programme

This experimental Film follows a bunch of children from rural Bangalore, as they learn filmmaking and make a short film – written, directed, enacted and produced themselves. As they go through this process, we explore their world and experiences.

A former software professional, and alumnus of the New York Film Academy, Prithvi Konanur made his debut feature film for the Children's Film Society of India, Mumbai. Railway Children, his second feature won many nominations and awards, including the National Film Award and two Karnataka State Film Awards. His films have been screened variously. This is his first documentary.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

Hubahu explores the lives of yesteryear Bollywood lookalikes, who live a shadowed existence, basking in a glory that is not theirs. From a sense of awe to evident disappointment, they have seen it all but that doesn't deter them from pursuing their craft. The Film encapsulates the entwined personal and professional journeys of Rais, Seema and Mahesh.

Seeking Stardust
Alternate Stardom

 

Ramsha Alam studied Mass Communication at Jamia Millia Islamia, after graduating in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She has worked on a variety of projects commissioned by PSBT, Films Division, RTÉ, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation and Oxfam India, among others. Ramsha currently works as a video specialist at The PRactice, a public relations firm.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

In a canvas spread over four decades, a banyan tree, on the banks of the lake Chilika, silently whispers tales of the lake and her fisher folk. From the times when there was no export bazaar, to the time when there may be no lake.

New Delhi, India (Awards)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Rodos, Greece
Newfoundland, Canada
Bangalore; Goa; Chennai; Bhubaneswar; India

Akanksha Joshi is a story-teller who uses film, sound, dance to share her experiences of the visible and inner worlds. She is the recipient of many awards for cinematography and direction and has won a nomination for the Wild Screen Awards at Bristol. She continues to be a one woman film company, who films, edits, scripts and directs herself.

What do we know about the people who make salt - the most humble and yet the most important ingredient of our food? Seventy per cent of the salt produced in India is made in Gujarat and more than forty per cent of that in the Rann of Kutch by the Agariyas. For centuries they have been working in horrifying, sub-human conditions, caught in a debt trap. The Film provides a glimpse into their lives.

Seoul, Korea
Moscow, Russia
Los Angeles, USA
Mumbai, India

A Narrative to Make us Think

Dinesh Lakhanpal is a creative writer-turned-journalist-turned filmmaker, who has to his credit more than seventy documentaries and short films and several feature films. He has won four international and two national awards. As a freelance contributor to almost all leading Hindi and English newspapers and magazines in India, he writes regularly on subjects as varied as food, agriculture, cinema, art, literature and traditional crafts.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

Guler, a small principality near Kangra, was an artistic and cultural wellspring since its accidental inception in the 15th century. Many greats like painters Pandit Seu, his sons Manaku and Nainsukh and the poet Brajraj were born here. The system of patronage under which lofty endeavours were possible even in financially austere conditions, is today gone. Tragically, even the physical landscape is submerged under a dam. The Film seeks out some traces of the submerged past, through the memories of those left behind, a condensation of a bygone civilisation.

Amit Dutta graduated in Film Direction from the Film and Television Institute of India. His films mostly engage with art, art history and alternative possibilities of the cinematic medium. He has won several national and international awards for his work in cinema and literature. His films include Nainsukh, Aadmi ki Aurat, Sonchidi, The Unknown Craftsman and The Seventh Walk. He has written several books, including Kaljayi Kambakht and The Invisible Webs. He has taught at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and FTII, Pune.

For over five decades, 83 year old Vidyadutt Sharma has nurtured Moti Bagh, his 5 acre farm in a small Himalayan village. Around him are 7000 ghost villages - a chilling testimony to large scale migration by locals in search of employment. Chronicling the changing landscape in verses of resistance, Vidyadutt Sharma and Ram Singh, his Nepali farmland, plough the fields and keep them alive, hoping to return Moti Bagh to its old glory.

Trivandrum, India (Award)
Entry to Oscars 2019
Kathmandu, Nepal
Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Australia
Delhi; Mumbai; Bhubaneswar; India

Celebrating those who Stayed Behind
Documentary on Uttarakhand's Ghost Villages is going to the Oscars

Nirmal Chander is an award winning filmmaker who has been working for over two decades in the field of documentaries as producer, director, cinematographer, researcher, script writer and editor. His films Dreaming Taj Mahal, Sab Lila Hai, The Face Behind the Mask and Zikr Us Parivash Ka, among others, have been lauded for their humanistic approach and have travelled to many international film festivals. Nirmal also conducts workshops on filmmaking.

Followed by a conversation with Nirmal Chander, Vidyadutt Sharma and Tribhuwan Uniyal.

A visual representation of an inner feeling… made with stock home video, it expresses the filmmaker’s feelings towards her alcoholic father, the soundtrack being a telephone conversation.

