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List of Films for
TFSA 2006
A Certain
Liberation (38 min)
Bangladesh, 2003, dir – Yasmine Kabir
Winner of the Second Best Film Award at FSA ‘05
Gurudasi Mondol resigned herself to madness in
1971 when, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh,
she witnessed the murder of her entire family
at the hands of the collaborators of the occupying
forces. Today Gurudasi continues to roam the streets
of Kopilmoni, a small town in rural Bangladesh,
in pursuit of all she has lost, taking liberties
only her madness and her strength of character
afford her. In her beloved home of Kipilmoni,
Gurudasi has now attained near legendary status
and, through her indomitable presence, she has
kept the spirit of the Liberation War alive.
The City
Beautiful (78 min)
Delhi/India, 2003, dir-Rahul Roy
Sunder Nagri is a small working class colony on
the margins of India’s capital city, Delhi.
Most families residing here come from a community
of weavers. The last ten years have seen a gradual
disintegration of the handloom tradition of this
community under the globalisation regime. The
families have to cope with change as well as reinvent
themselves to eke out a living. The City Beautiful
is the story of two such families struggling to
make sense of a world which keeps pushing them
to the margins.
City of
Photos (60 min)
India, 2005 dir – NisthaJain
Special Commendation at FSA ’05
The film explores the little known ethos of old
neighborhood photo studios in a variety of Indian
cities, discovering entire imaginary worlds in
the smallest of spaces. Tiny, shabby studios that
appear stuck in a time warp turn out to be throbbing
with energy. These afford fascinating glimpses
into individual fantasies and popular tastes.
Yet beneath the fun and games runs an undercurrent
of foreboding.
Continuous
Journey (87 min)
India/Canada, 2004, dir – Ali Kazmi
Winner of the Ram Bahadur Trophy for Best Film
at FSA ’05
In 1914 the Komagata Maru, a vessel carrying 376
immigrants from British India, became the first
ship transporting migrants to be turned away by
Canada. During the two-month detention in the
harbour, Canadian authorities drove the passengers
to the brink of thirst and starvation. The affair
exposed the British Empire’s myths of equality,
fair play and justice, and became a turning point
in the freedom struggle in India. Continuous Journey
is a multilayered film essay to unravel a complex
and little-known incident.
Dirty Laundry
(42 min)
South Africa, 2005, dir – Sanjeev Chaterjee
More than a hundred years after Gandhi left South
Africa to pursue a life of Indian nationalist
politics, South Africans of Indian origin continue
the quest to define themselves and who they are.
Dirty Laundry is a travel essay and historical
journey that offers a glimpse of this struggle
for self-definition and cultural identity in today’s
world, from the role of South African Indians
as revolutionaries in the anti-apartheid struggle
up to the activities of the present.
Final Solution
(149 min)
Gujarat/India, 2004, dir – Rakesh Sharma
Winner of Special Jury Award at FSA ’05
Set in Gujarat between early 2002 and July 2003,
the film graphically documents the changing face
of right-wing politics in western India through
an examination of the carnage wrought on Gujarat
in 2002. Final Solution is an anti-hate/violence
film created with the belief that that “those
who forget history are condemned to relive it”.
Girl Song
(29 min)
West Bengal/India, 2003, dir – Vasudha Joshi
The film enters the life of Anjum Katyal, blues
singer, poet and mother, capturing her voice as
she performs the blues in her home city of Kolkata,
as she reads her poems and journal entries aloud
to her daughter, and as she converses with her
mother of the cultural heritage she is so proud
to be a part of. Anjum also talks of confronting
the climate of hostility and distrust towards
minorities that is spreading throughout India.
Good News
(17 min)
Assam/India, 2005, dir – Altaf Mazid
A writer looks for a bit of good news in the days
of the Assam Movement (1985-1990), when the youth
had sunk to the lowest depths of degradation,
and civilized emotions seemed to be wiped completely
out of existence. Newspapers had chilling pages
of depressing stories and to read them was to
be overcome by an even greater feeling of horror
and helplessness. Finally, the writer discovers
a small piece of news item in a morning paper
that gives him hope.
The Great
Indian School Show (53 min)
Maharastra/India, 2005, dir – Avinash Deshpande
How ordinary is a school in which the management
has installed 185 closed circuit televisions to
monitor its students and every inch of the premises?
Imagine how different school life would be under
the constant gaze of surveillance, how easily
discipline could be misrepresented and misinterpreted,
how memories of schooldays would be filled with
television monitors, classroom cameras and crackling
sound boxes.
Lanka: The
Other Side of War and Peace (75 min)
Sri Lanka, 2005, dir – Iffat Fatima
In February 2002, after more than 20 years of
fighting, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
and the government of Sri Lanka signed a ceasefire
agreement. Soon after that the A9 highway that
links north and south Sri Lanka was opened to
civilian traffic after twelve years. Structured
like a travelogue, the film traverses the northern
and southern landscape of Sri Lanka. As it shifts
between north and south, it spans the history
of last three decades of violence in Sri Lanka.
The Legend
of Fat Mama (23 min)
West Bengal/India, 2005, dir – Rafeeq Ellias
This is a bittersweet story of the Chinese community
in Calcutta intertwined with the nostalgic journey
in search of a woman who once made the most delicious
noodles in the city’s Chinatown district.
Thriving street food, disappearing family-run
eateries, mahjong clubs, a Chinese printing press
that has shut down and its handwritten counterpart
that continues to deliver the news every morning,
and the first all-woman dragon dance group preparing
for the Chinese New Year make up the Chinese heritage
in Calcutta.
The Life
and Times of a Lady from Avadh: Hima
(135 min)
Pakistan, 2005, dir – Shireen Pasha
This documentary, on 90 year old Hima, explores
the extraordinary time in the history of the subcontinent
(Awadh after the decline of the Mughal Empire
in the 18th century). It traces history, Hima’s
life, and her relationship and letters with her
renowned talukdar writer father.
Sunset Bollywood
(54 min)
India, 2005, dir – Komal Tolani
A struggling actor in Bollywood dreams of his
big screen break. It arrives, and he skyrockets
to stardom. Becoming number one is easy after
all – staying there is the hard part. Overnight
success is sought by millions, but what happens
when the lights go out? Where are they now? And
why did they disappear in the first place? In
Bombay’s glamorous celluloid world, failure
is not an option. The film follows three actors
on their journey back, each one unable to accept
failure, craving the narcotic high of celebrity.
Team Nepal
(37 min)
Nepal, 2005, dir – Girish Giri
A passionate team of Nepali footballers, representing
a youth club from the Nepali border town of Birgunj,
travel to Sonpur, Bihar in India to play in a
tournament there. Team Nepal is the documentation
of their experiences in Bihar, travelling, meeting
and mixing with other footballers, living in a
foreign country, and playing the game they love.
Teardrops
of Karnaphuli (60 min)
Bangladesh, 2005, dir – Tanvir Mokammel
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is home to twelve
predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups who are collectively
known as the “Jumma” nation. The first
disruption of the peace in CHT took place from
1959-1962, when a dam was constructed on the Karnaphuli
river, submerging 54,000 acres of arable land
and making refugees of 100,000 people in the process.
These hill people suffered a second crisis in
1979 when the government brought plain land Bengalis
from various districts and settled them in CHT.
More Information
For more details about Traveling Film South Asia,
including travel schedule, please contact Travelling
Film South Asia, coordinator, Mallika Aryal at
tel + 977-1-5542544 or email tfsa@himalassociation.org
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