English / 86 min / 2008 / Germany

7 pm, Saturday, June 19, 2010

CFD (Centre for Film and Drama)

5th Floor, Sona Towers, Millers Road, Bangalore

No tickets or entrance fee. All are welcome.

Synopsis:

“The belief in revolution, which is identical to the belief in the kingdom, or better still: the belief in God’s Kingdom, is the only real path.” – Ernesto Cardenal.

Michael N. is a wild child. On his sleigh, he races down the snowy slopes of the forest, almost unable to brake. He leaves his home in South Tyrol in the early 80s, determined to become a Catholic priest. Eventually he turns his back on Europe and joins the Jesuits in South America, where the Catholics priests have sided with the powerless and humiliated. Eight years later, as the head of the Bolivian guerilla troop, he commits terrorist attacks and kidnaps Bolivia’s Coca-Cola boss. Several months later, he dies in a hail of police bullets, taking with him the kidnapee and almost every commando member. He leaves behind letters addressed to his family, audio recordings of religious and Bolivian folk songs, and a stunned and speechless family, along with the diary of a kidnapping. 1990. The Wall has come down. The Cold War and all the ardent visions that went with it are declared over and forgotten. No one is interested in the boy who wanted to become a priest and bring God’s Kingdom to one of the poorest countries in the world. Ten years later, Europe is confronted with a new generation of educated idealistic young men: men who are deadly serious about God’s Kingdom on Earth.

The Way of a Warrior is a documentary about the mortality of ideologies and the immortality of the dead. A film about Michael N. and those who mourn him.

Retrospective of C.Saratchandran’s films

Venue: Centre for Film and Drama, Millers road, Bangalore
Date: 8th May, Saturday

Time: 4.30pm – 8.30 pm

Saratchandran 1958 – 2010

A civil rights activist and a documentary filmmaker, C Saratchandran has been an inspiration and a great support for all individuals and organizations that screened issue-based documentaries across the country. He has reached out to many, both through the medium of films and with his most democratic personal politics.

Throughout his life, Sarat has shown us the significant role a filmmaker plays in social change and how powerful a camera can be as an agent of such change. Untiringly he had screened documentaries throughout the length and breadth of Kerala about several socio- political issues.

Educated at M.G College Thiruvananthapuram and Dharmadam, Saratchandran was part of a movement against emergency. He learnt film making from John Abraham and G Aravindan. He started documenting social struggles in ’80s and was often involved in the struggles he set out to document.

We invite you to be a part of this programme in solidarity and remembrance of an environmentalist, activist and filmmaker who has a body of work that will live on forever.

Programme

4.30 – 5.05 pm
Chaliyar… The final struggle (1999)

Dir: P. Baburaj & C. Saratchandran
35 mins/ English

A river, her people and a factory that gobbles all precious natural resources and pollutes the land lives, form the principal characters of this video film.
Special Mention, MIFF 2000
The Bronze Tree Award, Vatavaran 2002

5.10 – 6.30 pm

Thousand Days and a Dream (2006)

Dir: P. Baburaj & C. Saratchandran
77 mins/ English
On the four and a half years old anti-Coca Cola struggle in Plachimada, Kerala. Perhaps, no other agitation in recent times in Kerala has attracted national and global attention like this one. The film captures the spirit of the struggle, traces the history and discusses the several issues raised by the struggle. It also documents the poignant moments of the struggle and shares the dreams and sorrows of some of the active participants of the struggle.
10th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) Indian Jury Award Winner.

6.30 – 6.45 pm   Tea

6.45 – 7.15 pm
Remembering Saratchandran – friends of Sarat share memories.

7.15 – 9 pm
Your’s Truly John (2008)
Dir: C. Saratchandran
100 mins / English subtitles

A video essay on the many faceted life of John Abraham, the film maker. Over 50 of his friends and close associates speak about him and discuss his films and creative life. This documentary brings us closer to the person who lived the life on the edge, through the reminiscence of those who were close to him.

Organised By
Vikalp Bengaluru, Pedestrian Pictures, Maraa, Bangalore film society, Grass root media, PUCL(K), PDF, Alternative Law Forum, SICHREM, Vimochana, Samvada, Environment Support Group, Samanatha Mahila Vedike, Karnataka Janapara Vedike, Sthree Jagruthi

ALL ARE WELCOME

88 min/Bengali & Hindi/2008/India

7 pm, 9 April, 2010

CFD (Centre for Film and Drama)

5 Floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore

For directions, click on the link ‘Venue’ or call 22356263

No tickets or entrance fee. All are welcome.

