6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018: Screening Schedule - Day 5, 19 April

6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018

Screening Schedule - Day 5, 19 April

Guest speakers:

Arun Neduncheziyan, activist

Kombai Anwar, filmmaker

9:30 am Saints of Sin

Dir: Aniruddha Sen; 80 min; English; Documentary; India

The Saints of Sin is a lyrical journey of emotion and experiences of Seven and a Half Bengali women spread all over the globe between Nairobi to New York to New Delhi and Bombay. Built on intimate conversations recorded over three years, the film explores the lives of Debbie, Runa, Srila, Gopi, Shreya, Swati, Paro and Pradipta, where each of them acknowledges her propensity towards one of the Sins and speaks of her negotiations with it. 

11 am SD: Saroj Dutta & His Times

Dir: Kasturi Basu and Mitali Biswas; Bangla with English subtitles/ 115 mins/ 2018; Rest of India

In 1971, Saroj Dutta, communist revolutionary and poet, disappeared from the city of Kolkata. His was a copybook case of forced disappearance amidst widespread State repression on communist rebels. A secret killing that since became part of the urban folklore, a crime the State denies till date.

Using Saroj Dutta’s writings, poems, memories that inhabit spaces and sites in the present-day city, a flood of rich archival material and conversations with several active participants of the heady days of the first phase of the Naxalbari movement (1967-1972), this documentary explores how Saroj Dutta’s story - in its eventful turns and brutal execution - talks to our present.

1:00 Salaam India

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Filmmaker in Focus

India today is home to 16 million Muslims, the second largest population of Muslims in the world. ‘Salaam India’ documents the extra/ordinary lives of some of them.

The documentary engages some young Muslim adults, asking them a question: what is an Indian muslim?. A group of friends and a radio jockey from Delhi, a trainee cleric at Deoband in uttar pradesh, a gaffer in mumbai’s film industry, even the inimitable Sania Mirza talk about: Are they Indians? Are they muslims? Are these two different questions?

2 :30 pm to 5 pm

Guest speakers:

Salai Basheer, activist

MD Muthukumarasamy, folklorist / writer / critic

2 :30 pm Remains of a Dream

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 65 min; Retro

The film moves between the past and present Cochin Jewish life through memoirs, interviews of local communities, writers and scholars and places that tell the stories of presence and absence of Jews in Kerala today.

3:45 Nostalgia for the Future

Dir: Rohan Shivkumar & Avijit Mukul Kishore; 54 min; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Rest of India

Nostalgia for the Future is a film on Indian Modernity, the making of the citizen and the architecture of the home. It looks at imaginations of homes across four examples of buildings made over the period of a century. These are Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda, Villa Sodhaan in Ahmedabad, Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and public housing in post independence Delhi, designed by the Government of India to house refugees from Pakistan and the bureaucrats of the newly independent nation.

4:45 The Simple Day

Dir: Maria Kristoforova; 21 min; No dialogue; International

The simple day in the life of rickshaw driver in Delhi, India.

5:10 Belonging to Untouchable God 

Dir: Anuj Kumar; 26 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India

Story of Ramkali Devi, a dalit woman from Bihar who once was a bonded labourer, now an independent farmer after a long struggle for justice.

5:45 to 9 pm

Guest speakers:

Johnson Rajkumar, filmmaker

Arulmozhi, advocate

Aloor Shanavaz, activist/filmmaker

Someetharan, filmmaker 

5:45 Fireflies

Dir: Johnson Rajkumar; 6:20 min; Rest of India

In 1980s, when Manipur was inflicted with insurgency and armed violence, a group of women came out to the streets to uphold peace in the valley. Meira Paibis are loosely structured groups of women from each locality who volunteered to vigil through the night as a peace-building effort.

‘Fireflies’ takes us through the journey of these women in their struggles to protect their community from atrocities committed by the State. It explores the role of women in the conflict-ridden, male-dominated society of Manipur. Through powerful testimonies, this film looks into how gender identities are negotiated during the time of conflict and violence.

6:00 pm Protest Street

Dir: Debalin Roy, Ekta Handa, Piyush Nagpal; 24 min; Hindi/English/Bengali/Tamil with Eng subtitles; Rest of India

Protest Street is an experimental documentary critiquing the rhetoric of revolutionary activity in a democracy. It is a philosophical voyage trying to locate Jantar Mantar as a space amongst the historic spaces of revolution like Sahbag Square.

6:30 Bismaar Ghar (Withering House)

Dir: Shreyas Dasharathe; 26 min; Gujarati with Eng subtitles; Documentary

Bismaar Ghar (Withering House) is an observational piece about Maheshbhai, Tarunaben, Ganpatbhai and their house. Living in a hundred year old house for the past 20 years in the heart of Ahmedabad, they have decided to move on to a new apartment they got under the Prime Minister's Housing Scheme.

7:00 Closing Ceremony

7:30 Campus Rising 

Dir: Yousuf Saeed; 73 mins; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Documentary

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.