Film-making, in Bangalore

Rakesh 'arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati at yahoo.com> of the Free Software networks says a three-day film making workshop titled 'Lecture Demonstration on Fundamentals of Film making' is starting tomorrow morning (Dec 28, 2005) at 9 am @ the Suchitra Film Society. He writes: "It has limited intake of 20 candidates and cost you Rs 1500. It involves the complete overview of film making and also has outdoor shot."

Rakesh says Victor Basu whom he met at the Gothe-Institut (Max Mueller Bhavan) told him that there are couple of seats available if you can reach the venue in the morning. Contact victorbasu at yahoo.com

Tricontinental comes to India again... Jan 2006

Ajay Bhardwaj sent in a detailed note about the Tri Continental Festival 2006. For more details, you could get in touch with Monica Mody/Alika Khosla. Some background:

Moving images speak to us as nothing else does. Films can enthrall and educate: the TRI Continental Film Festival demonstrates this. Successfully bringing to India the finest human rights cinema from the global south, for a second time, the festival has been organized by Breakthrough, a human rights organization that uses media, education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice.

Some more details:

Popular Sufi rock singer Rabbi Shergill opens the three-day festival in Delhi on January 21, after which the festival travels to Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata in the two weeks following. The 16 documentaries selected this year have won accolades all over the world. A jury of five – Amar Kanwar, Arjun Chandramohan Bali, Ira Bhaskar, Rituparno Ghosh and Shohini Ghosh -- will award one of these with the Jury Prize. Additionally, the non-competitive section showcases four outstanding features.

Dates and details: City/ Dates/ Venue New Delhi/ Jan 21 to 23/ India Habitat Centre New Delhi/ Jan 22 to 23/ Alliance Francaise Mumbai/ Jan 25 to 27/ NCPA Little Theatre Bangalore/ Jan 29 to 31/ Alliance Francaise Chennai/ Feb 1 to 2/ Film Chamber Theatre Kolkata/ Feb 3 to 5/ Nandan More details at this Breakthrough.tv site. Also, details of Ajay Bhardwaj's post archived here on the Docuwallahs2 mailing list.

Films selected, films rejected...

Vikalp list [1] is currently, as of December 26, 2005, discussing the films selected and those rejected by the MIFF, or Mumbai International Films Festival. This time's festival will be from Feb 3-9, 2006 at Mumbai.

One note from Vikalp comments: "Anjali and JayS, Shocking to hear about the exclusion of your film, especially coming on top of the Best film award at the 3 Continents filmfest... I remain as convinced as ever that we must have Vikalp screenings during MIFF 2006!"

See issues of censorship that came up here. [2] MIFF's site is here [3] Email contacts for MIFF are also available [4]

An official quote: "Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India has been biennially organizing Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, successfully since 1990." More on the festival here [5]

Take a look at the counterpoint emerging from FilmsForFreedom. [6]

[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vikalp/ [2] http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2116/stories/20040813002309000.htm [3] http://www.miffindia.org/ [4] miff2006@gmail.com, miff@mtnl.net.in, miff@vsnl.net, coordinatormiff@filmsdivision.org [5] http://www.narthaki.com/info/reviews/prev229.html [6] http://www.freedomfilmsindia.org/default.asp

VIBGYOR, colours of the rainbow, in Kerala

Benny Benedict informs that the Chetana Media Institute is organizing the VIBGYOR Film Festival at Trichur, Kerala, from February 23-26, 2006, with a competition in the documentary and short fiction cateogires at the national level. The best documentary as well fiction will be awarded Rs. 25,000 each and a citation. Last date for registering films is January 5, 2006. Check here for the entry form in .doc format. And you'll get the PDF entry form here. And a quote: both fiction as well as documentaries sent for competition should be of less than an hour duration and produced between December 1, 2003 and November 30, 2005. for Fiction, there is no theme specification. Documentaries should be based on the theme women frames, i. e any documentary on women's issues, reality, identity, politics etc. The competition section is open only to filmmakers (both men and women) from India. Apart from the competition section, the organisers have a non-competitive section based on the theme identities and diversities. In addition, they have a "Focus of the Year 2006" section showcasing films on water. Writes Benny:

If you have a suitable film to enroll either in the competitive, non-competitive or focus of the year category, kindly send us a CD/DVD/VHS copy at the earliest, along with a synopsis.