This month’s screening is dedicated to the memory of activist filmmaker Saratchandran (Sarat Babu)

Synopsis:

The story begins inside an 8  x 10 feet partitioned room in central Kolkata. Almost nothing is visible inside. In fact, Bilal’s parents don’t need any light to see things around; they are blind. Bilal is just three years old and he has an infant brother. Both can see. So together they live as if in a game of seeing and not seeing. Though of a very tender age, Bilal is fully aware of the physical handicap of his parents. He knows how to communicate with them through sounds and touch. He is never jobless or tired, be it guiding his blind parents through the traffic or teasing his brother, as all elder brothers do! Whenever Bilal is in the mood for mischief, his parents become strict and he jumps into the world outside as adventurous escapades. Bilal tastes life on street… it’s hard. But he never gives up. Very unusually for our times, Bilal’s upbringing and care seems to have become a collective responsibility of all the neighbors. The film tells this curious story by observing the little boy over a year and capturing rare moments of sharing love, fun, cruelty and hope… the wonder world of Bilal. More on www.bilal.in

Director’s Note:

I met Bilal in a hospital bed through my wife when he was just eight months

old; he fell and had severe brain injury. I stood in silence and looked at the boy struggling for life, the blind mother held him tight. Bilal looked at me for a very long time… and finally smiled. He touched his mother gently and that’s how she knew that I was there! I felt the magic of the touch and saw the eyes, those beautiful eyes of Bilal… ushering love and hope in moments when darkness rules…This film is a rough assembly of my moments with Bilal.

Awards:
Golden Award Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, ’09
Best Documentary (Horizons) DOKFEST, Munich, Germany, ’09
Best Documentary ZIFF, Zanzibar ’09
Best Documentary IDSFFK, Trivandrum, India, ’09
Best Documentary We Care Film Festival, India, ’09
Silver Ace Las Vegas International Film Festival, ’09
Jury Special Award Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás, Cuba ’09
Silver Palm Mexico International Film Festival,’09
Best Feature-Length Documentary, DOCUDAYS Beirut, Lebanon, ’09
Audience Award, Auburn Intl. Film Festival, Australia, ’09
Award for Excellence, YIDFF, Yamagata, Japan ’09
Community Cinema Award, YIDFF, Yamagata, Japan, ’09
Best Long Documentary, El Ojo Cojo, Madrid, Spain, ’09
Jury Special Award, Global Film Festival, India, ’09

 Khincha Auditorium, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Race Course Road, Bangalore 560001

27^th MARCH 2010

3:00 pm Pyaasa (Hindi, 1957) – V.K. Murthy’s favourite work

5:30 pm Coffee

5:45 pm Govind Nihalani’s film on V.K. Murthy

6:15 pm Interaction with V.K. Murthy, Govind Nihalani and Uma Rao (author of V.K. Murthy’s biography Bisilu Kolu)

V.K. Murthy is best known for the magical B/W imagery he created in Guru Dutt’s films – Pyaasa (1957), Kagaz Ke Phool (1959), Sahib, Bibi aur Gulam (1962) and many others. Kagaz ke phool was India’s first cinemascope film, which won V.K. Murthy the Filmfare Best Cinematographer award. He also received the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Lifetime Achievement award in 2005.

ALL ARE WELCOME

For more information: vikalpblr@gmail.com / 9845766808 / 9886340000

21, 22, 23 November 2008
Institute of Agricultural Technologists (IAT), Queens’ Road, Bengaluru

SCREENING SCHEDULE

21.11.2008, Friday, 6 pm – 9.30 pm

6pm–7.30pm: EISSENFRESSER (Ironeaters) / Shaheen Dill Riaz / Bangladesh / 2007 / 85 min

7.45pm–8.15pm: THE MISEDUCATION OF PAKISTAN / Syed Ali Nasir / Pakistan / 2005 / 30 min

8.15pm-9.30pm: MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN / Sedika Mojadidi / Afghanistan / 2006 / 74 min

22.11.2008, Saturday, 3pm – 9.30 pm

3pm-4pm: EVERY GOOD MARRIAGE BEGINS WITH TEARS / Simon Chambers / UK & Bangladesh / 2006 / 62 min

4.15pm-6pm: LIVING GODDESS / Ishbel Whitaker / Nepal / 2007 / 96 min

6.15pm-7.15pm: 6 YARDS TO DEMOCRACY / Nishtha Jain & Smriti Nevatia / India / 2006 / 55 min

