[Reader-list] PASSING CONFLICTS --- A series of 5 short films

Thu Oct 12 10:25:28 IST 2006

PASSING CONFLICTS --- A series of 5 short films

Telecast:  October 14th at  09.00 am on DD I
                            10:30 pm on DD News

ï¿½Passing Conflictsï¿½ is as series of 5 short films (6 mts each)
made by     \
first time filmmakers under the guidance of Pankaj Rishi Kumar, and prouced
by     \
PSBT

Bol Golu Bol / Suvir Nath / Fiction / Hindi
Synopsis -- A boy wants to propose to a girl, the girl wants to be
proposed..     \
They both are going through their conflict and are trying to reach a     \
resolution. As they try to do so external forces encourage and discourage
them.     \
When the resolution shapes up, it shapes up in various shades.

Bare / Santana Issar / Documentary / English
(longer version of the film is 11mts)
Synopsis -- A daughterï¿½s search to find meaning, if any, in her
relationship     \
with her alcoholic father. In the piecing together of home videos shot by
her     \
parents nearly 2 decades earlier, and through a string of conversations
with     \
her father, mother, and sister, the filmmaker looks to understand the
impact of     \
her father's alcoholism on each of their lives: the sister's  refusal to   
 \
include him in her life; the mother's belief that her daughters should
reach     \
out to their father despite her own refusal to see him; the father's moment
of     \
honest introspection.
In talking to them, the questions she is struggling with come to the fore: 
   \
should she stand behind him and continue to suffer the pain and the
indignity,     \
based only on her memories of what a wonderful father he was? Or should she
    \
rebuild her life without him, consigning him to a fate that will almost     \
certainly be wretched?

The Mall on top of my House/ Aditi Chitre / Annimation
Synopsis  -- An animation film that deals with the issue of rampant land   
 \
reclamation by the flouting of environmental laws and the consequent     \
displacement of the fishing community. The film narrates the story of a     \
fisherman living in a dark underground tunnel, constantly negotiating with
the     \
chaos of traffic, fancy malls, luxury housing etc built on land that was
once     \
his. Reclamation has pushed the sea further away from him and reduced it to
a     \
puddle of industrial waste. In the past, he had a home, a family and a     \
sustaining catch from the sea. But emerging land laws rendered the
community     \
homeless overnight. Being uneducated and poor, they were displaced and
cheated     \
out of compensation.  With builders taking ever increasing chunks of the   
 \
cityï¿½s open space, the fisherman is finally driven out even from his
dingy     \
tunnel to make way for more ï¿½developmentï¿½.

A place to stay / Prayas Abhinav  / Documentary / Hindi
Synopsis --While thousands in Mumbai, lose their home every month,
thousands     \
also search for one. One of these thousands, Prayas is disoriented and     \
frustrated, fearful of what would happen if he doesn't find a place to
stay.     \
His friend offers him his place for the weekend, but for the week he still
has     \
to figure something out. He starts exploring Mumbai at night hoping to
discover     \
some places where he can sleep safely. As he begins his exploration, he
finds     \
friends who guide him to places he could never have imagined as shelters.
And     \
Prayas finds a place to stay!

Vasudevs /  Documentary / Hindi
Synopsis -- Vasudevs are a group of mendicants, best described as a group
of     \
singing minstrels who move from one village to another, door to door,
singing     \
songs and collecting a ritualistic grant in cash or kind.  The film looks
at     \
this ritual in the present contextï¿½is it Begging?

Biographies

Pankaj Rishi Kumar  graduated from FTII in 1992 where he specialised in
Film     \
Editing. He was a Asia Society fellow at Harvard University in 2003. Pankaj
    \
began his film career in 1993 as an assistant editor on Sekhar kapur's
"Bandirt     \
Queen" . He edited documentaries, and TV serials before turning to making
films     \
himself. He was a Teaching Assistant  at the first AFA program organized by
    \
Pusan film festival.

Pankaj has movies in his blood. His late father turned an old factory into
the     \
town of  Kalpi 's only cinema, Kumar Talkies. His first documentary,
ï¿½Kumar     \
Talkiesï¿½, offered a cinï¿½ma vï¿½ritï¿½ portrait of people of
Kalpiï¿½s     \
relationship to their only picture show and an examination of the     \
consciousness-shaping role of local cinema in a globalised and digitised
world.     \
Made with support of Hubert Bals fund and India Foundation of The Arts, the
    \
film won critical acclaim. (screened at 40 festivals and won Best     \
Film-L'alternative Barcelona, Special Jury at Zanzibar and Indian National
awrd     \
for Best Sound. ) The film has been recently been blown up to 35mm and will
be     \
released theatrically in 2006.  His second film ï¿½Pather Chujaeriï¿½
(The Play     \
Is On) was about the survival of folk thetaer in war strife kashmir. (The
film     \
was screened at 25 film festivals and won Unesco Prize for Best Film at
MITIL,     \
Bronze Remi at Houston and a special Jury at Karachi , Dallas South Asia   
 \
festival and Earthvisionï¿½ Santacruz festival.) His third film 'The
Vote"     \
looked at the intricacies of the electoral politics. The film premierecat
the     \
Asia society in New York and picked up a special jury prize at Dallas South
    \
Asian festival and Earthvisionï¿½ Santacruz festival. His latest film "
3 Men     \
and a Bulb" won the IDPA Best Documentary prize.Pankaj is currently working
on     \
his new project--a documentary on women boxers in India with support from
Jan     \
Vrijman Fund.  ï¿½Punches ï¿½ Ponytails ï¿½ Ringtonesï¿½
 Suvir Nath was born in Bihar and did his schooling throughout India. He   
 \
graduated in English literature from Delhi University and pursued Dramatic
Arts     \
from Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, New Delhi. He later joined Film &
    \
Television Institute of India, Pune and pursued diploma course in Film and 
   \
Television Editing.He worked as assistant editor and chief editor in films,
    \
television and documentaries. ï¿½Bol Golu Bolï¿½ is his first
independent     \
assignment as a director
 Santana Issar graduated in Economics from St Stephenï¿½s College in
2005. In     \
the one year since her graduation, she has worked at a news channel, on two
    \
corporate films, and assisted on a documentary film tracing the evolution
of     \
different forms of music in Goa. This is her first documentary film

Aditi Chitre  trained as a painter from the Faculty of Fine Art, MSU Baroda
    \
(BFA 2004) and since then has been working as a free lance graphic
designer,     \
illustrator and storyboard artist. Her hobbies include traveling to places
of     \
natural and historical interest, watching movies, music (she learnt sitar
for     \
two years) and reading.

           Prayas Abhinav is an artist, writer and activist working from
Mumbai     \
at present. He is an enthusiastic supporter of commons-based cultural     \
movements. He published and edited Crimson feet, a literary arts print and 
   \
online magazine under a creative-commons license. His practice is strongly 
   \
inter-disciplinary ï¿½ attempting to blend art, film, technology,
drawing,     \
poetry fluidly for fuller and more complete experiences. He has received   
 \
numerous awards and fellowships for his creative works and has spoken at   
 \
numerous conferences about the issues he supports. He dreams of
establishing an     \
open, sustainable and independent  platform to reach his audience and
interact     \
with it.

PANKAJ RISHI KUMAR;  B/103, Gokul Tower, Thakur Complex, Kandivli (E),
MUMBAI 400 101  PH: 91-22-2854 7585

59 gautam nagar, new delhi 49  Ph; 91-11- 2651 2019