Contact: 0091-487-2330830/2323590/9447000830 Or log on to www.vibgyorfilmfest.com. E-mail: info@vibgyorfilmfest.com Another quote: Chetana Media Institute, Trichur stands to create free and fearless expressions of the human spirit in life and art. Through media instruction, production and interaction, we facilitate effective intervention in favor of justice, peace and harmony. We have been involved in media training, production and dissemination by organizing Film Festivals and other media events at the regional and national level involving other organizations and groups. In the previous years we had conducted the Small Films in a Smaller World Festival and the Gargi Women Film Festival.

Where the twain shall meet by Arshia Sattar 'Kitte Mil Ve Mahi (Where the Twain Shall Meet' Punjabi

Where the twain shall meet

By Arshia Sattar

Kitte Mil Ve Mahi (Where the Twain Shall Meet) Punjabi with English subtitles, 72 mins, 2004 Directed and Produced by Ajay Bhardwaj Presented by India Foundation for the Arts

This is a film about the dalits of Punjab and their embrace of Sufi traditions Ajay Bhardwaj's new film brings into sharp focus and to public attention the little-known dalits of the Punjab and their embrace of Sufi traditions. He speaks with poets and musicians, mystics and revolutionaries, as he seeks to excavate this vibrant, living syncretism -- an attitude and a way of life that seems all but forgotten in a nation that has been torn from its secular moorings. The film also provides a provocative counterpoint to the globalised punjabiyat that is disseminated through Bollywood and the entertainment industry in general.

Since the explosion of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's enormous talent onto the world stage in the 1980s, Sufi music has taken hold of the public imagination in more ways than one. It has even become one of the cultural building blocks of the rapprochement between India and Pakistan. Bhardwaj goes behind the big stars and the high-profile concerts to unknown villages where the syncretistic devotional traditions of Sufi and Bhakti mingle, where divinity, shrines and saints are shared across lines of religion and caste.

Bhardwaj meets Gadri Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, the last of the radical Gadar movement. The venerable old man, still engaged in local and national politics and proudly displaying a portrait of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, speaks about socialist heroes being co-opted by the Hindu Right. He believes that dalits will occupy their rightful place on the national stage, as a progressive consciousness is now visible among their youth. The poetry of Lal Singh Dil, a dalit convert to Islam, raises the same hopes, though his conversations about the systematic disenfranchisement of his people (whom he refers to as the local adivasis ), by a caste elite, is imbued with a sense of betrayal and injustice. This is another important aspect of the film -- that it provides a space for the subaltern histories of politics and religion in the region.

The film also takes us to the Paslewala qawwals, dalits, who, along with their caste brethren, have become the keepers of Sufi shrines and music in that part of the world. Bhardwaj's film points out that the mystical traditions of the subcontinent did not exclude women: they are poets and saints in their own right, either through birth and inheritance or by being appointed successors by their masters. Their shrines are equally dear to devotees who come to them for the comfort and solace they offer.

More than anything else, Where the Twain Shall Meet reminds the viewer that the Bhakti and Sufi movements were more than just religious reformations: they were social revolutions that asked questions, overturned hierarchies of gender and caste and preached a doctrine of equality. Some bhaktas were overtly political (like Basavanna in Karnataka), but all of them believed that the status quo had to be challenged and changed.

Bhardwaj gently seeks to establish parallels between the religious reformer and the social revolutionary in his film and succeeds in making the viewer think about this connection. In doing so, the film recalls Amar Kanwar's recent A Night of Prophecy (also reviewed here) and Anand Patwardhan's In Memory of Friends .

It remains the task of the documentary film to open our eyes, not simply to the struggles around us that are hidden from view, but also to those parts of our common heritage that are being suppressed and deliberately denied. Ajay Bhardwaj's film is a firm step in this direction.

