7th Chennai Film Festival 2019 : Filmmaker in Focus - Supriyo Sen

7th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2019
6-10 Feb; jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM & Goethe-Institut, Chennai 

Filmmaker in Focus : Supriyo Sen

Screening Schedule

A Berlinale Talent (2007, 2008, 2009) and winner of Berlin Today Award and German short film award (2009) for his short documentary “Wagah”, Supriyo Sen is one of the well known documentary filmmakers from India. He has produced and directed feature and short documentaries like Wait Until Death, The Dream of Hanif, The Nest, Way Back Home, Hope Dies Last in War, Rupban – The beautiful, Wagah etc.

Supriyo has won 36 International awards for his films which include, Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Grand Prix at Bilbao International Film Festival, BBC Award at Commonwealth Film Festival, Black Pearl Award at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, National Geographic Award at Flickerfest, Golden Conch at Mumbai International Film Festival, Jury and Audience Award at Krakow, Tampere, Hamburg, Uppsala, Munster, Huesca, Winterthur, Damascus, Zagreb, IFFI (Goa), Rio-de-Janeiro, Parnu, Faito, Saguenay etc. He has also won three National Awards including Swarna Kamal (President’s Gold Medal) for the best Documentary of the year, 2007, for Hope Dies Last in War. His documentaries have been screened at festivals in Busan, Berlin, Sundance, Los Angeles, Karlovy Vary, Busan, Sydney, Traibeca, Amsterdam (IDFA), Hot Docs, Silverdocs, Nyon, Palm Spring, Krakow, Sheffield, Cork, Yamagata, Bilbao, Tampere, Uppsala, Indian Panorama (IFFI), Mumbai (MIFF), Kerala etc.

Supriyo has received grants from Sundance Documentary Fund, Jan Vrijman Fund (IDFA) and Asian Cinema Fund (Busan International Film Festival), DMZ Docs Fund, several times and worked with NHK, DW TV, Planet etc. and German, French American and Japanese producers. He has also made films for Films Division and PSBT and Goethe Institute.

Supriyo has served as juror in Busan International Film Festival, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Eagle Awards – Indonesia, DMZ Documentary Festival (Korea), Kolkata International Film Festival, Dhaka International Short and Documentary Festival and Indian National Award selection (two times). Retrospective of his films was organized by Thiruvanantapuram International Short and Documentary Festival in 2009 and Persistence and Resistance – Independent documentary film festival, New Delhi.

Films:

Way Back Home (120 min; 2003)

In 1947 India achieved freedom from British colonial rule at the cost of dividing the nation into two.

Pakistan was born as a country for the Muslims. A million were killed in the wake of violent communal riots between Hindus and Muslims.

15 million more became refugees, amongst whom were the director’s parents.

After more than 50 years Supriyo Sen follows his parents as they visit their lost homeland in Bangladesh.

The mother tries to trace out one of her sisters who was abandoned during the holocaust of partition.

The film is about this journey, individual and collective memories and the historical consciousness arises from personal interactions and recollections.

Hope Dies Last in War (80 min; 2007)

54 Indian soldiers taken as Prisoners of War during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 are yet to return home.

While waiting for them, some of the parents died, some of the wives remarried and some children lost hope and committed suicide.

But the real ordeal has been for those who did not give up. For them life has become a tight rope walking between hope and despair.

But they have fought the mental battle of attrition for almost four decades and are still not willing to resign.

This film is a saga of these families' struggle, spanning three generations, to get their men back.

It records a tragic stalemate, sufferings of love and shining moments of humanity, courage and hope.


Wagah (13 min; 2009)

Every evening, the only border crossing along the 3323 km frontier between India and Pakistan becomes the site of an extraordinary event.

Border guards on both sides orchestrate a parade to lower the flags. Thousands of people gather to witness the ritual and afterwards the masses move

as close to the gate as possible to greet their former neighbours. The film looks through the eyes of three children who sell DVDs of the parade to the onlookers.

With a dream of crossing the border they remain quite unmoved by all the ‘patriotic’ madness around them.


Swimming Through The Darkness  (76 min; 2018) 

Hailed from a poor family, blind boy Kanai Chakraborty chooses the daring life of a swimmer than becoming a singer and begging for living.

But his success in the sport couldn’t ensure him a job. Even at the age of 40, he has to continue swimming to retain a respectable identity.

He participates in the world’s longest swimming competition and tames mighty river Ganges covering 81 KM!

His success brings in temporary glory but Kanai continues stumbling off the water while sailing smooth on it!

The film chronicles the roller coaster journey of Kanai who constantly negotiates with destitution, desire and destiny while chasing his dream.