22nd Madurai Film Festival 2020 : Day 5, 10 Dec, Screening Schedule

22nd Madurai International Documentry and Short Film Festival 2020

Day 5, 10 December : Screening Schedule 

12 am to 12 am 


1) In Search of Our Lost Rice Seeds
Dir: Suma Josson; 40 min; English; 2013; Doc; India; Retro I

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It is a documentary film on the loss of the traditional rice seeds of India.

2) Niyamgiri, you are still alive
Dir: Suma Josson; 16 min; Odia with Eng subtitles; 2010; Doc; India; Retro I

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This is a film on the anti-bauxite mining campaign in Orissa, India, led by the indigenous communities against Sterlite, a subsidiary of the U.K. mining company Vedanta.

3) Stalking Chernobyl: Exploration After Apocalypse
Dir: Iara Lee; 58.17 min; English / Ukrainian / Russian with Eng subtitles; Ukraine/Slovakia/USA/Bulgaria; 2020; Doc

 Exploration After Apocalypse, a documentary from Cultures of Resistance Films, examines the underground culture of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Three decades after the world's most infamous nuclear disaster, wildlife has returned in the absence of human settlements. Meanwhile, illegal hiking adventurers known as 'stalkers', extreme sports aficionados, artists, and tour companies have begun to explore anew the ghostly, post- apocalyptic landscape. 

4) From Trash to Treasure: turning negatives into positives
Dir: Iara Lee; 20 min; English; USA/Lesotho/Bulgaria; 2020; Doc

In Lesotho—a highland country surrounded by South Africa—an artist named Nthabiseng TeReo Mohanela takes discarded materials and transforms them into unique clothing and accessories. Teaching young people the benefits of recycling and re-creation, she calls her project “From Trash to Treasure.” 

5) Stop Acid Attack
Dir: Farha Khatun; 1.33 min; No dialogue; 2019 ; Doc

The film depicts how a beautiful life can end with the heinous act of throwing acid on somebody.

6) Chal Ga Heera
Dir: Manasi, Prakriti, Prashant, Sreya, Tanushree; 13.10 min; Hindi and Marathi with Eng subtitles; 2019 ; Doc

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The film based in Mankhurd follows the journey of two women – Ajuma Bi Shaikh (Khala) and Ratna Mane along with the efforts by the women of the community. Patra Chawl, Transit Camp and Bheem Nagar are settlements based in Mumbai’s M-Ward, and are always at the risk of demolition. The women of the community have brought their own issues to the fore, and make attempts to address these through a union or sangathan that has been formed by their collective efforts.

7) Tabdeeli
Dir: Anmol Saini, Anna Binu, Rishika Revo, Sankarsan Behera, Vyshakh Balachandran; 24 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019 ; Doc

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Tabdeeli, which means transformation, showcases the journey of two women community leaders working towards eradicating the social evil of domestic violence against women and girls. Working with CORO (Committee for Resource Organisation), Kausar Parveen and Sadiqa Shaikh have been engaged with the predominantly Muslim community residing in Kamla Raman Nagar of Baiganwadi area in Mumbai. Through their tireless approach of rescue, counselling and rehabilitation for survivors and their families; they have not just helped women within the community but also themselves.

8) Zindabad
Dir: Kavya, Srishti, Lavanya, Apoorva, Ajay; 14.21 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019 ; Doc

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Zindabad traces the Jeevan Bachao Andolan through the eyes of Anita Dhole, a former resident of Vidyavhar and one of the leading figures in the movement. After their houses were demolished by the BMC, Anita along with other residents was rehabilitated to Mahul. Located in close proximity to a large complex of chemical factories, residents of Mahul have been facing serious health concerns resulting in over 88 deaths in the past 5 years. Protesting against the violation of their basic rights Anita has been living on the footpath opposite the original site of demolition for over 365 days.

9) An Inconvenient Development
Dir: Ajay, Anagha, Kavya, Prakriti, Sreya; 17.01 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2020 ; Doc

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The land that Aarey forest stands on has been contested for a long time through various forms of reclamation, occupation and land use change.The most recent dialogue surrounding Aarey is one of urban protest – following the axing of more than 2000 trees by the MMRCL for the construction of a Metro car shed at Aarey. The film explores ideas surrounding the invisibilisation of the lives of indigenous people, and the unchecked dominance of urbanity and urban development.

10) Love in Bombay
Dir: Anmol Saini, Isha Srivastava, Priya Singh, Priyanshu Pandey, Rishika Revo, Vishruti Saraf; 23 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2020 ; Doc

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Love in Bombay, as the title says, explores the existence of romantic love in the metropolitan city of Mumbai. This city of dreams, as it is famously called, is known for its larger-than-life depiction of romance in Bollywood and for its high-rise buildings that define the city as a progressive metropolitan. But in this beautiful city that never sleeps, one that has space for all, does love stand a chance to exist? Are the people of aamchi Mumbai free to love and express their love romantically?

