10th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2022
Indian Documentaries - Competition
1) City of Lanes
Dir : Modak KS, Ragini Rao Munjuluri; 39.47 min
The documentary offers a look at the implications of a recent urban development project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh through the perspectives of the city's residents. The documentary explores themes of citizen-state engagement, governance and development, urban land rights, notions of modernity and socio-cultural dynamics in the city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
2) Backstage
Dir : Lipika Singh Darai; 85 min
The film portrays the lives and times of puppeteers of Odisha, India. It documents four forms of puppetry; the glove, the string, the rod and the shadow, which are now being performed by their last generation of artists. After them, the art form will probably die. The folk art form, which is as vulnerable as its performers who mostly belong to the lower strata of the society in terms of caste and economy, is experiencing a silent death. The filmmaker builds a personal narrative to trace the time a dying art form is going through.
3) Longing
Dir : Bani Singh; 89.42 min
Against the backdrop of Partition, newly independent India’s first hockey team defeats England, their erstwhile coloniser, to win the Gold at the 1948 London Olympics.
Six decades later, when Nandy Singh, a member of this iconic team suffers a stroke at the age of 84, his tenacious will to recover inspires his daughter to go on a journey to discover the champion he was before she was born.
4) Moon on the Man
Dir: Prince Shah; 75 min
Moon on the Man is an observational and exploratory feature length documentary, that questions the most basic questions of reality, perception and choices. As such, it is synonymous with every individual’s struggle to find direction, some that bear an identity through the afflux of time in the ever-evolving landscape of human perspectives and also focuses on mental illness, old age and broken dreams
5) Moving Upstream : Ganga
Dir : Sridhar Sudhir; 105 min
The 'Moving Upstream: Ganga’ documentary was filmed over 6 months on a 3000km walk along River Ganga in India. This documentary explores the idea of walking, people’s responses to a walking traveler in this fast paced era and an evolving relationship with the natural world. It does this while also amplifying the voices and concerns of the riparian community.
6) Meraki
Dir : Nikhil S; 8.20
7) Footloose a story of belonging
Dir : Gulshan Singh; 93.38 min
Minorities from Pakistan & Myanmar came to India to save their lives. They had heard that Indian is a secular country where there is no religious discrimination. But, in the last few years, religious discrimination has increased leading to communal riots which ultimately ended up being the sole agenda for contesting elections.
8) Bid for Bengal
Dir : Dwaipayan Banerjee and Kasturi Basu; 70.30 min
Driven by his quest for truth, a poet and people's leader rises against the power structure that is complex and layered, and with it ignites the spark of dignity and dissent among the people facing atrocities of the power.
The poet and people's leader- Mahendra Singh- is eventually murdered in 2005.
This film unearths the life of Com. Mahendra Singh and the subversive life ethos through two set of filmmakers, shot over 13 years, both investigating the truth of the man and the mass, who fought a brave but unequal war against the power structure.
10) Once Upon a Village
Dir : Srishti Lakhera; 60:14 min
In the Himalayan foothills, an 80- year- old woman and a 19-year-old girl are two of the seven remaining inhabitants of an abandoned village. The two women struggle with the choice to leave for an alienating city life or continue living in a lonely village.
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