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]