7.15pm-8.15pm: AYODHYA GATHA / Vani Subramanian / India / 2007 / 60 min

8.15pm-9.30pm: THE SKY BELOW / Sara Singh / India & Pakistan / 2007 / 75 min

23.11.2008, Sunday, 3pm – 9.15pm

3pm-4pm: A LIFE WITH SLATE / Dipesh Kharel / Nepal / 2006 / 59 min

4.15pm -5.20pm: RABBA HUN KEE KARIYE  (Thus Departed our Neighbours) / Ajay Bhardwaj / India / 2007 / 65 min

5.30pm-6.30pm: CHAAMA DEU! TARA NABIRSA (Forgive! Forget Not!) / Pranay Limbu / Nepal / 2007 / 59 min

6.30pm-7.30pm: FROM DUST / Dhruv Dhawan / Sri Lanka / 2005 / 60 min

7.45pm-9.15pm / REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PRESENT / Chandra Siddan / India / 2007 / 81 min

WAS LEBST DU? (Whatz up?)
Directed by Bettina Braun
2004 / 84 minutes

September 20th 2008, Saturday at 6.30pm

1% – The Treasure of Juan De Deus Limpius
Directed by Lukas Schmid
2005 / 60 minutes

THE DIRECTOR WILL BE PRESENT FOR THE SCREENING

Synopses:

WAS LEBST DU?

This film is a journey into an unknown aspect of everyday life in Germany, portraying a group of young men on the cusp between the children they were and the adults they are about to become.

Note from the Director:
I spent more than two years documenting the lives of Ali, Kais, Ertan and Alban on camera. During this time, their world was full of disappointments and conflict, but it also yielded incredible successes. It all began with a visit to the Youth Centre “Klingelputz” – a well-known meeting place for young migrants in the heart of Cologne. From our very first meeting I was impressed by the boys’ directness and their amazing presence. I was also fascinated by the way their behaviour seemed to be informed by their contradictory nature as well as their cliché-ridden machismo perceptions. And yet, even if the tone is often rough and direct, loyalty and mutual respect are always present in their treatment of each other. These four friends are from Moroccan, Tunisian, Turkish and Albanian families. In order to portray their lives and their thoughts it was also necessary for me to scrutinise my own attitudes. In fact, the deeper I became submerged in the world of these young men, the more my perspective on the world came under the influence of their own worldview. They too began to take an increasing interest in my life, and so, when I fell pregnant, the bond of trust that existed both in front of and behind the camera seemed to grow with my pregnancy and continued into my early motherhood.

1% – The Treasure of Juan De Deus Limpius

1% is a treasure hunt. It tells of an adventure experienced by a German exile and adventurers Heinz “el alemán”, aged 58, who dares his best friends, the Portuguese Carlos da Costa, and the Indio Victor Hugo in the search for the treasure of the Juan de Deus Limpius. A boat trip across the Rio Beni, a fight with the Bolivian jungle, against age and friendship. The film takes the viewer back and forth between faith and disbelief, to the tensions between hope and doubt.

Ajay TG, an independent documentary filmmaker  and freelance journalist, was unlawfully arrested on 5 May 2008 by the  Chattisgarh police.

We see the arrest as an attempt to silence Ajay  and to break the courage of a man who has the right to show what he sees and  tell what he feels. But we believe that Ajay TG has a right to make  films. Ajay TG has the right to show his films and that we have the right to  see his films. A year ago, Dr. Binayak Sen, another human rights defender, was  similarly arrested in Chattisgarh.

Date: 11 Aug, 2008 (Monday)

Tea: 5 – 5.30 pm

Film screenings:  5.30 – 6.30 pm (details of films below)

Presentation and discussion: 6.30 – 7.30 pm

Speaker: Ramachandra Guha
Ram will speak on the current  situation in Chattisgarh and the people who are caught in the circle of  violence between the Maoists and the State.

Respondent: Arvind Narrain
Arvind will talk on the threats to  human rights defenders with laws such as  the  Chattisgarh Special  Security Act and the  Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act.

Screening: Anjam (A documentary by Ajay TG on Binayak  Sen)

Venue: Centre for Films and Drama (CFD), 5th floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers  Road, Bangalore, Phone: 22356263

Synopses:

Hathaure Wala (Man with the Hammer)
5mins 46sec / 1999 / English Version
Directed by Ajay TG

A portrait of an 80-year old lohar (blacksmith)  who works in the
shadow of the Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh. This is  Ajay’s
first film and one from the first trio of films made at  Jandarshan.