For more information, contact: ajayunmukt@yahoo.com

InfoChange News and Features, June 2005

INFOCHANGEINDIA-REVIEW: Development flows from the barrel of a gun

The review below appeared on Infochangeindia.org .......................................................................

DEVELOPMENT FLOWS FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN

Directed by Biju Toppo and Meghnath Hindi with English subtitles, 58 mins

View Video Clip 998kb Download time 3 mins in 128kbps connectivity

This film presents and examines orchestrated state violence against indigenous and local peoples when they protest against development projects on their lands This film’s wonderfully evocative title sets the tone and the stage for the material that it covers. Quite simply, the film presents and examines orchestrated state violence against indigenous and local peoples when they rally and protest against development projects on their lands. Rather than focusing on a single instance, the filmmakers strengthen their thesis by recording examples from all over the country: Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. In each case, using the local police force, the state has brutalised and killed protestors, often on trumped up charges of violence.

What makes the state’s reaction even more reprehensible is the fact that these protests are legitimate by virtue of the fact that the disputed projects are all located on lands that are ‘scheduled’, ie protected by the Constitution for indigenous peoples. Whether it be the aluminum corporation in Kashipur, Orissa, or the big dam of Koel Karo in Jharkhand, or the World Bank-funded forestry project in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, or the steel plant in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, or the new port in Umbergaon, Gujarat, the development projects in question have been located on lands collectively owned and inhabited by tribal peoples. At the first hint of organised protest, the police are sent in. They loot and ransack homes, steal food and livestock, beat up women, arrest men and use their lathis, guns and bullets freely, arguing always that they were attacked first.

Of all the cases the film records, the most well-known is the murder of Col Pratap Save who spearheaded the movement against the new port at Umbergaon. The reason this incident got national attention was precisely the fact that the police had used their state-sanctioned might against a former army officer, a man who had served the nation. Thousands of other atrocities go unrecorded outside local papers because the individuals killed are disenfranchised (and therefore, invisible and unimportant) tribal peoples.

This film is a documentary in the traditional sense as it records these events as objectively as possible. In a sense, there is no need to editorialise, since the ugly facts speak for themselves and the government is severely indicted by the evidence presented. The local officials interviewed sound so unconvincing that it is truly embarrassing.

The last sequence in the film focuses on a mini-hydel project in Putsil, Orissa, where no one has been displaced and the object of providing electricity has been achieved. Needless to say, this project was conceived, developed and executed locally. Fifty years later, we are still struggling to understand that big dams (and big development funded by international capital) are not the temples of modern India, lest they be temples dedicated to the goddess of destruction.

For more information, contact: AKHRA Shastri Nagar, Kanke Road Ranchi 834 008 Jharkhand

akhra@rediffmail.com

Second annual UN Documentary Film Festival

http://www.mediarights.org/news/2005/12/22/call_for_submissions_secong_annual_un_documentary_film_festival

There's a call for submissions for the Secong Annual UN Documentary Film Festival. It will take place on April 22-23, 2006 and will feature film screenings, panel discussions with the filmmakers, and award presentations. The films and their screening times will be listed on the above site on February 21, 2006.

Filmmakers from or contracted by United Nations offices, funds, programmes, and agencies around the world have been invited to submit entries for consideration. For the first time, the competition is also open to filmmakers from the general public, who may compete for Best Public Film (60 minutes and under) and the Audience Choice Award for Best Film.

Selected entries will be screened in the Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 West 12 Street, New York, NY 10011, and announced to the media. The filmmakers of the selected entries will be invited to attend or send a representative to the Festival. Details at: http://www.mcainy.org/common/news/info_detail.cfm?QID=2444&clientID=11040

Process for this festival starts on December 22, and goes on till Jan 20. Issues to be covered are: Criminal Justice, Economic Justice, Gender/Women, Health/Health Advocacy, Human Rights, Media.

Homepage: www.mcainy.org Contact: llopez@tellmedia.com

Formal distribution of independent documentary to schools, etc

Vipul Kulkarni vipulkulkarni.metaphor at gmail.com read of this blog via the CAC-Delhi network and introduced us to Metaphor Media -- www.metaphormedia.org This is "into formal distribution of independent documentaries to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs and research organisations". Vipul says they have a collecton of about 80 films as of now "and are adding to it on a continuous basis".

