There is no let up in heat and the Margalla hills are on fire. From the roof-top, one can see Islamabad enveloped in a cloud of smoke.
To make matters worse, mosquitoes are having a field day and one feels attacked by an army of mosquitoes in the evening.
HIMAL Association (Nepal) and Nomad Centre in collaboration with Mercy Corps (Pakistan) organised the screening of The Travelling Film South Asia 2006, a collection of outstanding documentaries from the sub-continent with an exhibition of photographs on the earthquake affected areas of Pakistan by M. Asad Ali.
As part of an Annual Film Festival, 15 selected documentaries from the South Asian Travelling Film Festival 2006 were screened from May 5th to 7th, 2006, at the premises of Nomad Gallery in Islamabad.
Nomad Centre has been holding this event since 2002, screening productions of talented directors/activists and has collaborated with Amnesty International (AI), Vancouver, Canada, as well as other organisations and independent producers working on Human Rights issues in South Asia. The organising strategy is reflective of the region and its current political situation and to foster a solidarity movement that raises awareness around local and regional communities on issues pertaining to human rights, peace and non-violence.
The Travelling Film South Asia ("TFSA") over the last eight years, has been showcasing the best of the sub-continent's non-fiction output in the region and overseas in the hope that more young people in South Asia take up documentary filmmaking as a medium to highlight local issues, be political, economic, cultural, lifestyle, or others. The 15 outstanding films being screened include four award winners at FSA'05; will be travelling all over South Asia to generate understanding and empathy.
This important festival that will help in creating greater awareness on the cultural perspective of this region. An exhibition of photography by M. Asad Ali sensitively reflected the conditions of the areas affected by the earthquake in Pakistan.
A Certain Liberation, Ghost of the Bangladesh war, is directed by Yasmine Kabir. The story line is that Gurudasi Mondol resigned herself to madness in 1971 when, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh she witnessed the murder of her entire family at the hands of the collaborators of the occupying forces.
Today Gurudasi continues to roam the streets of Koplimoni, a small town in rural Bangladesh, in pursuit of all she has lost; snatching at will from the pockets of strangers and breaking into spaces normally reserved for men, taking liberties only her madness and her strength of character afford her. In her beloved home of Kiplimoni, Gurudasi has now attained near legendary status and, through her indomitable presence, she has kept the spirit of the Liberation War alive.
The City Beautiful' (Sundar Nagri), being laid off in global India is directed by Ali Kazimi. 'Sundar Nagri' is a small working class colony on the margins of India's capital city, Delhi. Most families residing here come from a community of weavers.
The last ten years have seen a gradual integration of the handloom tradition of this community under the globalisations regime. The families have to cope with change as well as reinvent themselves to eke out a living. The City Beautiful is the story of two families struggling to make sense of a world which keeps pushing them to the margins.
City of Photos, neighbourhood photo studios that we knew is directed by NishthaJain. The film explores the little known ethos of little neighbourhood photo studios in a variety of Indian cities discovering entire imaginary worlds in the smallest of spaces. Tiny, shabby studios that appear stuck in a time warp turn out to be throbbing with energy.
These afford fascinating glimpses into individual fantasies and popular tastes. Yet beneath the fun and games runs an undercurrent of foreboding. Not everyone enjoys being photographed; not every backdrop is beautiful; not all photos are taken on happy occasions. The cities in which these stories unfold become backdrops themselves, their gritty urban realty a counterpoint to the photo palaces.
Continuous Journey, entering Canada in 1914 is directed by Ali Kazimi. In 1941, the Komagata Maru, a vessel carrying 376 immigrants from British India, became the first ship transporting migrants to be turned away by Canada. During the two-month detention in the harbours, Canadian authorities drove the passengers to the brink of thirst and starvation. The affair exposed the British Empire's myths of equality, fair play and justice, and became a turning point in the freedom struggle in India. Continuous Journey is a multilayered film essay that interweaves photographs, archival newsreels, home movies and official documents to unravel a complex and little-known incident.
Dirty Laundry, South Africans of South Asian origin is directed by Sanjeeve Chatterjee. It has been said that Gandhi became Indian in South Africa. Now more than hundred years after Gandhi left South Africa to pursue a life of Indian nationalist politics. South Africans of Indian origin continue the quest to define themselves and who they are. Dirty Laundry is a travel essay and historical journey that offers a glimpse of the struggle for self-definition and cultural identity in today's world, from the role of South African Indians as revolutionaries in the antiapartheid struggle up to the activities of the present. This film is part of a series known as the Politics of Memory in the Indian Diaspora.
Final Solution, The extremism that was in Gujarat is directed by Rakesh Sharma. Final solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat between early 2002 and July 2003, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in western India through an examination of the carnage wrought on Gujarat in 2002. It specifically looks at practices reminiscent of the growing Nazi regime of early 1930's Germany. Final Solution is an anti hate/violence film created with the belief that the 'those who forget history are condemned to relive it.'