11 Ivanova igra
Dir: Tomislav Zaja; 52 min; Croatian with Eng subtitles; Croatia; 2020 ; Doc

IVAN’S GAME is a biographical documentary which covers the life story of one of the greatest Croatian football players of all time: Ivan Gudelj. The film follows Ivan’s meteoric rise and the tragic end of his career at the height of his fame when he got ill from hepatitis B virus that nearly killed him. It is a story of an exceptional man who lost everything because of the illness, but eventually won his life’s game.

12) Sikhirini Mwsanai (Dance of the Butterfly)
Dir. Subasri Krishnan; 65 min; Bodo, Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; India; 2019 ; Doc

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. Using traditional musical instruments like the Kham, Serja and Sifung, the group attempts to foreground Bodo identity through disappearing cultural forms. 

13) Bamboo Ballads
Dir: Sajid Naduthody; 29.49 min; Malayalam with Eng subtitles; 2020 ; Doc

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It is the story of a school student Naina Febin who uses music to conserve her favorite plant, Bamboo. She plants bamboo saplings in every available space. She distributes bamboo saplings to the families in her neighborhood. Naina is writing a book on bamboo. She has formed a bamboo music band that uses instruments only made out of bamboo.

14) Far from the Madding Crowd
Dir: Abeer Khan; 17.31 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles ; Doc

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It revolves around a mad-man and his life in Mumbai rains. The title is based on Thomas Hardy's novel - Far from the Madding Crowd. It's an illustration depicting that sanity is subjective. It is about people who are mad enough to live by themselves in this congested world.

15) Miangsho (The Meat)
Dir : Tathagata Ghosh; 19 min; Bengali with Eng subtitles; India; 2020; Short film

Rizwan, a migrant worker has walked back all the way to his hometown from Delhi due to the nationwide lockdown as the corona virus hit India. Out of job and belonging from the religious minority, he feels cornered. His wife Fatima works as a domestic help to bring food to the plate. Due to strict measures from the police, Rizwan hides his religious identity and takes shelter for the day at Sahadev’s place, an upcoming Islamophobic politician. But things soon take a dark turn.


16) Kadachit
Dir : Suraj Shelar; 16.43 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; India; 2019 ; Short film 

The film features young married couple from the middle working class and their formal city life in which their love is slowly waning. Sudden circumstances bring two echoed life to certain symphony.


17) Jack and Chan
Dir : Alexey Petrashevich; 15 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020 ; Short film

The recently appointed Mayor of the provincial town makes casual preparations for impending inspection by an image committee, all the while enjoying his new state of life and the recently purchased new imported car with money intended for acquire an international celebrity. Right before the committee’s arrival, the Mayor is informed that a registered international celebrity in his town is a crucial requirement, which won’t be possible to ignore. 

18) Nap Time
Dir: Elina Smirnova; 11 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020 ; Short film

A young woman finds out that she is pregnant. Doctors recommend her to terminate the pregnancy because her mother has an inherited mental illness. The protagonist doesn’t know what to choose. 

19) The Last Illusion
Dir: Vladimir Feklneko; 15.57 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020 ; Short film

Russia. 1910 year. Once-famous magician Arseny Vilsky lost his popularity and bears t miserable existence of a wandering circus artist. Gathering the remaining strengths, he prepares to his last performance...

23) Performance
Dir : Nina Moiseeva,; 20 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020; Short film

An artist fakes suicide during a performance in order to learn what it’s like to be dead.

24) I want to go home
Dir: Tatyana Lyalina; 14.05 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020; Short film

He wanted to go home so badly that he just got up out of his grave and went. But it turns out that his home was now occupied. 

25) Tooth
Dir: Siman Lyashenko; 7.58 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020; Short film

A young father preparing for the public protest is distracted by his six-year-old son who has loose tooth. While the father is persuading his son to pull it out, the police come up to their front door. 

26) Talent
Dir: Oleg Ageychev; 9.57 min; Russian with Eng subtitles; Russia; 2020; Short film

 

A young actor decided to play grief for real...at the real funeral...

27) Alaska, Lost Face
Dir : Alexey Matveev; 19.59 min; Russian with Eng subtitle; Russia; 2020 ; Short film

Subyenkov, a fur miner, has risen through the ranks, starting as an idealist and ending up as a criminal thrown by fate into the lands of Alaska. And now he sits tied up in natives' captivity. And next to him, a "Big Ivan" is twisting with pain, a man he thought was a man without nerves. Subyenkov finds a way out for himself, telling the Indian leader about a miraculous remedy that will simply prevent him from dying. The experience of trading with the Indians helps him get the chief into his game. So what's he up to? 