Films on education! Fascinating....

Manish Jain -- shikshantar at yahoo.com -- recently informed that Shikshantar is putting together a two-day film festival called "Re-membering Nai Taleem – Real Learning for the 21st Century". As the title indicates, the festival will feature films which inspire new directions for "deepening our imagination about learning societies". The festival will be screened at B.Ed colleges, NGOs, teacher training programmes, educational institutes, etc. around India and Pakistan. Organisers are looking for films which explore natural learning, deschooling, community learning, self-directed learning, alternative education, democratic education, creativity, local knowledge systems, human cognition, consciousness, unlearning, uplearning.... Jain writes: "

We would greatly appreciate it if you could share any films that you have made or suggest some appropriate films that you have come across. If you are interested in participating in or hosting the film festival in your community, please let us know by January 15, 2006.

" Contact details: Manish, Shikshantar: The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, 21 Fatehpura, Udaipur, Rajasthan, INDIA Tel:91-294-245-1303 Fax:91-294-245-1949 www.swaraj.org/shikshantar Films on education! Fascinating...

Films on people's movements

Soumitra Dastidar <soumitra_dastidar at rediffmail.com> is a documentary film-maker from Kolkata (the city formerly known as Calcutta) and has been making films on people's movements since 1999. Soumitra's documentaries include GENOCIDE AND AFTER and OUR DAYS WITH MAOIST GUERILLAS.

Godhra Tak... a hard-hitting film

Shubhradeep Chakravorty, a New Delhi-based documentary filmmaker, recently sent in his self-intro to the Docuwallahs2 [1] mailing list: An independent film-maker, he has been behind 'Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail'. Says Shubhradeep, It is an investigative documentation of the Godhra train-burning incident and the only of its kind. Basically, I am a journalist, but now full-time into documentary film-making. I am looking to make friends in (what for me is a) new profession". Contacts: Shubhradeep Chakravorty, New Stream Media, 161, Kamal Vihar Apartments, Plot number 5, Sector 7, Dwarika, New Delhi 110075, India. Tel-91-11-20530323, 91-11-25086613 shubhradeep at rediffmail.com, or godhratak at yahoo.com

[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/docuwallahs2

Jeevika 2006, in Delhi in January

Something that might be of interest. It came up on the Docuwallahs list:

The Centre for Civil Society (K-36 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110016 / Website: www.ccsindia.org) is organizing Jeevika 2005, the annual South Asian Livelihood Documentary Festival from 20-28 January 2006, in New Delhi. This competitive festival is the first of its kind in South Asia.

Jeevika is a search of documentaries that focus on legal and regulatory restrictions, bureaucratic processes as well as social and cultural norms and religious practices that prevent or constrain people from earning an honest living in the vocation of their choice.

The response to request for entries for Jeevika 2005 has been overwhelming. As against 60 entries last year, this year saw over 85 entries from students and professional film makers from various countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Serbia. 34 of these entries are student productions.

The Screening Committee short-listed 11 films in student and 10 in general category. The Jury selected the top three winners and the Best Student Film of these 21 films.

First Prize: One Show Less by Nayantara. C. Kotian (Student Film, Institute: NID-Ahmedabad) Second Prize: Fight for Survival by Dakxin Nandlal Bajarange, (Ahmedabad) Third Prize: Treacling Down by Upali Gamlath (Sri Lanka) Best Student Film: Aamchi Kasauti by Rrivu Laha (FTII, Pune) Special Jury Mention: Pretty Dyana by Boris Mitic (Serbia)

SCREENING COMMITTEE - Mohit Satyanand (Entreprenuer and film curator) Raza Haider (Filmmaker and working with SIKSHA) Pawan Preet Kaur, (Alumni, Madhubala Institute, Delhi) Anugyan Nag (MA Cinema student, Asian Academy of Film & Television Jury) Utsav Mukhopadhay (Alumni, Jadavpur University, Kolkata)

JURY - LS Tochhawng (India International Centre, Delhi) Gargi Sen (Magic Lantern Foundation, Delhi) Joy Singhal (Aga Khan Foundation, Delhi) Sutapa Deb (NDTV, Delhi) Biplab Golam (Director, International Film Festival, Dhaka)

Films, censorship and documentary...