Jeet
15mins 3sec / 2001 / Original Language
Directed by Ajay TG

A Jandarshan student film on malaria prevention  made as a group
exercise to arrive at a treatment for a pre-defined message.  Ajay’s
dramatised treatment in which children take the initiative in dealing
with a malaria outbreak was chosen. The script was a group effort.

Heads and Tales
20 mins 54 sec / 2002 / English subititles
Directed by Alpa Shah and Ajay TG

A Jandarshan student film about the  relationship between tradition
and politics. *Parha Mela*, a festival in  Jharkhand, was initiated to
symbolize tribal unity and the tribal system of  socio-political
governance. From 1990 it became two separate events, held two
kilometres away from one another on the same day, each supported by a
politician of a different party. The film explores this dichotomy.

The Journey (Safar)
15 mins 7 sec / 2001 / English subtitles
Directed by Reeta Chandel and Ajay TG

A Jandarshan student film about Reeta’s father,  a porter in the
hospital of the Bhilai Steel Plant. This film is a development  of
Reeta’s 5 minute film, *Papa Says*, shot by Ajay, as part of an
earlier  student exercise. *The Journey *was made because Ajay felt
that they should  explore questions about marriage and gender which
had come up by chance during  the shooting of the earlier film.

Anjam
20 mins 41 sec / 2007-8/ English
Directed by Ajay TG

A documentary about Binayak Sen

BULLETS AND BUTTERFLIES

Sushmit Ghosh, 41 minutes, 2007

Friday, 13th June,  2008, 6.30 pm

RIDING SOLO TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

Gaurav Jani, 94 minutes, 2006

Nani Cinematheque, Centre for Film and Drama
5th Floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore 560052

Screenings open to members only. If you are not a member, please come to the venue half an hour before the screening and register. Two month membership and single entry options available.

Synopses:

BULLETS AND BUTTERFLIES
Sushmit Ghosh, 41 minutes, 2007

A strange couple travel a distance of 1500 kilometers over 7 days – an unprecedented ride that takes them through plains, hills and into mountains; marked by narrow escapes and introspective conversations; breathtaking sights and an uncanny contrast of people. Travellers-turned-cameramen, they shoot the ride on the go, enthusing the film with their refreshingly ingenuous approach to capturing the ride on video. Funny thing is that this strange expedition was never intended to be a film…

Bullets and Butterflies traces the journey of a handicapped street child and a biking enthusiast on a motorcycle – popularly known as a Bullet – as they travel from the bustling cityscape of Delhi to the serene hills of Himachal Pradesh. It is the journey from a promise made during a fleeting conversation to its fulfillment in an unforeseen, bizarrely deep understanding between the odd pair; inadvertently providing an insight on differently-abled people and the hardships of a life lived on the streets.

Sushmit Ghosh is a film student at the Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia Millia University in New Delhi and this is his first independent documentary.

RIDING SOLO TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD
Gaurav Jani, 94 minutes, 2006

Riding Solo is a film about filmmaker Gaurav Jani’s solo motorcycle journey from Mumbai to one of the remotest places in the world, the Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, bordering China. The film is even more extraordinary for the fact that Jani was a one-man crew who loaded his 200 kg bike with over 100 kgs of equipment/supplies and set off on a journey to one of the world’s most difficult terrains.

He returned after 70 days with 40 hours of recording and clueless about the next step. Friends and strangers who believed in the project joined in and after two and half years the film was finally out.

Quoting Gaurav Jani, “Riding solo for us is not about one man’s motorcycle journey. It is about the journey of everyone who put in their energy, money and time behind the film. The lows they have experienced are much more agonizing than camping in sub zero temperatures and functioning as a one man film unit at 16,000 plus feet.”

By Hubert Sauper

France, Austria, Belgium / 2004 /107 min

Friday, May 23, 2008 at 6.30 pm

Nani Cinematheque, Centre for Film and Drama
5th Floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore 560052

Screenings open to members only. If you are not a member, please come to the venue half an hour before the screening and register. Three month membership and single entry options available.

Synopsis

Darwin’s Nightmare is a tale about humans between the North and the South, about globalization, and about fish.

Some time in the 1960′s, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are today exported all around the world.

Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch in exchange for their southbound cargo… Kalashnikovs and ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent.

This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.

Director’s Statement

The old question, which social and political structure is the best for the world seems to have been answered. Capitalism has won. The ultimate forms for future societies are “consumer democracies”, which are seen as “civilized” and “good”. In a Darwinian sense the “good system” won. It won by either convincing its enemies or eliminating them.

In DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE I tried to transform the bizarre success story of a fish and the ephemeral boom around this “fittest” animal into an ironic, frightening allegory for what is called the New World Order. I could make the same kind of movie in Sierra Leone, only the fish would be diamonds, in Honduras, bananas, and in Libya, Nigeria or Angola, crude oil. Most of us I guess, know about the destructive mechanisms of our time, but we cannot fully picture them. We are unable to “get it”, unable to actually believe what we know.

It is, for example, incredible that wherever prime raw material is discovered, the locals die in misery, their sons become soldiers, and their daughters are turned into servants and whores. Hearing and seeing the same stories over and over makes me feel sick. After hundreds of years of slavery and colonisation of Africa, globalisation of African markets is the third and deadliest humiliation for the people of this continent. The arrogance of rich countries towards the third world  is creating immeasurable future dangers for all peoples.

It seems that the individual participants within a deadly system don’t have ugly faces, and for the most part, no bad intentions. These people include you and me. Some of us are “only doing their job” (like flying a jumbo from A to B carrying napalm), some don’t want to know, others simply fight for survival. I tried to film the personalities in this documentary as intimately as possible. Sergey, Dimond, Raphael, Eliza: real people who wonderfully represent the complexity of this system, and for me, the real enigma.

Kaun Mille Dekho Kissko
Director: NAMITA MALHOTRA
India, 2007, 16 minutes
The filmmaker will be present for the screening.

Mysore Mallige
Director: BHARATH MURTHY
India, 2007, 26 minutes

Cashback
Director: SEAN ELLIS
UK, 2004,18 minutes

Sea in the Blood
Director: RICHARD FUNG
Canada, 2000, 26 minutes

April 19, 6.30pm

Our Family
Dir: ANJALI MONTEIRO and K P JAYASANKAR
India, 2007, 56 minutes

The filmmakers will be present for the screening.

Synopses:

Kaun mille dekho kissko (the merry gay round of luv)
This is a short film made from clips of the mainstream Bollywood hit
film Kal Ho Na Ho. The film subverts the narrative of the heterosexual
triangle to tell the story of queer love and desire, and explores the
accidental slippages in popular cinema that allow for the narrative of
a gay love story between two male characters.

Mysore Mallige
Quoting Bharath Murthy – I wanted to make a documentary on amateur
pornography, and specifically about the video known as ´Mysore
Mallige´. That’s how the film has happened.

Cashback
Ben Willis is an art student who works the night shift several times a
week at the Whitechapel Sainsbury’s. He’s clear about the arrangement:
he trades his time for money – cashback, as he calls it. We meet his
co-workers, Sharon, Barry, and Matt, and their supervisor, Jenkins.
Ben’s colleagues are good at wasting time, but Ben talks to us about
how he makes his shift go faster: by imagining that time has stopped.
We see this late-night world of drudgery through Ben’s eyes, as time
does indeed stop, and he can get out his sketch book.

Sea in the Blood
A personal documentary about living with illness, tracing the
relationship of the artist to thalassemia in his sister, Nan, and AIDS
in his partner, Tim. The narrative of love and loss is set against a
background of colonialism in the Caribbean and the reverberations of
migration and political change.

Our Family
What does it mean to cross that line which sharply divides us on the
basis of gender? To free oneself of the socially constructed onus of
being male? Is there life beyond a hetero-normative family?

Set in Tamilnadu, India, ‘Our Family’ brings together excerpts from
Nirvanam, a one-person performance, by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and a
family of three generations of trans-gendered female subjects. Aasha,
Seetha and Dhana, who are bound together by ties of adoption, belong
to the community called Aravanis (aka Hijras, in some parts of India).
Aasha Bharathi, the grandmother, is the president of the Tamilnadu
Aravanigal Association, Chennai. Seetha, the daughter lives with her
male partner Selvam, in Coimbatore. Dhana, Seetha’s adopted daughter
also lives with her and shuttles between her adopted and her natal
families.

The film juxtaposes the ‘normality’ of their existence with the dark
and powerful narrative by Pritham- ‘Nirvanam’; Nirvanam (Liberation)
refers to the act of liberating oneself from the male body and
transforming oneself to a female. This narrative bears witness to the
tumultuous journey towards a reinvented selfhood, a journey fraught
with violence, exploitation, affection and courage. The pains,
pleasures and dilemmas of becoming the ‘other’ is the motif of the
film. Weaving together performance, life histories and everyday life,
it problematises the divides between ‘us’ and ‘them’.