4th Chennai Film Festival : Screening Schedule

4^th Chennai International Documentary and Short film Festival 2016 : Screening Schedule

Curtain Raiser: 15 Feb: 5 pm; M.M. Preview Theatre, T.Nagar (near Kodambakkam bridge), Chennai

Film: Velutha Rathirikal

Dir: Razi Muhammed; 130 min; Malayalam with English subtitles; Feature film; 2015

Velutha Rathrikal (White Nights) is an independent cinematic adaption of the eponymous novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Manu is an artist in searh of a new sky, from his troubled past, in a forest settlement. He meets Chelly, a tribal girl from a nearby settlement who bears the brunt from her own share of life. As she awaits the return of her beloved friend Jyothi, Manu gets closer to her.

16 Feb:Department of Journalism, Madras Christian College, Tambaram

9:30 am Atho Antha Paravai

Dir: Dayalan; 14 min; Tamil; Documentary; 2016

The film is about Climate Change and justice. It describes the vulnerability of fisher folks in and around Ennore creek, an unique landscape located between Kosasthalaiyar and Pulicat Lake. The eco system is changing fast in the name of development as power plants and factories are seriously destroying the environment.

9:45 Interaction with Dayalan

10: 00 Our Metropolis

Dir : Gautam Sonti & Usha Rao; 87 min; Documentary; Kannada, Hindi, English; 2014

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.

11:30Playgrounds

Dir: Pallavi MD & Shamik Sen Gupta; 18 min; Short film; Hindi, Kannada & Tamil; 2014

In a dusty suburban street, children play hide ’n’ seek in the dusk. 3 year old Murli hides somewhere no one can find him and falls asleep. When he wakes up he is in a different neighbourhood where an angry bearded man is shouting at everyone. But Murli can’t understand a single word of what the man is saying. He just wants to go home to his mother.

11:50 Interaction

12:00 Spaces Between

Dir: Roohi Dixit and Ziba Bhagwagar; 43 min; English; Documentary; 2013

 Spaces Between is a poetic interpretation of the performance artist Nikhil Chopra’s fifty hour long

performance confined in a room on the banks of a river. The film follows the artist Nikhil Chopra’s

journey as he performs La Perle Noir II: Aspinwall for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale held in the State of

Kerala in the South of India.

1:00 Lunch break

2:00 Velutha Rathirikal

Dir: Razi Muhammed; 130 min; Malayalam with English subtitles; Feature film; 2015

4:10 Discussion

17 Feb: Department of Visual Communication, Loyola College, Nungambakkam

9:30am Inauguration

9:45 The Street Musicians

Dir: Kirill Burdov; 25 min; Russian; Documentary; 2015; Russia

Each one on the way home, descending into a pedestrian subway, notices people playing musical instruments. But not everyone knows what makes them take such a step – to go down to the dungeons of the city. What a plight it is to be a street musician? What are the rules and regulations of this sub culture?

10:10 Uthanjali

Dir: Som; 27 min; Bengali; Short film; 2014

Ujantali is a remote village in Bangladesh. A little girl who was born and brought up in this village, was compelled to leave along with her father during the partition of Bengal. But she has been carrying the sweet memories of her village all along. When she revisits her village after a long time, her memories still are fresh.

10:40  Nafir

Dir: Roy Dipankar; 30 min; Music documentary; English; 2015

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.

11:10 Jagadish Bhai – A life in Progress

Dir: Shasi Ghosh Gupta; 23 min; Hindi; Documentary; 2015

Life and journey of a security guard and an ex Border Security Force personnel Jagadish Bhai, is told through his daily chores of protecting one of the premier educational institutions in India.

11:40 Moving in Circles

Dir: Maxim Dashkin; 14 min; Russian; Short film; 2015; Russia

Maria lives with her husband at the military base and dreams of getting out from the bad living conditions. The husband does not share Maria’s dreams. Maria decides to accept the offer of another officer.