Vijaya Mulay <vijaya.mulay at gmail.com> shared this letter on the issue of films and censorship, taken up by the Indian Documentary Producers Association. Vijaya writes to say that she has been president of IDPA.

Vijaya writes: "It ad some effect and the censorship for MIFF has been curtailed. Recently I met the Joint Secretary concerned again and asked him that if the Governement has agreed to what IDPA has suggested why has a notification to that effect been issued? He told me that after the new minister has seen the file it would be issued...."

14 September 2005 Dear Filmmaker,

Given the success of "Expressions in Freedom" 2005, the IAWRT in partnership with IIC Asia Project will hold the next festival of films by Asian women film makers in March 2006. Titled " Women, Media and Society: Transformations" it will be a two day event, to mark the International Women's Day (March 8th to 9th 2006).

The aim of the festival is to open up a cultural space for debates on creative processes enriched by women's quest for documenting their experiences.

Recognizing the critical need for forums that sustain the form of documentary as well as women's contribution to this unique form, the festival will show the best of documentaries created by women, covering a whole range of genres and expressive styles. It will present films that explore the experiences of women through transformations, be they political, social, cultural, environmental, educational or economic in nature in today's globalised world. How are women film makers negotiating, exploring, resisting or documenting these transformations? How are they creating a new language of debate on these issues? How are women widening the frame for issues concerning women? These can be some of the central questions in the festival coupled with panel discussions and/or a seminar.

IIC Asia-project and IAWRT will also use this forum to curate a special session dedicated to Short Films across genres of animation, fiction and documentary film, an area in which women have started staking a claim.

We are also exploring the possibility of travelling the show in major cities in India and Asia.

The IAWRT is a non–profit professional organization of women working in electronic and allied media. The IAWRT is a non-government organization (NGO), in consultative status with United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). IAWRT collaborates with media organizations and organizes conferences, projects and activities.

We take this opportunity to invite you to send your film by 10th Dec. 2005. The forms for the festival are attached. For more information contact: Deepti : email: cfarasam at ndf.vsnl.net.in Copy to: fict at fict.com (Kind Attn. Ms. Jai Chandiram)

Warm regards, Jai Chandiram President IAWRT jaichandiram@yahoo.co.in 9811277004

President: Jai Chandiram, India. Secretary Gunilla Ivarsson Sweden, Treasurer: Oona Solberg, Norway.

In Bhubaneswar, a film archive...

AMAR KANWAR in New Delhi reminds us about the formation of a Bhubaneswar film archive. Amar writes:

You will be happy to know that the Bhubaneswar Film Archive (otherwise known as Lok Chitra Kendra) has been launched since April 2005. This could be made possible because of the support we received for the purpose from Zindabad Trust, the initiative for which came from the Delhi Film Archive. The Lok Chitra Kendra (Bhubaneswar Film Archive) is managed by voluntary contributions by members and has been created to work as a documentation and information dissemination center to highlight issues affecting the life, livelihood, art and culture of ordinary people. Screening films and organizing mobile screening programmes are among the activities the Archive would undertake. Lok Chitra Kendra may take up any other activity if it is urgent and essential from people's point of view. We have a small library of films but urgently need more films. We appeal to film makers to contribute their films and other information /documents related to films. ANNOUNCING 2nd LOK CHITRA UTSAV/PEOPLES FILM FESTIVAL Jan 20 - 21 - 22 , 2006 In 2004 we had organized the 1 st Lok Chitra Utsav/People's Film Festival in Bhubaneshwar . Now we would like to announce that the 2nd Lok Chitra Utsav/People's Film Festival will take place on the 20th 21st and 22nd of January 2006 at the Regional Science Center Auditorium, Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa . Detail of the programme will be sent soon. Contact address for contributions/ information HIG-54 (GF) Phase-7, Sailashree Vihar Bhubaneswar-751021 Contact persons: Sudhir Pattnaik ( 9437019395) R.K. Sarangi ( 9337112265) EMAIL: ind_media at rediffmail.com and lokchitrautsav at rediffmail.com

Amar can be contacted via email amarvg at vsnl.com or amarkanwar at gmail.com

Dress codes... audio documentary

Pukar (see contact details below) described this audio documentary recently. Sounds fascinating...

