W
CELLULOID MAN
Celluoid ManWith Celluloid Man, India finally saw a
documentary on the life and work of the man who built its National Film Archive
reel by reel. The film was so insightful and evocative that it not only got P.K
Nair due recognition at home, but also won hearts at numerous festivals abroad.
Directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Celluloid Man was screened at
International film festival of India (IFFI), International film festival of
Kerala (IFFK), Mumbai, Telluride and Il Cinema Ritrovato film festivals. It has
been selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam and Goteborg film
festival 2013.
JAI BHIM COMRADE
JaiBhimComrade
Anand Patwardhan, known for making political documentaries,
followed the music and the tradition of activism of the Dalits in India over 14
years and came up with his latest Jai Bhim Comrade. The film won a Special
Mention at Dubai in 2011 and followed it up with an award at the 12th Mumbai
International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation films (MIFF).
Then it won the Firebird award at Hong Kong International Film Festival and a
Special Jury Prize in the National Film Awards this year.
GULABI GANG
Although it was preceded by British filmmaker Kim
Longinotto’s documentary Pink Saris; Nishtha Jain’s documentary on the famous
Sampat Pal and the fiery women of her Gulabi Gang–who take up the fight against
gender violence, caste oppression and widespread corruption in
Bundelkhand–evoked interest worldwide. It was supported by the Sundance
Documentary Film Program and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
(IDFA). The film received its international premiere at the IDFA in 2012 and
was recently named the Best Film in Muhr Asia Africa Documentary category at
Dubai film festival 2012.
THE WORLD BEFORE HER
The World Before Her by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja talks about two
mutually exclusive yet alike worlds of women in India; the biggest beauty
pageant vis-a-vis the women’s wing of Hindu fundamentalist movement in India.
The film won the World Documentary Competition at 11th Tribeca Film Festival
and Best Canadian Feature award at HotDocs 2012. It also screened at Zurich,
Abu Dhabi and International film festival of India (IFFI) in 2012.
CHAR…THE NO MAN’S ISLAND
About a fourteen year-old boy who smuggles rice from India
to Bangladesh, Char by Sourav Sarangi, held a massive appeal for the
international audience. It won a Special Mention in Muhr Asia Africa
Documentary category at Dubai film festival 2012. The film had won a grant from
the IDFA and was selected for Locarno Open Doors co-production lab in 2011. The
film screened at the International film festival of India (IFFI) and Busan film
festival in 2012.
BOM: ONE DAY AHEAD OF DEMOCRACY
bomAmlan Datta’s national award winning film Bom – aka One
Day Ahead of Democracy released under PVR Director’s Rare in November 2012. The
film chronicles the impact of modernization on a pre-Aryan community speaking a
near-extinct language ‘Kanashi’ living in a remote mountain village called
Malana in Himachal Pradesh. The film was supported by the Jan Vrijman fund of
IDFA and Sundance Documentary Film Program. It received a world premiere at
IDFA in 2011 and won a Special Mention award at Mumbai International Film
Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation films (MIFF) 2012.
THE RAT RACE
Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s The Rat Race was another
documentary to see the light of the day in 2012 through a limited release in
select cities. The captivating documentary delved into the lesser-known world
of the men hired by the municipal corporation of Mumbai to kill rats in the
night. The film received a world premiere at IDFA in 2011 and screened at MIFF
in 2012. It was named the Best Documentary at the 5th International Documentary
and Short Film Festival of Kerala and Florence Indian Film Festival in 2012.
FIRE IN THE BLOOD
An 84-minute multilingual documentary in English, Hindi,
Manipuri and Xhosa (spoken in South Africa) shot on four continents; Fire in
the Blood by Mumbai-based filmmaker Dylan Mohan Gray is currently hot on the
festival circuit. It was screened in Sheffield Doc Fest in the UK and has been
selected for Sundance film festival 2013. The film tells the story of how in
the late 1990s and early 2000s, western governments and pharmaceutical
companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS stricken
Africa–causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths–and the improbable group
of people who decided to fight back.
WHEN HARI GOT MARRIED
Directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, When Hari Got
Married is a light-hearted documentary about Hari, a small-town taxi driver in
the Himalayas, who is going to have an arranged marriage with a girl he has
never met. The film was screened at International Documentary Film Festival
Amsterdam (IDFA), International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and Dharamshala
International Film Festival.
SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON
Supermen of MalegaonThis heart-warming documentary on the
people making quirky Bollywood spoofs in Malegaon finally saw the light of the
day in June 2012. Released under PVR Director’s Rare, the film opened to
superlative reviews and became one of the relatively successful releases under
the banner. It had won the Audience Choice Award for Documentary at Indian Film
Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) and Best Documentary award at Bollywood and
Beyond, Stuttgart in 2009.
Source: dearcinema.com
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