12:00 God on the Edge

Dir: Ashok Patel; 46 min; Documentary; Bengali & English; 2014

Abandoning his family more than once, 60 year old Mohammed Jaan Baksh, the 'Elephant Keeper', has dedicated his life to serving elephants. The film is about his bitter-sweet relationship with 'Shivprasad', the elephant with whom his journey began at the age of twelve.

1:00  Lunch break

2:00 Velutha Rathirikal 130’

Dir: Razi Muhammed; 130 min; Malayalam with English subtitles; Feature film; 2015

4:10  Discussion with Razi  Muhammed

18 Feb : University of Madras, Chepakkam campus

9:30 Inauguration

10:00  Velutha Rathirikal 130’

12:10  Interaction with Razi Muhammed

12:30 Lunch break

1:30  Mounam Pesumpothu

Dir: Nisha Ponthathil; 57 min; 2014; Tamil with English subtitles

The film Mounam Pesumpothu portrays the violence against women, despite incredible social changes achieved by our country. Though the film narrates the experiences of women in Tamil Nadu specifically, every Indian woman can relate to these narratives.  From sexual harassment to rape, acid attack, female infanticide, female foeticide, marital rape, domestic violence, dowry harassment, police atrocities, this film unravels the horrific ways our patriarchial society treats women. The film also discusses the root cause for the violence and proposes the different ways by which these violence can be mitigated. 

2:30 Interaction with Nisha Ponthathil

2:45 Jews Step Forward Jews Step Forward

Dir: Marjorie Wright; 112 min; English; Documentary; USA; 2015

The film traces a path grounded in Jewish identity, which ultimately separates personal conscience from a socialized mythology loyal to Israel. Having moved beyond self censorship, despite institutional power

and social censure, they recognize that, just as the American Jewish community helped create the

foundation for Israel’s evolution, so must it address the unvarnished truth today.

4:40 Interaction

19 Feb : Periyar Thidal, Veppery (behind Egmore Station)

10:00  Muzaffar Nagar Baaqi Hai (Muzaffarnagar Eventually)

Dir: Nakul Singh Sawhney; 136 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2014

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. 

12:30 What the Fields Remember

Dir: Subasri Krishnan; 52 min; Documentary; Assamese; 2015

On 18^th 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.

1:30 lunch break

2:30 Let the Butterflies Fly

Dir: Gopal Menon; 74 min; Tamil and Kannada with English subtitles; 2012

The film captures  Shilpa’s story. She is a Hijra who faced severe police torture; abuse from medical institutions , who tried to make her a 'man' by force. This film captures the everyday life of Hijras  – their pains, struggles, joys, celebrations, relationships, work -  through Shilpa’s story.

3:45 Discussion with Gopal Menon

4:00 Lohit Diary

Dir: Ramachandra PN; 76 min; English, Hindi, Mishimi and Assamese; Documentary; 2015; Films Division

Amidst rampant opium cultivation in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh in North East India, Basamlu Kisikro engages opium growers into shifting to green tea, Tewa Manpoong supports fellow addicts into rehabilitation and Uncle Moosa spreads the joy of reading amongst children

20^th Feb : Periyar Thidal

Films from Australia – curated by Shweta Kishore, filmmaker/scholar

11 am Welcome to Australia

Dir: John Pilger; 50 min; English; Documentary; 1999; Films from Australia – curated by Shweta Kishore 

The Australian heroine from start, when she carried the Olympic torch into the stadium, to finish, as she crossed the line to take 400m gold, was the indigenous athlete Cathy Freeman. Against the will of many of her still oppressed people, she came to represent the symbol, albeit shallow, of reconciliation between White and Aboriginal Australia. But the frenzy of flames and fireworks surrounding the Games blinded the rest of the world to the darker side of a land down under.

