The performance piece, What’s in a Name? is based on lived realities and experiences around the writer’s Muslim identity, and the delicate complications arising from the dual need to preserve and assimilate. Written as a monologue, it deals with the protagonist’s entrenched fear of hellfire on having deviated from normative expectations by offering the namaaz while menstruating.
5) Kanchichinuthu
Dir: Khanjan Kishore Nath; 15 min; Karbi with Eng subtitles; 2019; Short fiction
Lonsing, a school boy, lives in a hilly village with his parents. Every day, he carries the Tiffin for his father who is a farmer. One day he finds a small bag on the hilly road side that creates new bonding until a terrible incident takes place.
6) Turup
Dir: Ektara Collective; 72 min; Hindi with English subtitles; 2017; Fiction
Turup, set in Bhopal, the film tells the story of three women, in the backdrop of growing right wing fundamentalism. As the boundaries of religion, caste, class, gender become clearer and more visible, lives intersect and engage, throwing open opportunities to subvert and transcend these barriers. As people look for answers they also encounter new questions. A chess game which is always being played on a platform by the road becomes the metaphorical background to the playing out of these negotiations.
7) Scapegoat
Dir: Tathagatha Ghosh; 25 min; Short fiction; 2020
A young firebrand woman decides to stand up against the patriarchy and hate politics that has begun to infiltrate her rural Bengali village and threatens to destroy her way of life.
8) First Cry
Dir : T.G.Ajay; 52 min; Chhatisgarhi, Bengali & Hindi; 2014; Documentary
In 1981, under the leadership of Shankar Guha Niyogy of the Chhattisgarh Mazdoor Shramik Sangh, the mine workers of Bhillai Steel Plant in Dalli Rajhara, in Chhatisgarh, India, acted on a need sorely felt by them, to have a hospital that would not turn them away, to cater only to the middle class. Over 10,000 workers donated their wages and built Shahid hospital, brick by brick, with their own hands. The workers invited doctors like Dr. Binayak Sen, Dr Saibal Jana and others to join and they themselves trained as auxiliary staff to assist them.
9) The Tribal Scoop
Dir: Beeswaranjan Pradhan; 53 min; Odiya, Hindi with English subtitles; Documentary
A small town of Sundergarh lying in the interiors of the state of Odisha has never been touched by modern civilization, but is paying for it with the blood of the tribal people living there. A people so backward that they still depend on forests for survival. And even those forests are fast being uprooted to make way for urban life.
In the midst of this cockpit of destruction there's one hope that they are desperately clinging on to- Hockey. The game that was once the only form of entertainment for a people cut off from the rest of the world has now become a weapon with which Sundergarh is trying to claim it's place in a world that never recognized it.
10) A Pestering Journey
Dir : K R Manoj; 66 min; Malayalam with Eng subtitles; Documentary
‘A Pestering Journey’ unravels the many interwoven layers of culture and agriculture and foregrounds the logic of green revolution.
Taking a pestering turn, the journey blurs the boundaries of nature and culture, of self and other, of life and death and many other comfortable binaries we inhabit. It tries to ask how much regard for life a culture should have to ponder over the question, what a pest is.
In an atypical move, it challenges and changes the idioms of pesticide and genocide and reveals the claims over knowledge and expertise, which pushes a pesticide like Endosulfan to a dubious position between poison and medicine.
11) Our Metropolis
Dir : Gautam Sonti & Usha Rao; 87 min; Kannada, Hindi, English; 2014; Documentary
Bangalore is being refashioned as a 'world-class' metropolis. Livelihoods and homes make way for flyovers, glitzy malls and a shiny Metro. Threatened with violent transformation of their city, residents confront the authorities. Beneath the State's ideal of a 'global city' lurks the intent to clear a pasture for big business.
12) If She Built the Country?
Dir: Maheen Mirza and Rinchin; 60 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2018; Documentary
As mines & power plants appear and grow in monstrous proportions around them, rural, adivasi women from the villages of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh critique the grand plan of development of the country. Many of them have been cheated of their land and compensation, their relationship with the forest & environment severed. As they grapple with all this, they seek justice for themselves & their communities and share their thoughts about how a country should be.
