Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Chennai Film Festival 2013: List of films

Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2013

25,26,27 January; Book Point; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.


final list of films:
International Films: Documentaries


1) Scorpions               
Dir: Simo Hakalisto; Finland; 74 min; 2012; Cambodian, English


Documentary discusses the post-war generation's life in Cambodia with many scars; the reconstruction of the post-genocide society not only in a concrete but also in a mental sense. Even after a harsh drawback it is possible to find a meaning for one's life. The film is a demonstration of the healing effects of sports.

2) The Wild Ones 
Dir: Lucy Kaye; UK; 30 min; 2012; English


Impact Pupil Referral Unit, in Bootle, Liverpool, provides a last chance for teenagers expelled from school to gain qualifications. This term, seven pupils get to leave the Unit to try a new way of learning in an unlikely sanctuary for rescued horses, in the heart of this run-down neighbor-hood. Run by local resident Bernadette Langfield, several wild ponies that she saved from being culled need taming. But these horses, like the pupils have their own troubled backgrounds and in order for a relationship between them to develop, both horses and teenagers have to first deal with their own behavioral difficulties.

3) Yuban 
Dir: Yaasib Vazquez; Mexico; 29 min; 2011; Spanish

Yuban is about the transformation of a Zapotecan community. It portraits the longing for a set of principles that are about to die and the effort the people make to keep their culture alive.      

4) Dear Mandela
Dir: Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza; 93 min; 2011; English


When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three “young lions” of South Africa’s new generation rise from the shacks and take their government to the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.

5) Sisters without Misters
Dir: Cynthia Cheeseman; 11mins 37sec; English

‘Sisters without Misters’ is a short documentary that gives a brief look into the lives of those women who love women. The short touches on aspects of their lives such as family, friends and religion, coupled with glimpses of their coming out stories.

6) Amerindians
Dir: Tracy Assing; 36 min; 2010; English

The director makes a personal exploration of her roots as a member of the Santa Rosa Carib Community based in Arima, Trinidad.  The community celebrates the Santa Rosa Festival annually and its Queen Valentina Medina is Assing’s great aunt.

International Films: Short fiction

1) Miruna 
Dir: Piotr Sulkowski; Poland; 20 min; 2012; Polish

After an argument with her lover, a young woman recklessly gets into the parked car of a mysterious stranger. Their brief encounter will lead to mutual attraction, insight and fatal accomplishment, during a journey to the end of the night. Through a maze of colorful flashbacks, intricately related to the main character’s painful past, the destiny of the young woman is inevitably connected to that of an imaginary fish.
                                         
2) Luminaris
Dir: Juan Pablo Zaramella; Argentina; 6mins; 2012; Spanish

In a world controlled and timed by light, an ordinary man has a plan that could change the natural order of things.

3) Video club
Dir: Roberto Dominiguez, Jorge Manzaneque, Macgregor; Spain; 14:51mins; 2012; Spanish

Returning a movie was ever so hard…

4) La Mirada Perdida
Dir: Damian Dionisio; Argentina; 11 min; 2011; Spanish

Argentina, 1976. Claude is forced to live with his family in hiding, due to his political ideals. The house in which they live is discovered by the military. No time to flee, Teresa his wife, tries to shelter her daughter in a fantasy world.

5) One Minute
Dir: Elena Golyanima; Russia; 15 min; 2012; Russian

Alexander is a successful businessman. He achieves all his goals by means and without any doubts. A child voice responds his cries.

Rest of India: Documentaries

1) Jai Bhim Comrade
Dir: Anand Patwardhan; 180 min; 2012; Marathi with Tamil subtitles

In 1997, a statue of Dr.Ambedkar in a Dalit Colony in Mumbai was desecrated with footwear. As angry residents gathered, police opened fire killing10. Vilas Ghogre, a leftist poet, hung himself in protest. Jai Bhim Comrade shot over 14 years, follows the poetry and music of people like Vilas marks a subaltern tradition of reason that from the days of Buddha, has fought superstition and religious bigotry.