Hamburg, Germany (Award)
Dublin, Ireland (Award)
Wan Chai, Hong Kong (Award)
Mumbai, India (Award)
Jahangirabad, India (Award)
Berlin; Weiterstadt; Oberhausen; Stuttgart; Kassel; Germany
Yamagata, Japan
Los Angeles; New York; San Francisco; Chicago; USA
Durban, South Africa
Victoria, Canada
Verona, Italy
Brisbane, Australia
Lugano; Zurich; Switzerland
London, UK
Singapore
Kathmandu, Nepal
Bangalore; Madurai; New Delhi; Thrissur; Thiruvananthapuram; Chennai; Mumbai; India

Bringing to light the Complexities Engulfing Human Relationships

A graduate in Economics, Santana Issar has worked with a news channel, on corporate films and assisted on documentaries. This is her first documentary.

A series of dream narratives and accounts of spiritual possession as experienced by women ‘petitioners’ at the shrine of a Sufi saint in North India. The Film invites the viewer to a fantastical world, where fear and desire are experienced through dreams and ‘afflictions of the air’.

National Film Awards, India (Award)
Seoul, Korea (Award)
Trivandrum, India (Award)
Berlin, Germany
London, UK
Taipei, Taiwan
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Zürich, Switzerland
Tehran, Iran
Sydney, Australia
Chicago, USA
Thrissur; Kolkata; Delhi; India

Iram Ghufran is an award winning filmmaker whose work has been shown in several international art and cinematic contexts, including Berlin, Experimenta India, SAARC Film Festival and ISEA, among others. Iram is currently pursuing a practice based PhD at the University of Westminster, London.

Girhein is a journey with the filmmakers as they revisit their depressive phases, trying to understand their experiences and impulses. Weaving diary entries, letters, art work and poetry through a series of conversations, they reflect on the tools that helped them cope with depression and stay afloat. The Film emphasises the therapeutic quality of engaging with art and the significance of social support in sailing through depression.

Mirrors the Realities of Depression Perfectly

Sakshi Gulati graduated in Film Direction from the Film and Television Institute. She was Director of the Chinh India Kids Film Festival from 2008-2010 and has worked with grassroots initiatives, fiction and non-fiction films, and documentation of folk cultures and media literacy initiatives. Her short film Charu won a special mention at the International Festival of India.

Samvartha 'Sahil' is an alumnus of JNU and FTII and has earlier worked as a correspondent with The Hindu. He has worked in the direction and screenplay departments for filmmakers Ananya Kasravalli, Shriprakash and PN Ramachandra. He has two Kannada books to his credit and two more in the pipeline.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker/s.

An intimate, intense portrait of the shadow cast by marital violence, through complicated personal stories of the filmmaker's mother, and her own marriage. A male friend, struggling with anger issues, who also grew up in a violent environment, opens up about the incident that ended his first marriage. As do other women, from varied backgrounds and ages, at different stages of dealing with marital violence, with many threads in common. A nuanced, insightful look at the roots of violence, the perpetuating cycles and their impact.

Ithaca, USA

Bindu Nair is a cinematographer, writer and director based in Pune. A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, her diploma film won two National Awards and was in Competition at Busan, among other festivals. She has made short films and documentaries that explore gender, media representation and human rights, some of which were broadcast and screened at several international film festivals.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

The Santhali tribe from Eastern India till recently had no written script, their stories and myths preserved and passed orally through generations. Each narration would assume a different form, much like the rocks of a nearby hill that come in various hues. The Film is a tale about the origin of creation, exploring the unique relationship of the Santhali people with nature and culture.

Brazil (Award)
Kolkata, India (Award)
Berlin, Germany
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Seoul, Korea
Bilbao, Spain
Kathmandu, Nepal
New York, USA
Thrissur; Delhi; India

Of Creation and Disintegration
A Meditation on the Nature of Story Telling
Primitive Tales are often Progressive in Nature
A Film in Santhali language at Berlinale Shorts
Rang Mahal heads for Berlinale Shorts
Move Over, Gully Boy
Rang Mahal selected for the 69th Berlin International Film Festival
11 PSBT Films at Berlinale

Prantik Basu studied Film Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. His films have been screened at various festivals including Oberhausen, Rome, International Festival of India and Experimenta India. His film Sakhisona won the Tiger Award for Short Films at Rotterdam.

A poetic exploration of Dharwad, a city split between two narratives of identity: a cultural capital, home to literary and musical greats of Karnataka and an industrial, 'smart' city. Can a city be so separate from its reality that it fails to understand its own character? Does the city suffer, feel happy and reflect on melancholy? The Film asks if we and our memories are connected to our homes and towns in more ways than we know.

