[Reader-list] [Announcements] Listen! Kashmiri women are speaking...

[Santhosh Kumar]

  Listen! Kashmiri women are speaking…



* *There was a Queen ** the Documentary film in which Kashmiri women express
their views about the bloody conflict ongoing in the state for more than 18
years and its multi faceted impact on the society is ready for distribution.
In this film, woman - only women - open out on terrorism, militarism, peace
and their daily life. It is a record of political voices of women from many
sides in Kashmir.



The film was in the competition section of *MIFF-2008* and was screened in *
ViBGYOR-2008*. It will be screened in First* International Video Festival of
Kerala* in May 2008.



The DVD copies are available at a contributory price of Rs.1000/-, and
please add Rs.100/- for courier and handling charges, in India and South
Asia. US $ 200 and courier charge for other countries.



Please mail your order or queries to santhosh at othermediacommunications.com
  "Yi As Akh Padshah Bai"

*(There was a Queen…) *


*India / Kashmiri, Hindustani, English with English subtitles / 105 minutes
/ Video / 2007*



 "Give us guns and we'll play our role!" - These are not the words of a
hardened criminal; these are the words of a teenaged girl in Kashmir less
than a week after her sister was buried.



Farha's sister Shahnaza, and her friend, Ulfat, victims of 'crossfire' would
have been adult women today - they were barely seventeen when they died, as
old as the *tehreek*, the movement, that exploded into existence in 1989,
shattering forever the peace of the Valley, and turning it into one of the
most critical conflict zones in the world.



Over these eighteen years, flashes of intensified conflict and bouts of
negotiations have followed one another with monotonous regularity in
Kashmir. Newspapers and television channels manufacture predictable binary
images of conflict – angry men and weeping women, peace loving Kashmiris and
terrorist Kashmiris, misguided innocents and fundamentalist separatists,
victims and aggressors. Over and above these is the image that erases all
differences – the Kashmiri as terrorist.



The film discusses how women's engagement with everyday violence has led
them to think of issues of security, peace, conflict management and
transformation in the unique situation of conflict in the area. It is also
an exploration of the relationship between the construction of identity of
the community/nation and women's identity and the need for women to be aware
of how and by whom these identity constructs are forged which are usually
not favorable to women's autonomy in the particular culture and nation.



When the directors set out to make a film, they felt strange to speak to
women, only women, ignoring the other half. So they spoke to a few men – one
a former militant, another who had sent his son for training across the
border with his blessings, a third who had lost his son and then realized he
was a militant, a fourth whose brother was killed in crossfire – they spoke
to men and realized that while every story had the power to shock and move,
the women's stories were compelling in their honesty, in their rage, in
their helplessness, in their grief, in their contempt, in their fierce
refusal to forget, in their determination to survive, to nurture.



It is through these women – proud, strong, with an undying zest for life –
that the film examines what peace means and how it can come about in
Kashmir.

* *

The documentary "*Yi As Akh Padshah Bai*" or *There was a Queen* was made by
an all women crew! It was a conscious and a deliberate decision as it was
our belief as producers that since the film was about women in conflict
situation, it would be appropriate to have a team of women who would be more
sensitive and understanding in dealing with the subject and that the
Kashmiri women would find it easy to articulate their views. Our objective
initially was to make one film, on women in conflict situation, which
includes the North East of India too. But in the process of making the film,
we decided to work on Kashmir first as it was distinct from the North East
though there are commonalities of situation, issues and concerns.


An All Women Crew



Direction: Kavita Pai / Hansa Thapliyal

Camera: Ranu Ghosh

Sound:   Gissy Michael

Editing:  Gouri Patwardhan



Music:    Manish J. Tipu

Executive Producer: E. Deenadayalan

Produced by Other Media Communications Pvt. Ltd.

www.othermediacommunications.com
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