Then They Came For My Jeans…

The audio documentary raises questions about the dress codes being imposed on college students in various universities. The documentary is located in the broader context of the PUKAR Gender & Space project which seeks to explore the ways by which women experience public spaces, accessing them against all odds, transforming the nature of urban life in the process.

A 12 minute audio documentary Produced by: Studio PUKAR Executive Producers: Sameera Khan & Shilpa Phadke Sound Recordist & Editor: Anita Kushwaha Creative Consultant: Shilpa Gupta Documentation: Shriti K Cover Design: Shilpa Ranade Thanks to BMM Dept., SIES College for Recording Assistance Funded by: Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternative Development

Date: Tuesday, 20 December 2005 Time: 6.30 pm Venue: PUKAR Office Address: 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Opposite Strand Book Stall, Sir. P M Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001. Tel: 5574-8152

Link from Canada...: water and film

Kolkata-based Jesuit Gaston Roberge gaston.roberge at gmail.com sent me this note, with a cc to Brian McDonough bmcdonough at diocesemontreal.org:

Something else. My friend Brian McDonough of Montreal, deep in the snow, has sent me the information about the First International "Water and Film" event. You probably know about it. Still I am giving you the URL in the English version. Although it may be too late to participate, it's high time we knew about it. And I like Jean Renoir's remark, that the first Lumière film was about water: "l'arroseur arrosé" the watering man watered. Gaston URL: http://www.i-s-w.org/en/PDFaout05/cinema_an.oct_05.pdf

Vatavaran 2005: award winners

This list came in a bit late... and my travel (to Bangalore) delayed it further. Dipti Kulkarni of the Vatavaran Film Festival Directorate at the Centre for Media Studies in New Delhi writes: "Following is a list of the Vatavaran 2005 Award Winners. Centre for Media Studies and the Vatavaran Film Festival Directorate would like to thank all its supporters for their encouragement and support. Spread over four days the festival, besides film screenings also held several seminars and workshops. A new addition was the film bazaar and the concept really picked up, so filmmakers could definitely consider this channel for the distribution of their films. An environment film festival exclusivesly for children is also planned for early next year. Vatavaran plans to take the festival to many cities in 2006, so if you are interested in hosting the festival in your locality do get in touch with us."

---

Vatavaran 2005: Award Winners Award, Category, Film, Director, Producer

---

Best of the Festival, Wildlife Natural History: Indian Leopards - The Killing Fields, Praveen Singh, Praveen Singh Best Film,2005 Festival Theme: Forest for Life, Invocations to the Mountain Goddess, Christopher Rego, Christopher Rego Star Award Best Film, 2005 Festival Theme: Forest for Life, Vikas Bandook Ki Naal Se,Biju Toppo/Meghnath, Meghnath (Akhra) Special Mention of the Jury, 2005 Festival Theme: Forest for Life, Leopards of Bollywood, Animitra Chakravarti, Niret Alva and Nikhil J Alva Best Film, Wildlife Conservation, The Last Flight, Nutan Manmohan, Nutan Manmohan Best Film, Wildlife Conservation, The Policing Langur, Ajay and Vijay Bedi, PSBT Best Film, Environment, River Taming Mantras, Sanjay Barnela and Vasant Saberwal, Moving Images Chief Ministers Award for Best Film, Environment, A Second Hand Life, Nutan Manmohan, PSBT Best PSM, Public Service Message Spot, Do Your Bit, Anand Thakur, Ogilvy & Mathur Advertising Ltd. Special Mention of the Jury, Public Service Message Spot, Shadows, Vishal Furia, Kartikeya Talreja (Digital Academy) Best Animation, Animation, Irony, R Sathya Narayanan, Ramanujam Foundation Special Mention of the Jury, Animation, Cute Bunny, Dhimant Vyas, P Jayakumar Special Mention of the Jury, Animation, CNG, Debanjan Nandy, Debanjan Nandy Special Mention of the Jury, Animation, Why Not? Anitha Balachandran, Environmental Protection Special Mention of the Jury, Animation, A Hunter's Tale, Abhishek Singh, NID Best Film, Student Film, Fistful of Steel, Leena, Nidhi, Sabir, A J K, MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia Special Mention of the Jury, Student Film, Once Upon A Time, Pawanpreet Kaur, Madhubala Institute of Communication and Media Special Mention of the Jury, Student Film, Punarjanikkal, Ambika, C-DIT