Varun Ram Kurtkoti is a writer, filmmaker and visual artist, primarily working in the areas of individual memory in relation to the collective, the politics of identity and oral cultures. A graduate from Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology, his love for storytelling - specifically, oral forms of storytelling - started with his grandfather's storytelling sessions. Kurtkoti is fascinated with experimenting with voice, language and music as mediums of furthering knowledge and exploring their impact on human relationships and identities.

An essay film, using the observational form to explore the universe of a city. The City evolves episodically, seeking to open up the themes of nostalgia, memory and constant flux that bind these developing spaces together. An old man, also a photographer, tells a tale of the city in which he has spent his lifetime, opening up the idea of how a city keeps on reincarnating, to accommodate newer narratives.

Delhi; Trivandrum; India

Reema Kaur has a post-graduate diploma in Film Editing from the Film and Television Institute of India. She has edited several short films, including the National Award winning fiction Aushadh, documentary Maru Ro Moti (Docedge/ Busan) and videos for the Lalit Kala Academy. Reema conducts filmmaking workshops for school students, including one at the inaugural National Children's Film Festival. She has conceptualised and assisted on several short films, music videos and documentaries and is currently working on an international documentary Toy Stories.

Shashank Walia is a post-graduate in Mass Communication from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, and in Cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India. He has written and directed a short fiction - In the month of Love. He has shot various international documentaries, including Love in the time of Hate for NHK Japan. He was Associate Cinematographer for the Hindi feature Soni. Shashank takes lectures on art aesthetics and cinematography at various media institutes, including Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. He won the Best Cinematography Award at the DMCS Film Festival, Pune, for his film Yaan.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker/s.

Two women work with everyday materials to make small human figures - dolls! The Film looks closer at these dolls, their makers and the making, expressing how making with our hands can make windows in the walls we find ourselves imprisoned in. Can there be methods of making that invite more people to make along with us? Those that can connect us to our deeper selves and to the worlds we choose to ignore? That can let the outside in?

Delhi; Madurai; India

Hansa Thapliyal is a filmmaker and writer who has worked across fiction and non-fiction forms. She has worked previously on digital archiving and collaborated on a creative project on early Indian cinema. Lately, her work has begun integrating stop motion and animation, in an attempt to make the screen feel more material. Hansa is also a teacher and workshop facilitator.

Anupama Srinivasan in conversation with Hansa Thapliyal. Anupama is a Delhi based freelance filmmaker. An alumna of Harvard University and the Film and Television Institution of India, she has been making documentaries for two decades. Her films I Wonder, On my Own and On my Own Again have been screened at major film festivals across the world. Anupama was the Director of the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival for three years (2013-15), and of the Peace Builders International Film Festival in 2016.

Shot through the monsoon in the creek of Mirya village, the Film is a documentation of its fisherfolk, recording their unfolding presence and fishing work. It brings out their working rhythms, dreams and desires, generational legacies of hard labour and their relationships to the sea and the fish as a sacred natural resource.

Leipzig, Germany
Delhi, India

An MA in English Literature, Renu Savant worked as a journalist with Indian Express, a Lecturer in Royal College and assisted senior artists and practitioners - Kamal Swaroop, Madhushree Dutta and Chetan Datar. An alumnus of FTII, she has won two National Awards.

Anupama Srinivasan in conversation with Renu Savant.

Introduced to film acting at age 13 by Satyajit Ray, Sharmila Tagore evolved into one of the most iconic actors and stars of the 60s and 70s India, straddling the worlds of classical and popular cinema with grace and poise. The Film
journeys through her film career and life stories, while reflecting on her choices and resolve that made her an independent and phenomenal woman.

Madrid, Spain
Kathmandu, Nepal
Bhubaneswar, India

Walk on the Wild Side
Yesteryears of Indian Cinema

Umang Sabarwal is an alumnus of AJK MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia. She has worked in video production, short films and films for education. She was the founder of SlutWalk arthaat Besharmi Morcha, a women's protest in New Delhi. She wants to make non - fiction films, likes experimenting with form and is partial to stop motion animation.

Followed by a conversation with Sharmila Tagore and Umang Sabarwal.

An exploration of the concept of virginity, as perceived by contrasting communities.

Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (Award)
Kochi, India (Award)
Kozhikode, India (Award)
Thrissur, India (Award)
International Public Television, Helsinki, Finland
Frankfurt; Stuttgart; Germany
Calcutta; Chennai; Delhi; Mumbai; Guwahati; Jaipur; Pune; India

Priya Thuvassery is an alumnus of the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, who has directed and edited several documentaries. Her work has won national and international awards and has been screened at film festivals, art galleries and academic institutes. An erstwhile Senior Producer with New Delhi Television (NDTV), her student documentary Khanabadosh, won the Silver Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival. Her latest documentary Coral Woman, chronicles the life and work of Uma Mani, painter and scuba diver, exploring the underwater coral world.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker/s.