13) Are You Going to School Today?
Dir: Anupama Srinavasan; 60 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2018; Documentary
The film takes us to rural schools in the predominantly tribal district of Dungarpur in southern Rajasthan. Children come from difficult contexts with very limited material resources, absentee fathers and younger siblings to attend to. How do teachers respond to this situation? How do they bring children to school and create an environment in which they are motivated to learn?
14) Mod
Dir: Pushpa Rawat; 69 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; Documentary
'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.
15) The Death of Us
Dir: Vani Subramanian; 76 min; English; Documentary
The debates on the death penalty today are marked by a cacophony of strident assertions. Going against this tide is The Death of Us - a quiet contemplation on a range of cases in which the death penalty was pronounced, ending in execution, commutation to life sentence, acquittal or even pardon. Speaking only to those who have been on death row or those very closely involved with the cases, we engage in complex conversations on crime and punishment, revenge and justice, popular rhetoric and personal experiences. Only to find ourselves confronting larger ethical and moral questions across time and space.
16) Dhaga Mil Gaya
Dir : Tangella Madhavi; 25 min; 2009; Documentary
The film presents the world of Malti, a Gandhian living in Sewagram. The narrative takes interesting turns as the director’s lifestyle come face to face and stands in contrast to Malti’s. Overcoming doubts, the director goes ahead and indulges into another pair of expensive shoes but things will never be the same for her …
The film subtly talks about consumerism and the relevance Gandhian values in the contemporary world.
17) Kakkoos
Dir: Divya Bharathi; 108 min; Tamil with English subtitles; Documentary; India
The documentary, shot in 25 districts for over a year, conveys the message that even though manual scavenging was banned in India in 2013 it continues to exist and conservancy workers are involved in removing human waste. The film is dedicated to those who maintain a “false silence on manual scavenging”.
18) My Caste
Dir: Amudhan R.P.; 78 min; Tamil; 2019; Documentary
When did I hear / see / observe / experience caste first time?
What have I gained because of my case identity?
What do I with that identity?
Can I introspect about caste? Am I ready? How much? How honestly?
19) Recasting Selves
Dir: Lalit Vachani; 80 min; English and Malayalam with English subtitles; 2019; Documentary
Set at CREST (the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation) in Kozhikode, Kerala - the film documents the 'soft skills' training of Dalit and Adivasi post-graduate students in a sensitive and nurturing campus environment as preparation for their employment in the new Indian economy.
20) Campus Rising
Dir: Yousuf Saeed; 73 mins; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles
While the students' unrest continues in many cities, this film travels to some seven Indian universities (including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad Central University and Banaras Hindu University among others) to record what the students and some teachers have to say about how their freedom is being curtailed, and how this movement will not die until they bring some change of perception about the rights of the underprivileged.
21) Darbar e watan
Dir : Uma Chakravarthy; 47 min; 2019; Documentary
The film is about friendship, ruptures and the recementing of bonds between two women. The bond was forged on the basis of feminist and civil rights concerns but almost snapped on account of the tense situation in the Kashmir valley. But eventually the women re- established contact.
22) Moksha (Salavation)
Dir: Pankaj Butalia; 80mins; 1993; India; Documentary
Abandoned by their families to lives of penury, marked by white veils which they wear, Bengali widows find solace and food in the ashrams of Vrindavan where they gather every morning and evening to sing religious songs.
In this profoundly moving documentary on widowhood portrayed both as social institution and personal tradition, moments of astonishing sensuous beauty alternate with rhythms of anguish. In the best of the new ethnographic tradition, Moksha de-centers the voices of authority and allows a plurality of voices to introduce contesting positions.
Haunting in its evocation of grief and anger, the film transcends documentary and assumes its place in the great tradition of lamentation, the expression of the dark night of the human soul.
