Two-day film festival brings to fore many untold stories

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 30

A two-day film festival is being organised by India Foundation for Arts (IFA), in collaboration with Majha House, on Friday and Saturday.

Around 10 documentary and feature films will be screened over the course of two days. Films in a variety of languages and cinematic forms, exploring diverse themes across music, dance, theatre, photography, cinema and interplanetary travel are part of the festival.

Sumana Chandrashekar from Arts Practice Programme, India Foundation for the Arts, along with filmmakers Shabani Hassanwalia and Pallavi Paul, interacted with the audience.

Out of Thin Air, a film by filmmaker Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui was presented on the first day. It is a story of one of the most surreal and hostile landscapes in the world, Ladakh. Made almost a decade ago, the film talks about the Ladakhi film industry movement that within a few years, grew tremendously and has become the voice of people, with taxi drivers, grocery store owners, cops and monks turning producers, directors, camerapersons and actors of one of the youngest and most dynamic local film industry in the world.

Another documentary from Ladakh was presented by Tashi Morup, in collaboration with Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation. The film Leh Kharyok presented a study of the musical traditions of town Leh, as a representation of life and connections between generations.

Other screenings of the day included City of Photos by Nishtha Jain, a movie about the ethos of neighbourhood photo studios in Indian cities; Kitte Mil Ve Mahi by Ajay Bharadwaj, a Punjabi documentary that depicts eloquent quest of Dalits in Punjab to take on the legitimacy of the deeply exploitative and humiliating caste system. This sensitively crafted and provocative film was first screened in 2005 and provided a glimpse of the alternate cultural forms of the Punjabi Dalits that criticise the oppression of the ‘upper’ castes and articulate a powerful vision of social justice. It focused, in particular, on the popular Sufi traditions of Punjabi Dalits. It featured prominent Sufi Dalit artists Balii Qwwaal Passlewale and Lal Singh Dil, a radical poet from the community. Lal Singh Dil passed away in 2009 which makes the film an ode to his memory.

“For the longest time in our history, the spiritual shrines and Sufi deras have been considered a domain of Muslims. Sufi artists from the community have been taking care of these places and with time, they have been marginalised and declared outcasts from society. Films on such subjects are important as they talk about extreme casteism and demarcation in the religious context and compare it with Sufi spiritualism that is not defined by any religion,” said Rajendra Singh, a theatre person from city.

The day ended with Gali by Samreen Farooqui and Shabani Hassanwalia, a film that explored the subculture of B-boying and Breaking as an Indian form of contemporary street dance that focuses on the performers at Khirki village, New Delhi, a volatile melting pot of Jats, Biharis, Nigerians, Afghanis and struggling artists which is shaping the area’s youth in the unlikeliest of ways.

Preeti Gill from Majha House said the festival provided a platform to aspiring art lovers and others to discuss their issues and explore their artistic skills.