A personal account about sexuality, self-realisation and desire by Sayomdeb, RJ Den, a young man living Dopamine Responsive Dystonia. Questioning uncomfortable social perceptions about disability and sexuality, Den shares his experiences of a wholesome life and the importance of respect, responsibility and care in relationships.

Swati Chakroborty has a Masters in Economics from Jadavpur University and has been working in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for 30 years. She has also worked in the audio-visual media for last 15 years as researcher, script writer and director, engaged in themes of gender sensitivity, human rights and marginal cultures. Her film I'm Jeeja, for PSBT, won the National Film Award and has been screened at various national and international festivals.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

The Film explores queer love and relationships, togetherness, love, sexuality and illegality in India, through stories of individuals who turn an inward gaze and reflect on themselves and their everyday negotiations.

Toronto, Canada (Award)
Delhi, India (Award)
Madrid, Spain
Kiev, Ukraine
Mumbai; Bangalore; Chennai; Delhi; Patna; Thrissur; India

Sandeep Kr. Singh is an independent filmmaker and works in collaboration with NGOs and institutions and has taught photography and filmmaking.

Aakriti Kohli is a research scholar and teaches journalism, media and culture studies at the University of Delhi.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker/s.

In a country where the expression of sexuality is regulated to such an extent that it is considered profane and immoral, one might assume that asexual people lead an easier life. But the lack of interest in sex is as taboo as sex itself! Desire? engages with the daily realities of some people who identify as asexual. Through their lived experiences, it opens up a dialogue about creating small ruptures in the homogenising culture of hypersexuality.

California, USA
Chennai, India

Garima Kaul is a filmmaker and writer who started her filmmaking journey with a documentary on sanitation workers in Bombay, winning her many accolades. Gender identity, politics and sexual expression have been the focal point of her work. She has made a film on the sex workers of Kamathipura, once Asia's largest "Red Light" district. Born in a Kashmiri migrant family, she is a graduate in Literature from the University of Delhi and a post-graduate in Media and Cultural Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

The Film understands the intimate and integral relationship between the evolution of 20th century Hindustani Classical music and recording technology, even as it celebrates the music and art of some of the most beautiful musicians the world has ever known.

Kathmandu, Nepal (Award)
Panaji; Mumbai; Bhubaneswar; India

Pratik Biswas is a self-motivated and self-taught sound technician with over two decades of experience. He has worked with reputed music labels in more than hundred audio albums of Indian classical, devotional, contemporary and experimental music, including legends like Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Smt. Gangubai Hangal, Smt. Kishori Amonkar and so on. Son-et-Lumière shows installed at prominent heritage sites of India are an expression of his technical as well as creative ability.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

Contemporary dancers in India are transforming established dance practices by exploring new techniques of movement, enabling creativity and relevance in new choreographies. The Film engages with some of these artists - Jayachandran Palazhy, Gati Dance Studio, Mandeep Raikhy, Mirra Arun, Surdip Nongmeikapam and Aditi Mangaldas, reflecting on their impulses and the philosophies their work embodies.

Bhubaneswar, India

Ein Lall is a video artist and documentary filmmaker who works from New Delhi and Colombo. Her documentary work, spanning over three decades, has focused on the arts and activist issues. Her films on celebrated contemporary Indian dancers and artists Leela Samson, Chandralekha, Arpita Singh and Nalini Malani have been telecast on Doordarshan and at festivals internationally. Ein has created multi-channel video installations for theatre productions at the National School of Drama, Delhi; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Arts Network Asia, Kuala Lumpur and Japan Foundation, Tokyo, among others.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

The Filmmaker's journey with Uma, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater world and the threat to the coral reefs of the Gulf of Mannar. Born in a traditional family, inspired by the beauty of the corals, Uma learnt how to swim, dive and paint in her 50s, and has since been trying to bring attention to this alarming environmental crisis through her paintings.

Tulum, Mexico (Award)
Bangalore, India (Award)
Seattle, USA
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Stuttgart, Germany
Chennai; Trivandrum; Mumbai; Bhubaneswar; Cochin; Pondicherry; India

Uma Mani's Fascinating Journey

Priya Thuvassery is an alumnus of the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, who has directed and edited several documentaries for Fox Traveler, National Human Rights Commission and PSBT, among others. Her work has won national and international awards and has been screened at film festivals, art galleries and academic institutes. An erstwhile Senior Producer with New Delhi Television (NDTV), her student documentary Khanabadosh, won the Silver Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

Kausalya lost Shankar in an attack perpetrated by her own family for marrying against their wishes. Deeply disturbed by a spate of honour killings, Indianostrum, a Pondicherry based theatre group, sets out to introspect the implications of caste, class and gender. They adapt Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to their story. What emerges is a critical reflection and commentary on the contemporary world, where love struggles to survive.