Free software... and film

V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf at gmail.com> informs the FSF-Friends (Free Software Foundation India list) that the International Film Festival of Kerala is scheduled from December 9 to 16, 2005.

Says Sasi: "Films will be screened at various venues at Thiruvananthapuram. The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy has agreed to provide space for displaying Free Software, with emphasis on those related to the visual media, and some posters. We are planning to do this in co-operation with SPACE [Society for Promoting of Alternatives in Computing and Education]. We also plan to distribute handouts on FSF and SPACE, and also some literature related to Freedom/Free Software. We are getting some CDs ready that could be sold at a nominal price."

Sasi points out that it "would be nice" if someone with some working knowledge of some of the applications like Blender, Cinelerra, Ktoon, etc. comes forward. Free Software already has some great tools out there.

SNAPSHOT-INDIA: The Story of Virgin Iron (Bappa Ray, 29 minutes)

SNAPSHOT: The Story of Virgin Iron English/29 minutes/video/colour IFFI 2005 ---

It was an ancestor of the Agaria, who with a single stroke of his hammer, discovered the metal iron and ushered in the Iron Age. A documentary film on traditional knowledge of the Agaria in the process of making iron, right from the time they choose the rocks from which to extract the ore from the surrounding hills, up to the time the molten slag is poured out. The film covers the entire cycle of discovery of iron and the process of obtaining it ...in an absorbing manner.

Producer: Bappa Ray Director: Bappa Ray Camera: Pabitra Pariha Editor: Shaheed Ahmed

Bappa Ray has directed to series of documentary films earlier, the 'Monsoon Yatra', which chases the Indian monsoon and looks at its impact on agriculture, and 'Mirror for Man', which focuses on the livelihood patterns of tribal communities.

He is also an ethnographic film-maker, who has worked among several Indian tribal communities over the past 25 years. He has also directed two feature films -- including Ek thi Goonja.

Some of his prominent films are 'Morung -- Silent Witness of the Brave Wancho', 'Pashmina Royale', 'Ladakh -- Life along the Indus', and 'Wangala -- A Garo Festival'. He is currently working on Legend of the Lepchas: Their Homeland the Mighty Kanchenjunga and Mun-Women priestess of the Lepchas. [Source IFFI 2005, Indian Panorama]

Film festival, VIBGYOR in Kerala

Benedict Varghese Chiramel <bennyb0107@gmail.com> has written in from Trichur, Kerala, saying their Chetana Media Institute, is organizing the VIBGYOR Short & Documentary Film Festival at Trichur from February 23-26, 2006. He writes: "We have included a competition section also."

More details at www.vibgyorfilmfest.com

The Festival sections include competition, non-competitive, retrospective and focus of the year. The competition is open to short fiction and documentaries produced in India, between December 1, 2003 and November 30, 2005. The theme for documentaries is 'Women Frames' (time limit 1 hr.). There is no specific theme for fiction (time limit 1hr). Entry fee for Competition section for both documentaries and shorts is Rs. 500 per film. The winning entries shall be awarded cash prizes and a citation.

For details, contact: VIBGYOR Film Festival Office Chetana Media Institute Kalliath Sq., Palace Road Trichur 680 020, Kerala, INDIA Tel: 91+ 487-2330830/2323590 www.vibgyorfilmfest.com info at vibgyorfilmfest.com

Thanks to Anivar for forwarding this link.