| CINEMA
OF REALITY |
 The
label Cinema Verite or Cinema of Reality sums up
the type of film a documentary is. Or as John Grierson
who first turned the documentary into a popular artistic
form, liked to describe it - 'The creative treatment
of actuality.' The cinema of reality had its beginning
in 1922 when Robert Flaherty, an Englishman took
his camera to the Arctic regions to film the lives of
Eskimos. The result was Nanook of the North,
a film that pioneered the documentary tradition.
Since then documentary film making has evolved into a
creative medium featuring the real issues and the real
people.
Travelling Film South Asia, a festival of South
Asian documentary films held in the City, presented
the issues revolving around people with brilliance. 15
outstanding documentary films had been screened at the
event that were made by independent film makers from India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Trinidad and Tobago.
They were originally a part of the South Asian Film Festival
held at Kathmandu in 1999. Since then, these films
have travelled to different parts of South Asia and the
rest of the world as well, popularising South Asian documentary.
Thin Air, Buddha Weeps in Jaduguda, Listening to Shadows,
Three Women and a Camera and No one Believes the
Professor were some of the prominent documentaries
that were featured in the three-day festival.
 Buddha
Weeps in Jaduguda, directed by an experienced activist
and self-taught film producer Shriprakash, has
already made its entry in several film festivals and has
won The Best Film award in Earth Vision
Film Festival in Tokyo, and third prize in
the Film South Asia 99 festival in Kathmandu.
Jaduguda is a tribal hamlet and India's only uranium mine.
The film brilliantly documents the traditional way of
living of Adivasis and just how badly the Jaduguda
mine has damaged their health and communities with unsafe
mining of uranium which resulted in excessive radiation
leading to genetic mutations and slow deaths in the region.
The film has been most popular in the district immediately
around the mine, where the Hindi language version is being
screened in the nights to the people most affected. The
video version is also raising awareness about uranium
mining throughout India. Explaining about the film Shriprakash
says, "In 1997, thirty houses were demolished
by bulldozers. We went to shoot this and found a totally
new story. We have been going back to this area for three
years. We took films from all over the world and showed
them to the people there. Then they realised that there
are other people in the world who are also facing hazards
caused by nuclear radiation like cancer, TB and other
health problems. We made a script in Hindi and Santhali.
Shriprakash never studied communication or film in
any university or college. But he learnt through his experience.
In his films you will not find film aesthetics, art or
grammar, but you will definitely find people and their
lives.
 Documenting
the chronicles in the lives of three magicians against
the backdrop of contemporary Mumbai is the film
Thin Air, which is directed by Ashim Ahluwalia.
The film juxtaposes comedy and tragedy in an attempt to
portray the passionate desperation of ordinary people
to make an imprint on the world. The film displays a refreshingly
complex vision of urban life through three illusionists
who have little option but to confront reality. It was
the joint winner of The Best Film award
at Film South Asia 1999 along with the Pakistani film
No one Believes the Professor directed by Farjad
Nabi, a fantastic voyage with a man whose self belief
shocks even the most stubborn optimist.
Listening to Shadows, a documentary film directed
by Koushik Sarkar from India, is an exploration
of the worlds of the normal people by the blind, a dialogue
between the filmmaker and a visually impaired friend,
is really an investigation into the nature of image and
sound. The 'protagonist' talks of growing up blind in
India, of wanting to be a lecturer in the face of discouragement
from teachers. He shares his thoughts on theatre, death,
dreams, friendship and tells us to put away our pity because
he has no desire for sight. "What you have never known,
you cannot miss," he says and, quoting Alexander Pope,
"Whatever is, is right."
 Among
others Three Women and a Camera, directed by Sabeena
Gadihoke of India, attracted the attention of the
people. This film is about Homai Vyarawalla, India's
first professional woman photographer, whose career spanned
nearly three decades from 1930s and about two contemporary
photographers, Sheba Chhachi and Dayanita Singh
who started work in 1980s. The film underscores the major
shifts in the concerns of these photographers regarding
representations, subject camera relationships and the
limits and possibilities of still photography in India
today.
 Other
than this, Don't Pass Me by from Nepal, Pure
Chutney from Trinidad and Tobago, Jibon, Dhushomoy
from Bangladesh, Forgotten Army and Skin Deep
from India were some of the notable documentary films
screened during the festival which was held in the Sarojini
Naidu School of Performing Arts, Golden Threshold,
Nampally.
The three-day festival was certainly a great opportunity
for the documentary film lovers to have a glimpse of good
documentary films which have made an imprint at the international
level. |
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