Entry to Oscars, 2019
Thiruvananthapuram; India (Award)
Thrissur, India (Award)
Chittur, India (Award)
Bala Kailasam Memorial Award
Kolkata, India (Awards)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Salto, Uruguay
Auroville; Thrissur; Kolkata; Madurai; Pondicherry; Bhubaneswar; India

Weaving Caste Politics into Romeo and Juliet
Romeo's Caste Conundrum
'Janani's Juliet' at Oscars
Entry to Oscars

 

 

Pankaj Rishi Kumar graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India with a specialisation in Film Editing. After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he made his first film Kumar Talkies. Subsequently, he has become a one-man crew, producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films, which have screened at film festivals the world over. Pankaj has won grants from Hubert Bals, IFA, Jan Vrijman, AND (Korea), Banff, Majlis, Sarai and Pad.ma. An alumnus of the Asian Film Academy (Pusan) and Berlin Talents, Pankaj also curates and teaches.

The Film delves into the lives of some persons living with disabilities as they explore their sexual identities and negotiate widely held biological, medical, social and cultural beliefs.

National Film Awards, India (Award)
New Delhi, India (Award)
Mumbai; Cochin; Thrissur; Delhi; India

Arun Chadha graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India and has been making documentaries and short films on various social and developmental issues for over 30 years. His films have been shown at various festivals in India and abroad and have won several awards including the National Award and Golden Conch at the Mumbai Festival.

Aanchal Kapur in conversation with Arun Chadha. Aanchal has been working in the area of social development and human rights for 28 years, as a facilitator-trainer, documentation and communication specialist, building capacities, advising and strengthening networking opportunities within the civil society. She has worked at the grassroots level, in national and international organisations before founding KRITI: a development praxis and communication team, in 1999, which works as a support and solidarity group with people’s collectives, non-profits, media agencies, filmmakers, etc. The Kriti Film Club initiated by her has made documentary viewing and sharing an important part of Delhi’s alternative cinema scene. Kriti Film Club has been screening and distributing PSBT films for over fifteen years.

The Accessible India Campaign launched in December 2015 was the first such by the Government. Three years hence, sensitivity and awareness have increased manifold but has the situation on the ground changed? Through the daily experiences of a range of people living with varying degrees of disability, the Film offers glimpses of navigating disability-unfriendly city spaces.

Pankaj Johar worked as a television producer with India's leading broadcasters for a decade before founding his own production company. His work has been supported by IDFA Bertha Fund, Sundance Institute, Norwegian Film Institute, BRITDOC, BBC and ZDF Arte, among others. His film Shuttlecock Boys featured in almost all the top Indian critics' year-end lists of 2012. Pankaj has worked as consultant on Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan's popular show Satyameva Jayate.

Aanchal Kapur in conversation with Pankaj Johar.

Indian cricketers have won the World
Cup, two One Day Internationals and
two T20 World Cups in the last seven
years. The story of the courage and
passion of blind cricketers in India.

Ithaca, USA
Mumbai, India

An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Tathagat Prakash is a producer, film director and screenwriter who has helmed several projects for top Indian media houses such as UTV, Star India, Network 18 and Times Television Network.

Navagat Prakash is a post-graduate in Cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India, working as an independent cinematographer and director. He has worked on feature films such as Hichki and Karwaan and shot the documentaries on music composer Khayyam, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and a travelogue. He has also worked on advertising films for brands such as Google, Airtel, Puma and Amazon.

Aanchal Kapur in conversation with Tathagat Prakash and Navagat Prakash.

The Film is a journey into the music and everyday life of pastoral Muslim communities that live on the edge of the Great Rann of Kutch, in Gujarat, separating India and Pakistan.

Basil Wright Prize, Royal Anthropological International Film Festival, Edinburgh
Best Film, International Film Festival, Nepal
Indian Documentary Producers’ Association Awards
Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany
Intimalente Festival of Ethnographic Film, Italy
Film Southasia, Nepal
Tasveer Film Festival, Seattle
Sydney Film Festival
Parramasala Arts Festival, Sydney
International Film Festival of India, Goa
Mumbai International Film Festival
SiGNS, Kerala
ViBGYOR Film Festival, Kerala
Madurai International Film Festival
International Film Festival, Kerala
Persistence Resistance Film Festival, New Delhi
Shimla Film Festival
Creative Edge Film Fest, Hyderabad
Kabir Film Festival, Mumbai
National Film Festival of Arts and Artists, Bhubaneshwar

Anjali Monteiro and K. P. Jayasankar are Professors at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and research. Jointly, they have won over twenty national and international awards for their films, including the Prix Futura Berlin Asia Prize for Identity and Best Documentary Award at the Three Continents Festival, Venezuela.