28) When We Open the Gate of the Sky
Dir : Pavel Bykovchenk; 6.35 min; Kirghiz with Eng subtitles; Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan;2019; Short Film 

An inquisitive boy asks his grandfather about a man whose monument he diligently cares for. Who is this man?

29) Vaavtal (Whirlwind)
Dir: Suraj Uddhav Madhale; 15.29 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; 2019

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Akshay is a simple middle-class person who has recently started working as a driver at an industrialist. Akshay’s boss likes to display his luxury possessions and hence sends Akshay to the new client with his BMW car.Akshay finishes the work & on the way back decides to visit his grandma - who lives in a nearby village.

His mind gets nostalgic by the villageous environment And Grandma too is very happy to see him. While they are engaged in talking, a girl comes running and informs him about the scratch made by a kid on the car. Akshay can’t afford to repair it, but can’t lose the job also. Then starts his struggle to collect money for repairing. He tries his best and somehow manages to collect some amount. But scratch doesn’t get repaired.Within a day his life gets deformed.

‘Vavtaal’ is a story how the life of an ordinary worker can get into a tangle by a small problem.

30) VALAN (A TURN)
Dir : Kaushikkumar Kiranbhai Garasiya; 12.38 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; 2019

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This film is about how an incident turns a tempo driver’s life and he needs to take another turn to bring his life back on track.

Anil a hardworking tempo driver is satisfied with his life and lives happily with his supportive wife and 10 years old daughter. He goes to Pune city everyday for transport work, also teaches his daughter in a city english medium school. One day while traveling to Pune city for work, an incident occurs on a turn and it takes his life upside down.

The whole film revolves around the fear and guilt that Anil goes through.

31)The Woods are calling
Dir :Teenaa Kaur; IDPA

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Metha, along with other tribal hunters in a remote village of Khonoma in Nagaland, gives up hunting so as to save the forest and an endangered bird “Blyth’s Tragopan”. 

32) True Colours
Dir : Vijay S. Jodha

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True Colours is a film that shatters almost every stereotype about physical limits and disability. It features some of the world's most accomplished and inspiring performing artists, who happened to be differently abled. This includes Aliènette Coldfire (finalist France Has Got Talent), India’s classical dance troupe We Are One, Australian crooner Tony Dee – the voice of We're The Superhumans campaign for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra – the world's first disabled youth orchestra. This French-Japanese-Indian film project was filmed in Singapore with artists from two dozen countries. 

33) POOP ON POVERTY
Dir : Vijay S. Jodha

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Executive produced by Oscar™ Award winners Don Edkins and Nick Fraser, POOP ON POVERTY is India’s most widely screened and awarded documentary film. Broadcast on 70 stations and in over 200 film festivals worldwide, the film has received over 60 honours including 15 best film/best director awards in eleven countries. Set on the edge of the Thar Desert and in the middle of the world’s biggest camel fair, this film looks at the underbelly of one of world’s most popular tourist destinations. The film highlights a challenge faced by some two billion people on our planet every single day. It is also a tribute to human ingenuity and a sound environmental practice.

34) BASTION OF THE GIANTS
Dir: Sumesh Lekhi; 81 min; English; IDPA

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The film project Bastion of the Giants, entailed years of research by Brave Age’s research team, observing and filming Asian Elephant behaviour in India’s stunning wild jungles, especially at the World Heritage Site-Kaziranga National Park, which is set amidst one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and holding tremendous  faunal  and  floral  wealth.  The  park  was  established  in  1908,  primarily  to  protect  the  One-horned Indian Rhinoceros, whose numbers had come down to less than 100 a century back. Today with strict  protection  Indian  Rhinos  now  number  more  than  2500  at  Kaziranga  National  Park,  a  park  that occupies an area of 640 square kilometres and is in need of desperate expansion. 

The  film’s  director  Sumesh  Lekhi  along  with  his  crew  spent  days  and  nights  with  villagers  in  Indian villages flanking these Ancient Elephant jungles-understanding how their daily lives are affected and how they have to work along with the forest department and its guards to keep elephants away from their crops and homes. Many of the villages and crop plantations stand on original forest lands.

The  project  explores  the  lives  of  these  giants  and  their  family groups and being a keystone species-the large role they play in shaping their habitat. Even while bringing out  the  man-elephant  conflict,  Sumesh  Lekhi  wanted  to  present  the  magnificent  side  of  how  wildlife actually  is  if  left  alone  in  their  natural  environment  and  how  the  lives  of  different  species  are  inter connected. There still is hope for our wildlife and forests, but that will take great human leadership.

Sections :

1) Indian films
2) International films
3) Retro I - Suma Josson
4) Retro II - Sanjay Shah
5) Filmmaker in Focus - Sandhya Kumar
6) Films from Tamilnadu
7) Director's Cut
8) Student films

9) Films from IDPA