DOCUMENTARY FILMS' SCREENINGS as a part of Red Earth's Monsoon Festival 2 at The Attic - 17th August, 2007

  • Time : 4.30 – 7.30 pm

  • Documentary Films :
  • Monsoon : India’s God of Life; Directed and Produced by Shekar Dattatri; 1999; 50 mins. Colour. English
  • A fascinating chronicle of how the wildlife of India copes with the dog days of summer, and how the arrival of the south-west monsoon transforms their lives and the land they live in. Filmed in some of India’s most spectacular wilderness areas, the cast includes the one horned rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, lion- tailed macaque and a host of lesser know animals. Two years in the making, this film was part of the Wild Asia series produced for international television.
  • Copyright: Natural History New Zealand Ltd. Under license from the copyright holders.
  • Shekar Dattatri is an award-winning wildlife and conservation filmmaker who produces, directs, shoots and, often, writes and edits his films. His work has aired around the world on international channels such as Discovery and National Geographic. He officiates as a juror at prestigious international wildlife film festivals, and was on the final jury of UK’s ‘Wildscreen’ in 2004. The same year he won a Rolex Award for Enterprise for his conservation filmmaking. More at www.shekardattatri.com
  • The Indian Cobra, Directed and Produced by G.L. Bhardwaj. 1975. 11 mins, Colour. English. (Film-maker to be present)
  • Being screened as a special focus on the monsoon festival of Naga Panchami, falling this year on the day of the screening.
  • The film introduces the viewer to the various species of the Indian snake and beliefs of the people about them. It also provides a glimpse into the work done by the Bombay based Haffkine Institute, which deals with research in snakes.
  • Melody of Monsoon, Directed and Produced by G.L. Bhardwaj. 1988. 42 mins, Colour. English. (Film-maker to be present)
  • The film evokes the grandiose beauty of the Indian monsoon. It foregrounds the rich universe of the monsoon, drawing attention to how it is an intrinsic part of the cultural matrix of the country.
  • Stubborn City, Directed and Produced by Pooja Rangan; 2007; 10 mins. Colour. English
  • Produced in solidarity with The N.O. TV Collective, New Orleans, Copyright: Pooja Rangan; Distributed by Third World Newsreel, NYC
  • Every monsoon, thousands lose their lives, homes and livelihood to the rain. Every day people struggle against the odds to survive, to merely live with dignity. And yet we pay attention to injustice only when an ‘event’ occurs, a disaster which showcases pain and death on a spectacular scale. A tsunami. A hurricane. A war...
  • Stubborn City is a short experimental documentary that asks, What is at stake in the way in which we produce and consume images of disaster?
  • Filming in the aftermath of the July 2005 torrential rainfall in Bombay, India which occurred just prior to Hurricane Katrina, director Pooja Rangan substitutes the ‘expected’ on-the-ground footage of shocking destruction with a Vertovian montage of images of everyday struggle, labor, the beautiful and the mundane.
  • Viewers are left to imagine what might happen if we begin to ‘see’ the world differently. If we saw each moment as an ‘event’ instead of relying on the media to tell us what an event is, could we begin to respond to everyday crises better?
  • Pooja Rangan: a video activist and film scholar from Bombay, India. She currently pursues her research interests in issues of auto-ethnography in documentary film and contemporary Indian cinema as a doctoral student in the Modern Culture and Media department at Brown University.
  • Recently, Rangan worked with the N.O. Tv Collective, a group of artists working to provide thoughtful media coverage of post-Katrina New Orleans (www.notvcollective.org). Her current projects include a short film installation on the beach and tourism, and an experimental documentary video on notions of ‘Bollywood.’
  • Monsoon; Directed by Shyam Balse; Produced by Shyam Balse, Joseph Ittaya, and Dileep Singh Rathore; 2006; 21mins. Colour. English.
  • Being shown for the first time in India.
  • Mumbai, India -- Present Day.
  • The sweltering dead heat of the Indian summer. The only hope for relief are the elusive monsoon rains, already 3 weeks delayed. Into this sweaty inferno comes Govinda, a hotshot Californian Cardiologist and conditioned scientist who has journeyed back to his native country to treat his father's ailing health. Govinda despises India almost as much as he does his father who embraces it. It is dirty, disorganized, superstitious and the place where his beloved wife was killed in a tragic accident the year before. Much to his frustration, his father, a devout Hindu Brahmin and the hard headed patriarch of the family, refuses medical treatment claiming that only God can heal him. As the tension between father and son grows, Govinda gets drawn back into the mystery surrounding his wife's death stirring up old skeletons that threaten to split the family apart forever.
DOCUMENTARY FILMS' SCREENINGS as a part of Red Earth's Monsoon Festival 2 at The Attic - 17th August, 2007 DOCUMENTARY FILMS' SCREENINGS as a part of Red Earth's Monsoon Festival 2 at The Attic - 17th August, 2007 Reviewed by rohit malik on Friday, August 17, 2007 Rating: 5

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