The Film tells the rich and fascinating story of a unique, timeless textile tradition that uses natural dyeing processes along with tribal motifs that has found global recognition.

Metro Awards, USA (Award)
Srinagar (Award)
Mumbai (Award)
Surat (Award)
California, USA
Zagreb, Croatia
Fukuoka, Japan
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Lagos, Nigeria
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Riga, Latvia
Athens, Greece
Pune; Kolkata; Chennai; Delhi; Mumbai; India

A post-graduate in Screenwriting and Film Direction, Biswanath Rath has several award-winning short films, documentaries, ad-films, music videos to his credit, under his banner BNR Films. His films have been at over a hundred film festivals across the globe.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

The story of the unexpected imprisonment of a number of women, for their resistance to the Emergency of 1975-77, through the life of Socialist and famous actor Snehalata Reddy. Being the only woman political prisoner in jail, she spent eight months in solitary confinement, recording her concerns and traumatic experiences in her diary, extracts of which were later published. Released for a few weeks on parole, she died of a heart attack just before she was to return to jail. The Film recounts her ordeal through the reminiscences of her children and close friends.

Madrid, Spain
Kolkata; Thrissur; India

Uma Chakravarti is a feminist historian turned filmmaker. She has taught history to many generations of women students and been associated with the women's movement and the movement for democratic rights. She has co-authored Delhi Riots: Three days in the Life of a Nation and published books on Buddhism, Caste and Gender, among others. Her films are deeply rooted in history, memory and the archive. Her first film A Quiet Little Entry explored the plight of women's lives during the National Movement, while Fragments of a Past revolves around a political activist who does not remember her own past.

Vani Subramanian in conversation with Uma Chakravarti. Vani has been a women’s rights activist and documentary filmmaker since the nineties. Her work, spanning a range of issues and concerns, explores the connections between everyday practices and larger political questions. Her films have has screened and awarded both nationally and internationally, and used at a wide variety of discussion platforms.

All forms and acts of prejudice and discrimination arising from biases of skin are events of violence against the ‘other’, differentiated on the basis of race, caste and class. Through a dialogue with the ‘African’ diaspora in India, and diverse individuals from various backgrounds, the Film reflects on the images, thoughts and ideas that one associates with prejudice, revisiting ‘blackness’ in ‘brown’spaces.

Moscow, Russia (Award)
Lagos, Nigeria
Copenhagen, Denmark
Karachi, Pakistan
Ithaca, USA
Abuja, Nigeria
Arica, Chile

Wenceslaus Mendes is a filmmaker, cinematographer and editor by profession, practicing and working with multimedia.

Anoushka Mathews is a video producer, trained in script writing from the Film and Television Institute, Pune.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's work experience, spanning over 40 years, cuts across different media: print, radio, television and documentary cinema.

Mohit Bhalla is a journalist with The Economic Times and specialises in covering financial crime and corporate fraud cases.

Vani Subramanian in conversation with Wenceslaus Mendes, Anoushka Matthews, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Mohit Bhalla.

Sikhirni Mwsanai, literally, dance of the butterfly in Bodo, expresses the delicate, almost fragile, rhythms of traditional Bodo music and dance. The Film traces the journey of Sifung Harimu Afad - a cultural troupe of young adult Bodos, as they rediscover those rhythms in their efforts to revive live music and dance performance in Chirang district, Assam. In a place steeped with histories of cyclic conflict and violence, the Film attempts to understand the relationship between cultural forms and everyday life, and what they mean to a community.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Keeping a Performance Tradition from Dying Out
Revival of Bodo Art

Subasri Krishnan is a filmmaker and leads the Media Lab at the Indian Institute for Human Settlement. Her films, dealing with contemporary politics - from internet censorship and the unique identity number to the Nellie massacre, have screened at festivals nationally and internationally and won awards. Subasri is a recipient of the filmmaker/ artist residency at the Goethe Institut, Brazil; the Chevening Fellowship, UK; the Charles Wallace Research Grant, UK; and the George Washington University Filmmaker Fellowship, USA. She curates the Urban Lens Film Festival and directed the 2017 edition of the IAWRT Film Festival. Prior to going to film school, Subasri worked for the academic journal Seminar.

Vani Subramanian in conversation with Subasri Krishnan.

The Film looks outside the frames that weave the frenetic tapestry of breaking news on India’s news channels, to uncover a town’s complex dynamics – the fear of love, the constant scrutiny and control of women’s mobility and sexuality, a history of communal violence, caste brutalisation and feudal mindsets.