Girl Song, Jazz nights in Calcutta is directed by Vasudha Joshi. The film enters the life of Anjum Katyal, blue singer, poet and mother, capturing her voice as she performs the blues in her home city of Kolkata, as she reads her poems and journal entries aloud to her daughter, and as she converses with her mother of the cultural heritage she is so pound of. Anjum also talks of confronting the climate of hostility and distrust towards minorities that is spreading throughout India. In her interactions with her mother and daughter, we see how a cultural identity woven from many diverse strands is increasingly under threat from more narrow and exclusionist definitions of identity.
Good News, looking for good news in 1980s Assam is directed by Altaf Mazid. A writer looks for a bit of good news in the days of the Assam Movement (1985-1990), when the youth had sunk to the lowest depths of degradation, and civilised emotions seemed to be wiped completely out of existence. Newspapers had chilling pages of depressing stories and to read them was to be overcome by an even greater feeling of horror and helplessness. Finally, the writer discovers a small piece of news item in a morning paper that gives him hope as it brings him tales of inspiring people who survive the troubled times by piously and devoutly reading their holy scriptures.
The Great India School Show, the young ones under CCTV gazw is directed by Avinash Deshpande. How ordinary is a school in which the management has installed 185 closed circuit televisions to monitor its students and every inch of the premises? Imagine how different school life would be under the constant gaze of surveillance, how easily discipline could be misrepresented and misinterpreted how memories of schooldays would be filled with television monitors classroom cameras and crackling sound boxes.
What hidden agenda underlies the surveillance? This film discovers that it take only time for people to become accustomed to any situation, even one in which 185 cameras are perpetually pointed at them.
Lanka: the Other Side of War and Peace, from LTTE to JVP is directed by Iffat Fattima. In February 2002, after more than 20 years of fighting, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Government of Sri Lanka signed a cease fire agreement. Soon after the A9 highway that links North and South Sri Lanka was opened to civilian traffic after twelve years.Strutured like a travelogue, the film traverses the northern and southern landscaper of Sri Lanka. As it shifts between North South, it spans the history of last three decades of violence in Sri Lanka juxtaposing the multiple realities of war and peace that simultaneously exist here.
The Legend of Fat Mama, among the Chinese in Calcutta is directed by Rafeeq Ellias. This is a bittersweet story of the Chinese community in Calcutta intertwined with the nostalgic journey in search of woman who once made the most delicious noodles in the city's Chinatown district. Thriving street food, disappearing family-run eateries, mah-jong clubs, a Chinese printing press that has shut down and its hand-written counterpart that continues to deliver the news every morning, and the first all-woman dragon dance group preparing for the Chinese New year make up the Chinese heritage in Calcutta.
The Chinese Here were pained and hurt by the treatment of their people in the after math of the Indo-China war, causing many of them to migrate to Canada and elsewhere.
The Life and Time of Lady from Awadth-Hima is directed by Shireen Pasha. The documentary on 90 years old Hima, explores the extraordinary time in the history of the subcontinent (Awadh after the decline of the Mughal Empire in the 18th century).It races history, Hima's like, and her relationship and letters with her renowned talukdar writer father.
Sunset Bollywood, life off the stardom lane is directed by Komal Tolani. A struggling actor in Bollywood dreams of his big screen break. It arrives, and he skyrockets to stardom. Becoming number one is easy after all - staying there is the hard part. Overnight success is sought by millions, but what happens when the lights go out? Where are they now? And why did they disappear in the first place? In Bombay's glamorous celluloid world, failure is not an option. The film follows three actors on their journey back, each one unable to accept failure, craving the narcotic high of celebrity. In Bombay's glamorous celluloid world, failure is not an option.
Team Nepal, to India a football journey is directed by Girish Giri. A passionate team of Nepali footballers, representing a youth club from the Nepali border town of Birgunj, travel to Sonpur, Bhiar in India to play in a tournament there. Team Nepali is the documentation of their experiences in Bihar, travelling, meeting with other footballers, living in a foreign country, and playing the game they love.
Teardrops of Karnaphuli, Bangladesh's hill people is directed by Tanvir Mokammel. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is home to twelve predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups who are collectively known as the Jumma nation. The first disruption of the peace in CHT took place from 1959-1962, when a dam was constructed on the Kamaphuli river, submerging 54,000 acres of arable land and making refugees of 100, 000 people in the process. These hill people suffered a second crisis in 1979 when the government brought plain land Bengalis from various districts and settled them in CHT. Although a peace accord was signed in 1997 with the government but the area remains one of the most unstable and impoverished in the nation.
Comments
Comments are closed.