Dir: Gina Wenzel; 9:21 min; German; Germany; 2014
A
satirical drama about the “coming out” of a young girl to her family, where
nothing goes as planned.
6:40
Ants Pact Dir: Benjamin Martins; 20 min; German; Germany; 2014
Paul
is 16 years old and earns his money working the street as a prostitute.
Fleeting encounters shape his daily routine. However, a gang of teenagers who
attack him shake the boundaries he has built between reality and his
imagination.
7:00
ELECTRIC
INDIGO Dir: Jean-Julien
Collette; 24 min; Belgium/ France; 2013
It is sometimes
complicated for a little girl to face peer pressure and becoming aware of her
own identity, especially that she never knew her mother and that the only
reference is the love of two heterosexual fathers united by the bonds of a
“non-carnal” marriage.
7:30
Beat, Beat, Beat Dir: Christin Freitag; 29:50 min; German; Germany; 2013
Late
summer in Berlin. The city is pulsating and Fabian, Bene, and Richard are
wandering aimlessly through the urban jungle. Friends ridicule the outsider
Jakob. Fabian confronts his friends, but perhaps it’s too late.
8:00
The Heat Dir: Bartosz Kruhlik; 23:30 min; Polish; Poland; 2013
This
is a disturbing dark drama, about young male sexuality and a devastating attack
in some woods.
1 Feb : Periyar Thidal
10 am After the Storm Dir: Shubradeep
Chakravorthy; 2012, 68 mins, English;
Documentary
The
film is based on stories of seven former terror accused who secured acquittal
through various law courts in past few years. The film narrates their ordeal
and miseries and shed light on their current fight for survival.
11:30 Films Division package
SYMBOL
OF PROGRESS Directed by NS Thapa, English, B/W, 1965, 14 min
This
film talks of the gigantic and iconic Bhakra Nangal Dam. It talks of the
engineering marvel that transformed an arid sandy waste in the Punjab into a
huge lake, with two power houses, which irrigated two and a half million
hectares of land. It stresses the ideals of nation building through the
construction of large infrastructure projects.
VIVIDH
BHARTI Directed
by Amar Varma, Hindi, 14 min, B/W, 1965
The
popular AIR service of Vividh Bharati is the theme of this film, started in
response to the popularity of the popular entertainment services of Radio
Ceylon. This service consisted of plays, light classical melodies, film songs,
and other items of entertainments for listeners or various age groups.
A DECADE OF
ACHIEVEMENT Directed by SNS Sastry, English, 22 min, B/W, 1976
A film showing India's achievements in various fields during the
decade, 1966-1976. The film also underlines the importance of 20-point
programme and proclamation of emergency.
ACTUAL
EXPERIENCE NO. 4 Directed by OP Arora, English, Hindi, Punjabi,
Gujarati and Marathi with English subtitles, B/W, 1969, 14 min
This
film is a collection of interviews of women across the country, about their
experience of using the loop as a family planning device. This was a
controversial method, leading to serious health complications. The film
reflected that and was therefore held from release for a significant period.
12:45 A Tres Pesos Dir: Rosalie Hubl; 19:59
min; Spanish; Mexico; 2013
The film narrates an ordinary day in the
subway of Mexico City. The opening and closing of the station doors enframes
the day as well as the film. In between the world of the underground.1 Feb : Panuval Book
Shop
1:00 Lunch break
2:00 En Dino
Muzaffarnagar Dir: Shubradeep Chakravorthy 2014; 2 hr 27 mins; English;
documentary
Once known as City of Love,
Muzaffarnagar is now known for riots that took place there on September,
2013. Documentary ‘En Dino Muzaffarnagar ‘investigates the situation
before, during and after the riots in great details to portray how
Muzaffarnagar faced riots last year, how the politics of hate is being
engineered by the politicians for their own benefit and how the divide created
by the riots has set the tone of the elections at that time.
1 Feb 2015;
6 pm Closing ceremony;
Panuval Book Shop
Chief Guest: Venkatesh Chakravarthy
La parka
Dir: Gabriel Serra; 29 min; Spanish;
Mexico; 2013
Efrain,
known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We discover
his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.
STINKING
STORY Directed by Loksen Lalvani, Hindi and English, 16 min, B/W, 1980
In
large cities, there are sky-scrapers, cinema houses, five-star hotels, race
courses and petrol pumps but very few public urinals and latrines. It is an
uncivilized and unhygienic act to urinate or defecate anywhere and everywhere.
A hybrid film that combines comic fictional and stylised documentary elements
urging people not to ease themselves in public.
DILLY
DALLYING Directed by KL Khandpur, English, 10 min, B/W, 1957
A
short-fiction film set in the city of Mumbai, focusing on the importance of
punctuality in the life of the individual towards the service of the nation.
The message of the film is that the habit of procrastination and vacillation
can ruin a man and harm society at large.
Curated
by Amudhan R.P.
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