[antiwar-van] FW: The best of South Asian documentaries]

[noii-van at resist.ca]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: FW: The best of South Asian documentaries

Dear members and friends of SANSAD:

Some of the most outstanding docementary films made in the countries of
South Asia during the years 2001-2003 are being screened in town. Fifteen
in all. They deal with gender issues, Dalit issues, Development and
Environment issues, and also the genocide that took place in Gujarat two
years ago.

They have been screened at the Surrey Art Centre for the last three
nights. But will be repeated at the Video In Studios on Main street,
starting Friday, May 7.

We urge all of you to go and see them, and bring friends and family members.

On Saturday afternoon showing, SANSAD will also have a discussion.

Hope to see you all there.

hari sharma
president, SANSAD
******************

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Gender and Identity
May 7, 7 pm
Video In Studios 1965 Main St. Phone (604) 872-8337
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1) Made in India (39 min)
India, 2002, dir - Madhusree Dutta
A rural artist paints her autobiography, images of Bollywood movie icons
are erased after a week-long run of their films, the national flag
flutters on 150 kites, installation artists paint pop icons on the rolling
shutters of shops. Symbols of nationalism become a fashionable commodity.
Made in India is about contemporary visual cultures in India.

2) The Unconscious (19 min)
Maharastra/India 2003, dir - Manisha Dwivedi
This film is a journey with men who call themselves kothi. They are men
for their families and society, but for themselves they are women, and
wives of other "macho" men. They walk two tightropes, both of fear and
disgrace of and for their families and 'husbands'. And yet, they celebrate
womanhood in their world of disguises.

3) Swara - A Bridge over Troubled Water (40 min)
Pakistan, 2003, dir- Samar Minallah
Swara examines and comments on the Pakhtun practice, in northwest
Pakistan, of giving minor girls in marriage as reparation for serious
crimes such as murder committed by men in their family.

*** Followed by a Social sponsored by the South Asian Youth Alliance
(SAYA) with DJ MTS.

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Development and Domination
May 8, 1pm
Video In Studios 1965 Main St. Phone (604) 872-8337
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1. Hunting Down Water (32 min)
India, 2003, dir - Sanjaya Barnela and Vasant Saberwal. India's present
water crisis is of its own making. The patterns of water use are changing,
with increased cultivation of water-intensive cash crops. But there are
other changes that defy logic, such as the growing number of private
swimming pools in cities, rain dances and water amusement parks. As a
consequence more and more of the rural poor are now forced to migrate to
search for work and water.

2. Vikas Bandook Ki Naal Se - Development Flows from the Barrel of the Gun
(54 min) India, 2003, dir-Biju Toppo and Meghnath. This film presents and
examines orchestrated state violence against indigenous and local peoples
when they rally and protest against development in Orissa, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. In each case, using the local
police force, the state has brutalized and killed protestors, often on
trumped up charges of violence.

3. Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail (60 min)
Gujarat/India, 2003, dir-Shubradeep Chakravorty. The film investigates the
Godhra train burning and subsequent rioting that killed 3,500 Muslims in
Gujarat, India in February, 2002. It retraces the route of the first batch
of karsevaks from Gujarat to Ayodhya (where Hindu fanatics want to build a
Ram temple) and back, and documents the terror they unleashed en route,
and the incident at Godhra railway station.

*** Followed by a panel discussion sponsored by the South Asian Network
for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) with HARI SHARMA AND HARSHA WALIA

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Clash and the Power of Nature
May 8, 7 pm
Video In Studios 1965 Main St. Phone (604) 872-8337
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1. Shei Rater Kotha Bolte Eshechi - Tale of the Darkest Night (43 min)
Bangladesh, 2001, dir - Kawsar Chowdhury. Second Best FSA '03 Award.
The film tells the story of the killings by the Pakistani army in Dhaka
University. Surviving members and witnesses speak, and bring alive the
havoc of that night. The documentary also includes the wireless messages
the Pakistani army exchanged that night.

