Agar Wo Desh Banati (If She Built A Country) by Maheen Mirza
Rural, Adivasi women from the villages of Chhattisgarh critique the grand plan of development of the country. As mines and power plants appear and grow in monstrous proportions around them, many of them have been cheated of their land and compensation. As they grapple with all this, they seek justice for themselves and their communities and share their thoughts about how the development of a country should be.
Thrissur, India (Award)
Ithaca, USA
Delhi; Trivandrum; Madurai; Kolkata; India
Maheen Mirza is a cinematographer committed to cinema that is born of collective practice. She has worked with several organisations and peoples’ movements on socio-political and educational issues and has made fiction and documentary films across the country. Her work strives to challenge the grammar of commercial cinema and serves to nurture a culture of independent filmmaking. She is a part of ektara collective, a strong proponent of the independent cinema movement that seeks to build inclusive and collective cultural spaces. She has been a part of the scripting and cinematography of Jaadui Machchi and Turup, among others.
- Associate Director: Rinchin
- Editor: Puloma Pal
- Researcher, Script Writer, Cinematographer: Maheen Mirza
- Location Sound Recordists: Pushpa Rawat, Priyanka Gaikwad
- Sound Designer, Mixer: Bigyna Bhushan Dahal
- Project Partner: Doordarshan
Festival, screening and distribution queries: distribution@psbt.org