12:00 The Hungry Tide

Dir Tom Zubrycki; 53 min; English; Documentary; Films from Australia - curated by Shweta Kishore

As part of her work for a non-government organization, Maria Tiimon, who lives in Australia, promotes awareness of the consequences of climate change. "People experience the impacts of global warming but they don't know what causes it," she explains. It turns that global warming also affects Maria personally: she was born in Kiribati, which scientists believe will be one of the first countries to disappear beneath the waves as a result of global warming.

1:00 Lunch break

2:00 The Trial

Dir: Joan Robinson; 52 min; English; 2009; Films from Australia – curated by Shweta Kishore

In February 2008 twelve Muslim men went on trial in Melbourne for terrorism offences. The trial ran for nine months, heard 482 secretly taped conversations and presented 66,000 pages of evidence. With unique access to Greg Barns, one of the key defence barristers, and Omar Merhi, the brother of the youngest accused, The Trial takes us inside one of the biggest court cases in Australia’s history. A trial where there is more at stake than just the fate of the accused.

3:00 Freedom Stories

Dir: Steve Thomas; 99 min; English; Australia; Documentary; 2015; Films from Australia – curated by

Shweta Kishore

Freedom Stories is a documentary exploring the contribution being made to Australian society by

former asylum seekers who arrived by boat around 2001 – the year of political controversy over the MV Tampa, the Pacific solution, the children overboard affair and the SIEV X disaster. They found themselves in indefinite mandatory detention in remote places such as Woomera or Nauru

and then placed on temporary protection visas (TPVs), which extended their uncertainty. It has taken

much resilience and many years for them to build secure lives, become Australian citizens and start

contributing to their new country.

21^st Feb : Discovery Book Palace

11 am  Lights on Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Dir: Prasanna Ramaswamy; 85 min; English; 2013

The film brings the filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan upclose, working through different processes of film making, speaking about the philosophy and aesthetics of his work. Besides that  the filmmaker is looking at reference points to where those resonances that would have determined the course of thoughts behind that filmmaking like Adoor's engagement with nature, his childhood influences and so on.

12:30  Interaction with Prasanna Ramaswamy

1:00 Lunch break

2:00  Life in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli

Dir: O.P.Srivastava; 84 min; Kannada & English; Documentary; 2015

The film tries to explore  “Cinema “ –  the need, the art, the  craft, the language, the grammar and its purpose through the eyes of Master filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli.

3:30 Kapila

Dir: Sanju Surendran; 62 min; Malayalam with Eng subtitles; 2014

As a student, Surendran was struck by something his teacher, the inimitable Mani Kaul told him – an ideal film, he said, is like a Koodiyattam performance, where gestures communicate and silence speaks. Years later, he explored that same idea using cinema as a medium – and with a talented Kootiyattam artist as his protagonist. Kapila moves at a pace as detailed as any description in Koodiyattam, leaving the artist and her craft, the ambience of her kalari, the silence, percussion music, the picturesque frames and even the rain, to unravel the nuances of the art form.

4:30 A Picture of You

Dir: Ajay Norohna; 73 min; English; Documentary; 2012

A Picture of You is the story of a cinematographer trying to piece together an image of the father who passed away when he was six. Growing up with one framed photograph on the wall and little else, Ajay Noronha sifts through memories, anecdotes and silences to come closer to the person he hardly knew.

A Picture of You is a difficult inquiry into the need to complete the picture of one's own self. 

6:00 Closing Ceremony

6:30 Yaadhum

Dir: Kombai S Anwar; 57 min; Tamil with English subtitles; 2012

The film ‘Yaadhum’(All) is a celebration of diversity within the Tamil, Indian and Islamic world. It throws the spotlight on the less spoken Tamil Muslim community, its history and identity, and how Islam took early roots in the Tamil country, even as it was spreading across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. The story is told through Kombai S. Anwar’s perspective, himself being a Tamil Muslim. It covers archaeological excavations, inscriptions, old mosques built in the architectural traditions of Tamil Nadu & Kerala, other existing traditions, Sufism, literature and interviews with well known historians. The film showcases more than a millennium old harmonious co-existence of Islam in Tamizhagam.