Trivandrum, Kerala (Award)
Berlin; Stuttgart; Germany
Beijing, China
Prague, Czech Republic
Kathmandu, Nepal
Mumbai; Thrissur; Panaji; Delhi; Bangalore; Gorakhpur; Chandigarh; Chennai; Hyderabad; Guwahati; India

Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker and writer whose work focuses on feminism, desire, urban life and popular culture. She is the director of several documentaries including Unlimited Girls and Q2P, the writer of the feature film Khamosh Pani and several documentaries. Her fiction and non-fiction writing have been published widely. She is the founder of Agents of Ishq, a website about sex, love and desire in India.

A look at the life of Anjum Katyal, a blues singer, drawing on her poems and songs. In her interactions with her mother and her daughter, we see how a cultural identity proudly woven from many strands is increasingly under threat from narrow and exclusionist definitions.

International Association of Women in Radio and Television Awards, (Award)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Stuttgart, Germany
Seattle, USA
Madrid, Spain
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Chennai; Mumbai; Bangalore; Trivandrum; India

Vasudha Joshi has been making documentaries for over two decades, which include Voices from Baliapal (National Award and Golden Conch), Follow the Rainbow, (Valais Award, Geneva) Mahila Samakhya, UP (Silver Conch), For Maya (Anandalok Editor’s Choice Award) and Cancer Katha, among others.

The Film is Pushpa’s journey as she tries to make sense of her own life and those of her women friends. Set in a lower middle class colony in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, it explores the lives of women, who are young, educated and bright, but feel bound and helpless when it comes to taking any major decision regarding their lives.

Pramod Pati Award for Most Innovative Film, Mumbai International Film Festival
Indian Documentary Producers’ Association Awards
Best Documentary, Mumbai Women's International Film Festival
World Film – Tartu Festival of Visual Culture, Estonia
3rd i Film Festival, San Francisco
Tempo Documentary Festival, Stockholm
SiGNS, Kerala
Our Lives...to Live, No! to Gender Violence Film Festival
0110 International Digital Film Festival, Mumbai
Madurai International Film Festival
Human Rights Festival, Chennai
Persistence Resistance Film Festival, New Delhi
Dialogues: Calcutta Film Festival
Sikkim Film Fest
Dharamshala International Film Festival
Kino Otok Isola Cinema,
Udaipur Film Festival, Udaipur
Wandering Women Docu Film Festival,India
Sonapani Spring Film Festival, Nainital

Pushpa Rawat has an MA in Philosophy, but her heart has been in filmmaking ever since she attended a filmmaking workshop by documentary filmmaker Anupama Srinivasan. That first brush with cinema drew her in and she continues to love the feeling of exploring the world through her camera. Nirnay is her debut film as director and been screened widely. She is a recipient of the TISS-SMCS Early Career Fellowship, under which she made Mod, winner of the Silver Award at the IDPA Awards for Excellence.

Anupama Srinivasan is a Delhi based freelance filmmaker. An alumna of Harvard University and the Film and Television Institution of India, she has been making documentaries for twenty years. Her films I Wonder, On my Own and On my Own Again have been screened at major film festivals across the world. Anupama was the Director of the IAWRT Asian Womens Film Festival for three years (2013-15), and of the Peace Builders International Film Festival in 2016.

Aparna Sanyal in conversation with Pushpa Rawat and Anupama Srinivasan. Aparna is a filmmaker and producer based in Delhi, who has worked extensively on documentaries and TV shows, for channels like Discovery, History, National Geographic, Times Now, Headlines Today, CNN and the BBC. Recognised by the British Council for Creative Entrepreneurship, she is a National Award Winner and a Charles Wallace Grant recipient. Her films include Tedhi Lakeer - The Crooked Line, A Drop of Sunshine, A Land, Strangely Familiar, Shunyata - when Kathak met Cham, Shovana and The Monks who won the Grammy.

Far East at the Himalayan border of India and China, live the indigenous Adi people, with a unique culture with animistic rituals around nature. The elegant Siang that originates in Tibet and flows down through the Adi villages is the new battleground for power. Alongside its blue waters, amidst green mountains and pristine valleys, drift voices - unheard, unwritten and unsung. A series of encounters with the Adis, near the old town of Pasighat, this is a tale of their inspiring resilience and hope.

Washington DC, USA (Award)
Chicago; Seattle; USA
Bridgetown, Barbados
Melbourne, Australia
Vancouver, Canada
Guwahati; Mumbai; India

Joor Baruah is interested in using documentary, films and music for social change. He has an M.A. in Social Documentation from the University of California and served as an Associate Filmmaker at the University's Investigative Reporting Program. His film Adi | At the Confluence has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide, won ten Best Film Awards and was selected for the PBS POV Digital Lab.

