[Reader-list] Fwd: So Shall You reach at Vatavaran Film Festival

[arshad amanullah]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ajay Bhardwaj <ajayunmukt at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Subject: So Shall You reach at Vatavaran Film Festival
To: Ajay Bhardwaj <ajayunmukt at gmail.com>


Dear Friend,

I am pleased to inform you my film on GM crops -So Shall You Reap-
recently got nominated to the 5th  CMS Vatavaran, environment and wild
life film festival ( October 27th to 31st 2009)

 www.cmsvatavaran.org

Please find below a press release prepared by the festival about the film.

Warmly

Ajay Bhardwaj

B-3/3259, VASANT KUNJ

ajayunmukt at yahoo.com

ni main jaana jogi de naal....bulle shah


‘So shall you reap’ by Ajay Bhardwaj gets nominated for 5th CMS
VATAVARAN, environment and wildlife film festival


This is a documentary on genetically engineered (G.E.) seeds, with
specific reference to India. The film has been widely appreciated and
has been recently nominated for the prestigious CMS VATAVARAN,
environment and wildlife film festival, in the country. ‘So shall you
reap’ competed with several other entries in the category-Livelihood.
The festival will be organised from October 27-31, 2009, at the India
Habitat Centre, New Delhi.


Synopsis

The film covers aspects, like the technicalities of GE (how seeds are
created), the story of GM Cotton in India and their relationship with
farmers from Andhra Pradesh and Punjab as well as narrating their
experiences; and the serious regulatory shortcomings, irregularities
in open air trials of food crops, etc. The first hand experience of
farmers, farmer leaders, views of scientists and agricultural
ministers all point to the many concerns with regard to GE Crops.
However, disregarding all this, Government of India is thrusting
forward GE technology as the way for all of us. The documentary also
shows how, in increasing numbers, farmers are adopting ecological
agriculture as the real way forward, by declaring themselves GE-free
and by not depending on agro-business corporations and their corporate
science for their farming.


Biography

I am a Delhi based documentary film maker. I have a double Masters in
Political Studies (JNU) and Mass Communications (MCRC, Jamia Milia
Islamia). Between 1984 -1987, I was associated with a Delhi based
street theatre group, Aahwan Natya Manch. From 1990 to 1996 I produced
and directed a diverse range of television programmes like current
affairs, election analysis, game shows, chat shows, popular science
shows, as well as infotainment programmes. Catching up on life long
interest and concerns, I have been making documentaries since 1997. Ek
Minute Ka Maun /A Minute of Silence (1997) was my first full-length
documentary. It captured the spontaneous students' protest in the
aftermath of the murder of Chandrashekhar Prasad, a left wing
student's union president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, in
Delhi. In my recent documentary works, I have turned to excavating
ideas than chasing events.  Archaeology of memory is what I find
spiritually more fulfilling. Two of my recent works include Kitte Mil
Ve Mahi-Where the Twain Shall Meet (2005), and Rabba Hun Kee Kariye
-Thus Departed Our Neighbours (2007).  Kitte Mil Ve Mahi is a
pioneering work that explores a deep bonding between Sufism and Dalits
in Punjab. It brings to life a spiritual universe that is healing.
Rabba Hun Kee Kariye gives a deeply humanistic insight into the
partition memories in Indian side of Punjab. Through this documentary
these long suppressed experiences became accessible in public domain
for the first time.