2) My Camera and Tsunami
Dir: R.V.Ramani; 90 min; 2011; English, Tamil, Bengali

The film shares special moments that the filmmaker experienced with his camera, a special bonding over a period of 4 years in terms of creating cinematic imagery, relating, exploring, seeking and interpreting notions of his reality. It is a memory of a camera which perished in the Tsunami, along with its last filmed footage.

3) Pestering Journey
Dir: K.R.Manoj;  66 min; 2011; Malayalam, Hindi with English subtitles

This film unravels the many interwoven layers of culture and agriculture and foregrounds the logic of green revolution. 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.

4) In God’s Land
Dir: Pankaj Rishikumar; 72 min; 2012; Tamil with English subtitles

After taming a former wasteland through hard work and sweat and creating a community, the settlers start living there. A mythical birth of their village God Sudalai Swami unfolds the village’s unique journey to fight the oppression of “big” Vanmamalai temple. Now that the clergy owns the land, the settlers are reduced to being tenant farmers and must make way for redevelopment after the land is sold off for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

5) Get Up Stand Up
Dir: Sreemith; 34 min; 2012, Tamil, Malayalam with English subtitles

The film tries to raise some questions on safety, development, energy … regarding one of the biggest non violent, people's struggles of the post modern Tamilnadu. 

Rest of India: Short Fiction

1) Verge of Happiness
Dir: Harsha Setty GR; No dialogue; 18.45 min; 2012
                                                 
Four friends (Raja, Vicky, Mohan & Shaila) get high on drugs and meet with an unfortunate accident on the outskirts of the city/ no-man’s land. Mohan and Shaila die on the spot, Raj is on the verge of dying and his life is in hanging
preciously between life and death, Vicky is badly injured. The story revolves around Vicky’s struggle to escape the clutches of dependability on drugs and trying to save his friend Raj.

2) Back water
Dir: Arun karthick; Malayalam; 14 mins; 2011

A lonely island, a traumatic traveler, a story that mirrors the waters; a brutal rape, and her return to the waters. Set in the midst of the island. The “Back water” is a haunting boat journey into the life of a secluded girl.

Films from Tamilnadu: Documentaries


1) Pennadi / My Mirror is the Door 
Dir: Leena Manimekalai; 52 min; 2012; Tamil

Women poets were a strong presence in Sangam literature of yesteryears and their scholarship is proved that total of 154 of the 2831 poems carry women's signatures, Leena Manimekalai, the contemporary Tamil woman poet enters the cavern of her own mind and finds there the scattered leaves not only of her own power but of the tradition of her foremothers that might have generated that power.

2) Vaachathi
Dir: Bharathi Krishnakumar; 108 min; Tamil; 2011

The brutality faced by the tribal women of Vaachathi in the hands of forest officials unfolds after 20 years.

3) Kathirveechu Kathaikal Pagam 2
Dir: Amudhan R.P.; 28 min; Tamil; 2011

Dr.Pugalendi, an activist doctor from Sadras Kuppam shares his experiences of fighting with nuclear radiation in Kalpakkam.

4) Mathavidai (Menses)
Dir: Geetha Ilangovan; 38 min; Tamil; 2012

The film speaks about the misconceptions, superstitious beliefs and social stigma attached with menses. The film is made by women for men.

5) Ippadikku Senkodi
Dir: Vetrivel Chandrasekar; 65 min; 2011

The story of Senkodi, who sacrificed her life while fighting against the capital punishment.

Films from Tamilnadu: Short fiction

1) Sakkaram
Dir: Sivasubramaniyan; 15 min; Tamil;

When a poor boy wants to continue his education he needs to pretend that he killed his father.

2) Mouna Mozhi
A film by Jai; 20mins; 2012; Tamil

Love and life of two youngsters, the chain that connects their lives, and how are they interrelated together.

3) Feb-04
A film by S.Raja; 8mins; 2012; Tamil

Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.

www.marupakkamfilms.blogspot.com

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