Followed by Q&A with the Filmmaker.

A cinematic document of the Hola Mohalla Festival at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, a week-long celebration of Sikh valour and freedom.

Jaipur, India (Award)
Chennai, India (Award)
New York, USA
Toronto, Canada
Trivandrum; Chennai; India

One-time advertising writer, Vani Subramanian has been a women's rights activist and documentary filmmaker since the nineties. Her work as a filmmaker explores the connections between everyday practices and larger political questions, be they in the areas of culture, food production, primary education, urban development, communalism, sex selective abortions or matters of identity embedded in our food practices. Her films have been screened, and received awards, both nationally and internationally. More recently, Vani has extended her practice to mixed media work.

The Film interweaves the forgotten threads of local history of the city born with goddess Kali coded in its name - Kalikata/ Kolkata. Through a personalised and subjective historical account, the filmmaker tries to map the shifts in polity from the pre-colonial to the post-colonial age, weaving in many told and untold facts, anecdotes and relics.

Delhi; Bangalore; Kolkata; Thrissur; India

Anirban Datta is a freelance writer, filmmaker and visual artist. Tetris, his diploma film, premiered at Cannes, and travelled to numerous international festivals. He has made
films with NHK (Japan), YLE (Finland), VPRO (The Netherlands) and PSBT, which have screened internationally and won three National Awards, among others. .in for motion premiered at IDF, Amsterdam.

An impressionistic film that paints a picture of Kozhikode in North Kerala and the spiritual immersion of its ordinary town-dwellers in music. A reflective essay traversing a music culture that is cosmopolitan, having strong local and global influences, it explores the music and memories of the city and its people.

Taipei, Taiwan
Gyor, Hungary
Missouri, USA
Delhi; Trivandrum; Kolkata; Thrissur; India

Sudha Padmaja Francis is a filmmaker from Kerala, who studied Creative Enterprise (Film) at the University of Reading, UK, and Cultural Studies at Hyderabad. A recipient of the Felix Scholarship, her first short film, Eye Test, won the National Award for Best Cinematography, along with other awards, and screened at many international festivals. Sudha writes on cinema and has published several poems in English.

A film about missing days from the calendar; of missing people who left to faraway cities for work. Guided by Shiv Kumar Batalvi's birha poetry, Gumnaam Din explores the yearnings of the missing and their loved ones who wait endlessly. Will they be found? Do they want to return? The Film observes separation as an inevitable everyday practice.

Berlin; Potsdam; Germany
Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Australia
Bangalore, India

The Many Textures of Separation
Pain of Separation
Gumnaam Din heads for Berlinale 2020
11 PSBT Films at Berlinale
Pining as Art

Ekta Mittal co-founded Maraa, a media and arts collective in Bangalore, and works there as practitioner, researcher, curator and facilitator around issues of gender, labour and caste in rural and urban contexts, making films around labour, migration and cities. Her films project on migration is titled Behind the Tinsheets. Ekta also works with creative practices in the public space, through independent production and collaborations with other artists.

Every house carries the spirits of those who lived there and those yet to come. We are all marked by the architecture of the homes we live in. Lovely Villa is the apartment building where the filmmaker grew up, studying to become an architect. Designed by Charles Correa, this LIC colony represents an imagination of the ideal community for modern India. The Film explores the architecture of the Colony through a personal narrative. It is a film about the relationship between architecture, everyday life, family, coming of age and the memory of 'home'.

Delhi; Bangalore; Thrissur; India

Mumbai Housing Colony focus of New Film
Marked by the Architecture of our Homes

Rohan Shivkumar is an architect, urban designer and filmmaker practicing in Mumbai. He is the Dean of Research and Academic Development at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies. His work ranges from architecture, urban research and consultancy projects to works in film and visual art. He is interested in issues concerning housing and public space and in exploring the many ways of reading and representing the city. Rohan is the Co-Editor of the interdisciplinary research and art collaboration - Project Cinema City. He curates film programmes and writes on cinema, architecture and urban issues.

Dr Sabeena Gadihoke in conversation with Rohan Shivkumar. Sabeena Gadihoke is Professor at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, where she teaches Digital Media Arts. She started her career as an independent documentary filmmaker and camera person. Gadihoke has been a Fulbright Fellow and has published on contemporary documentary films, photo history, popular visual culture and female stardom in Bombay cinema. She has written a book on India’s first woman press photographer Homai Vyarawalla titled Camera Chronicles. A photo historian and curator, her most recent curatorial project was a retrospective of photographer Jitendra Arya at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and Bangalore, titled Light Works.