23) What the Fields Remember
Dir: Subasri Krishnan; 52 min; Bengali and English; 2015; Documentary
On 18th February 1983, around 1800 Muslims were killed in Nellie and surrounding village in Assam, in one morning. No one was ever prosecuted and the incident remains in the annals of India’s violent history. The film revisits the event and explores how the survivors remember the violence 32 years later, and how do the spaces that have witnessed this violence continue to mark people’s relationship to history and memory.
24) What Happened to This City?
Dir : Deepa Dhanraj; 90 min; 1986; Documentary
A pioneering political work of contemporary relevance: Communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in 1984 forms the starting point for this film, whose complexity lends it immense political force. The film's historical perspective is provided by a thorough commentary, which gives the camera's particular presence the necessary depth and complexity.
25) In the Name of God
Dir : Anand Patwardhan; 75 min; 1992; Documentary
IN THE NAME OF GOD focuses on the campaign waged by the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to destroy a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya said to have been built by Babar, the first Mughal Emperor of India. The VHP claim the mosque was built at the birthsite of the Hindu god Ram after Babar razed an existing Ram temple. They are determined to build a new temple to Ram on the same site. This controversial issue which successive governments have refused to resolve has led to religious riots which have cost thousands their lives, culminating in the mosque’s destruction by the Hindus in December of 1992.
26) Father, Son & Holywar
Dir : Anand Patwardhan; 120 min; 1995; Documentary
In a politically polarized world, universal ideals are rare. In India, as elsewhere, the vacuum is filled by religious zeal. Minorities are made scapegoats of every calamity as nations subdivide into religious and ethnic zones, each seemingly eager to annihilate the other or extinguish itself on the altar of martyrdom. FATHER, SON AND HOLY WAR explores in two parts the possibility that the psychology of violence against “the other” may lie in male insecurity, itself an inevitable product of the very construction of “manhood.”
27) Final Solution
Dir : Rakesh Sharma; 149 min; 2004
Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat during the period Feb/March 2002 - July 2003, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide of Moslems in Gujarat. It specifically examines political tendencies reminiscient of the Nazi Germany of early/mid-1930s. Final Solution is anti-hate/ violence as “those who forget history are condemned to relive it”.
28) Muzzafnagar Baaqi Hai
Dir: Nakul Singh Sawhney; 136 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2014; Documentary
Sawhney’s 136-minute long documentary is set in the aftermath of the communal riots that broke out in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh in August and September two years ago. Sawhney travelled to the western Uttar Pradesh districts soon after the riots, which killed over 60 Muslims and Hindus and drove several Muslim survivors out of their homes and into refugee camps. He interviews survivors, local residents, and activists and leaders of all hues to understand the conditions that contributed to the situation.
29) Voices from the Ruins
Dir: K.P. Sasi, 95 min; with English subtitles; Documentary
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 biggest violence on the Adivasi Christians and Dalit Christians took place in 2008.
The survivors of Kandhamal violence are still struggling against the improper compensation, improper rehabilitation and improper justice delivery systems. This film 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.
30) A Delicate Weave
Dir: Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar; 62 min; Kutchi and Hindi with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India
A Delicate Weave, set in Kachchh, Gujarat, India, traces four different musical journeys, all converging in the ways they affirm religious diversity, syncretism and love of the other. Drawing on the poetic and musical traditions of Sant Kabir and Shah Bhitai, as well as the folk traditions of the region, these remarkable musicians and singers bear testimony to how these oral traditions of compassion are being passed down from one generation to the next.
31) Sama
Dir: Shazia Khan: 52mins: Documentary: Multiple Indian regional Languages
2013; Documentary
SAMA is the story of Indian Islamic Music, born out of a union of Indian and Islamic traditions, more than a thousand years ago. It explores the intermingling of these, in both form and content, to become a truly magnificent sound.
32) Nafir
Dir: Roy Dipankar; 30 min; Music documentary; English; 2015; Documentary
Nima Lavafpour is a traveling musician from Iran and shares a deep bond with India. On one visit to India, he gets to rediscover a memoir after 8 years. This sparks an infectious wave of creativity in his life and others around. The film is a musical exploration, reminding us of an age-long spiritual and cultural bond between India and Iran.
(CLICK THE NAMES OF THE FILMS TO WATCH)
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