2. The 18th Elephant-3 Monologues (62 min)
Kerala/India, 2003, dir-P. Balan. Winner of Ram Bahadur.  Best Film at FSA
'03
This film is a critique of our mercenary attitude towards nature and his
anthropocentric conception of development. The sad plight of the elephant
in  both its wild and domesticated states exposes how such behavior brings
death and wreaks havoc on the lives and habitats of other species.

3. Sand and Water (105 min)
Bangladesh, 2002, dir - Shaheen Dill-Riaz. Third best award at FSA '03
The middle section of the Jamuna, one of the three main rivers in
Bangladesh, is called "the deadly paradise". Sand and Water shows how the
people of the islands here live in the most extreme natural conditions and
cope with the "moods" of Jamuna, which also provides them with their
livelihood and fertile islands.

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Caste, Struggle and Conflict
May 9, 1pm
Video In Studios 1965 Main St. Phone (604) 872-8337
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1. Naata - The Bond (45 min)
Bombay/India, 2003, dir - K P Jayasankar and A Monteiro. Naata is about
Bhau Korde and Waqar Khan, two friends who work on conflict resolution and
communal amity initiatives between the different communities in Dharavi,
reputedly, the largest "slum" in Asia. Naata is the second in a series of
films on the people and city of Mumbai, and is a sequel to Saacha (The
Loom), 2001.

2. Resilient Rhythms (64 min)
India, 2002, dir - Gopal Menon. India's caste system places nearly 160
million people, the dalits, at the outskirts of society. It exploits their
services but at the same time denies them acceptance as human beings.
Resilient Rhythms deals with a range of dalit responses to their
marginalisation, from armed struggle to electoral politics.

3. A Night of Prophecy (77 min)
India, 2002, dir-Amar Kanwar..A Night of Prophecy was filmed in several
diverse regions of India (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Kashmir)
and features music and poetry of tragedy and protest performed by regional
artists. The sources of anger and sorrow vary from inescapable,
caste-bound poverty to the loss of loved ones as a result of tribal and
religious fighting. The footage is a stunning glimpse of India's diverse
ethnic groups and topography from the rural mountains to its crowded urban
centers.

** Followed by a panel discussion sponsored by the Chetna Association


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In the Mountains and Valleys
May 9, 7 pm
Video In Studios 1965 Main St. Phone (604) 872-8337
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1. Bhedako Oon Jasto - In Search of a Song (55 min)
Nepal, 2003, dir - Kiran Krishna Shrestha. Winner of the Special Mention at
FSA '03
For eight years, a well-known Nepali journalist, would sing an unknown
folk song he'd heard in the highlands north of Kathmandu to his friends
and to strangers. Since no one had heard the song, he travelled up the
mountains north of Kathmandu with members of a popular Nepali band and a
friend, the filmmaker, in search of the source of this song.

2. Itihaas Jitneharuka Laagi (History for Winners) (55 min)
Nepal, 2003, dir - Pranay Limbu. An award-winning singer makes a desperate
but unsuccessful attempt to make a comeback after being in musical
hibernation for seven years. Itihaas Jitneharuka Laagi portrays the
changes in the Nepali music scene, as represented by Kuber Rai and Dhiraj
Rai. The two singers are a study in contrasts, with their diametrically
opposing personalities and attitude towards music.

3. Buru Sengal - The Fire Within (57 min)
Jharkhand/India, 2002, dir-Shriprakash. Winner of the Grand Jury Award at
FSA '03
The land of the Tana Bhagats in Jharkhand, India, a peaceful sect of the
Oraon tribe who follow a Gandhian lifestyle and philosophy, is today
beseiged by Naxalite violence. The film touches upon corruption, the
mafia,  energy politics and displacement of villages, and tribal identity
in an area where coal has been mined for the last 150 years.