3-7 March, multiple venues, Chennai
Highlight # 1
Filmmaker in Focus : DebaRanjan
DebaRanjan (full name :DebaRanjan Sarangi) is a social activist, both fiction and non-fiction writer and documentary film-maker based in Odisha/India. His writings come regularly in several magazines and newspapers both in Odia and English. His first documentary film is ‘The Conflict “ Whose Loss Whose Gain’ is on adivasis who are caught up between present day corporate globalization and communalism. He has already done six documentary films. His short story collection was first came in Odia in name of PahadaraPeeda. His film ‘Those stars in the sky’ has got an international award also. Recently, he is working on a film on Buddhism, how it got disappeared from southern India.
Films to be shown:
1 .The Conflict
Synopsis: Adivasi communities in India are feeling more and more alienated everyday from their life and from their own culture in their own land.They are caught up between today’s corporate globalisation and communalism. This film is on how one tribal community of eastern India (South Orissa), mainly Kandha, is up against this dual onslaught…When Laxmananda was killed on 23rd August 2008 at his Ashram by the Maoists the anti-Christian violence started in an organized way by the VHP in the areas of Kandhamal. Adjacent to the area, Aditya Birla company starts its bauxite mining project. For the company the project is all market and profit. For the government it is all about getting royalty. But for the Kondh adivasis of Kandhamal/Kashipur - it was loss of their land and livelihood, their forest and food, their streams and rivers, their culture and ancestry.
Duration : 80 mins
Language : Oriya with English subtitle
Produced by : Pedestrian pictures
2. At The Crossroads
SYNOPSIS :The Nehruvian era made ordinary people - mostly adivasis and dalits - lose their lands, forests and streams in the name of ‘national development’. That development never reached them. Not only they remained as deprived of basic health care and education as ever, but also of even safe drinking water though surrounded by reservoirs and dams. While this state injustice continued unabated, the post-liberalization era made these very people `anti-national’, ‘anti-development’ and `Maoists/Naxalites’, when they resisted corporate land grab for mining and industrialization. This branding became and continues to be an easy license to kill them with impunity. Southern Odisha is witness to this war between the hapless people and the neoliberal development paradigm. It led to CPI (Maoist) consolidating its presence in this area in the recent past. The film AT THE CROSSROADS tries to explore the predicament, the dilemma and the confusion of the local people, especially, of adivasis and dalits in this war zone. It captures the intensity of old dilemmas while asking some new questions.
Duration :60 minutes
Direction :DebaRanjan
Production : Pedestrian Pictures, 2013
Language : Odia, Telegu, Kui (English subtitles)
3. Those Stars in the Sky
Synopsis : When people die, they become stars is a common belief. This film promulgates such belief in view of those killed by the State forces like in police firing, fake encounter, in custody, and by the private armies of the corporations. The killing of common people and the rise of corporations have been a reality since economic reforms in India. In this background, this film is essayed between 2013 and 2018 when the State is engaged with a battle among its people for land acquisition of various corporations in India.
Duration: 60 minutes
Director and Producer: DebaRanjan
This film has got best Documentary film award at Istanbul International Architecture and Urban film festival. This one also has been selected for Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas, France.
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