Doccity- Documentaries on Mumbai city at the Juhu Festival
Organised in collaboration with the
INDIAN DOCUMENTARY PRODUCERS’ ASSOCIATION
Venue: Juhu Jagriti, 1st Floor N.M College, opp. Bhaidas Hall,Vile Parle (West)
FINAL PROGRAMME and SYNOPSIS OF FILMS
Day I: 20th January, 2006
- Hamara Sheher (Bombay: Our City) by Anand Patwardhan (80 mins.)
Followed by panel discussion: Anand Patwardhan, Subrato Ratho, Gerson D’cunha.
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Day II: 21st January, 2006
- Cosmopolis: The tale of two cities by Paromita Vohra (28 mins.)
- Naata by Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jaysankar (40 mins)
- Sandra from Bandra by Paromita Vohra (30 mins)
- Jari-Mari: of cloth and other stories by Surabhi Sharma (74 mins)
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Day III: 22nd January, 2006
- Ladies Special by Nidhi Tuli (30 mins)
- Journeys by Vinayan Kodoth (30 mins)
- Blessed by the Plague by Arunabh Bhattacharya (52 mins)
- Aur Irani Chai (20 mins) and Portraits of a Lane (19 mins): short films produced by PUKAR
- One space two worlds, The city within, Pani Kum Chai, Mumbai Kiski?
(30 mins. total): Short films by students of media studies made during a workshop conducted by Comet Media Foundation under the aegis of the Masters of Communications and Journalism Course. Bombay University.
Day I: 20th January, 2006 (6 p.m to 9.30 p.m.)
Bombay Our City by Anand Patwardhan 80 mins/Hindi-English
BOMBAY: OUR CITY tells the story of the daily battle for survival of the 4 million slum dwellers of Bombay who make up half the city's population. Although they are Bombay's workforce - industrial laborers, construction workers, domestic servants - they are denied city utilities like electricity, sanitation, and water. Many slumdwellers must also face the constant threat of eviction as city authorities carry out campaigns to "beautify" Bombay.
BOMBAY: OUR CITY is an indictment of injustice and misery, and a call to action on he side of the slumdwellers.
Day II: 21st January, 2006 (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.)
COSMOPOLIS: TWO TALES OF A CITY by Paromita Vohra/14.5 minutes/English-Hindi
In two discrete but associated short tales, whose themes are inextricably linked, this film looks at divisions of class, language and food and queries the myths of Bombay as a great cosmopolitan city.
TALE 1: THE FORGOTTEN CITY (Imin.17 sec)
A poem called Mumbai, about a city built by workers. A skyline where mill chimneys are replaced by glinting, cylindrical highrises that mimic their shape, but do not hold their memory. A singer who recites the names of train stations, a map in song. In the eye of change, a forgotten city.
TALE 2: DEFEAT OF A MINOR GODDESS (13 min) /English-Hindi
This is a film about food and faith. Anapurna, the goddess of food walks the earth and comes to a city by the sea where one of its inhabitants treats her to a gorgeous meal of fish. Pleased, she blesses the city with gastronomic abundance and even reigns as its (very popular) patron deity. However, very soon she faces competition with the arrival her sister, Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. The rivalry between the goddesses manages to divide the city with all the classical intrigue, insecurity and jealousy that make up a good old fashioned battle.
The city spirals into an escalating war over food and property, livelihood and living. Vegetarians don’t want to live with non-vegetarians, Saraswat Brahmins don’t want Jain neighbours and fishmongers don’t want people of other communities to sell fish. Interweaving the fictional war between the goddesses with a documentary exploration of Bombay’s food politics, the film interrogates the divisive politics that characterizes contemporary Mumbai, under its cosmopolitan costume.
NATAA by K.P. Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro/45 mins./English-Hindi
Naata is about Bhau Korde and Waqar Khan, two activists and friends, who have been working with neighbourhood peace committees in Dharavi, reputedly, the largest ‘slum’ in Asia. This film explores their work, which has included the collective production and use of visual media for ethnic amity. Naata is also about us; among other things, it is an attempt to reflect on how we relate to spaces of the other, spaces like Dharavi.
WHERE’S SANDRA? by Paromita Vohra /17 min./English
Who is Sandra? And if she’s from Bandra where is she? If you saw her would you know her? As you walk through Bandra past the rozedars buying food from Jeff’s, the college kids making the mochas last, the aunties haggling with the vegetable sellers, the biker boys on Bandstand, the commuters pouring out of the sunlit old station building you may well ask Where’s Sandra?
This short film looks for the answers in random encounters and intimate conversations – in Church, with a priest who leads us through the graveyard, in the words of poets and the songs of Hindi films, in the ladies compartment of the local train where a group of women sing Konkani songs, finally finding several Sandras in Bandra. Some hate their name, some love it but didn’t start out in Bandra and some turn out to be fraudulently claiming the title.
The film wanders around Bandra wondering about Sandra – stereotype or fantasy? Affectionate parody or vicious mockery? Still here or just a figment from the past?
JARI MARI: OF CLOTH AND OTHER STORIES by Surabhi sharma/74min/English-Hindi
Jari Mari is a sprawling slum colony adjacent to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport. Its narrow lanes house hundreds of small sweatshops where women and men work, without the right to organise. Their existence is on the edge - their illegal dwellings could be demolished at any time by the airport authorities, and jobs have to be found anew everyday, from workshop to workshop. This film explores the lives of the people of Jari Mari, and records the many changes in the nature and organisation of Mumbai's workforce over the past two decades.
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Day III: 22nd January, 2006 (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
LADIES SPECIAL by Nidhi Tuli/30 min.s/Hindi-English
‘Ladies Special’ is an account of journeys of women commuters traveling from Virar to Churchgate (60 kms apart) and back during office hours, in Mumbai, India, in a Women’s only train called –Ladies Special.
It gently uncovers the humour and the solidarity of female commuters as they create a space for themselves somewhere between work and home in the highly stressful life of Mumbai City.
A space where they are not anybody’s wives, mothers, daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law… they are simply women. Women; recharging their batteries to face the challenges of the day.
Baby showers are thrown, birthdays celebrated, dance parties held; vegetables are chopped and readied for dinner. As one of them rightly says “It’s their time and it’s time out.”
JOURNEYS by Vinayan Kodoth / 38 minutes / English
A nearly non-verbal journey with Bombay's desperate train commuters. The daily journeys become a metaphor for cities fast disintegrating!
BLESSED BY THE PLAGUE by Arunabh Bhattacherjee /52 mins/English
The transformation of Surat city in western India, is the biggest urban renewal success story of post-independent India. In September 1994, Surat was visited by an alleged plague cementing its reputation as the dirtiest city in India. Today the city is one of India's cleanest, and has become the contemporary icon of urban change.
Blessed by the Plague presents rare archival footage from Surat to recreate the dramatic events of the past five years. It explores the dynamic of the city's transformation through the relationship between state, civil society, and the citizen. It examines the need for a "messiah" type personality in inspiring popular support for change, and explores the role of local media. Change is possible in an Indian city, but what sustains it? When does change stop being dependent on an individual and become systemic?
The film recognises how vulnerable all cities are and how catastrophes often lead to dramatic changes. In that sense Surat is truly Blessed by the Plague.
Two short films produced by PUKAR : Aur Irani Chai (20 mins) and Portraits of a Lane (19 mins) (Synopsis not Available)
FOUR FILMS BY STUDENTS: SCRIPT TO SCREEN WORKSHOP FILMS (conducted at the Comet Media Foundation by Anjali Monteiro, K P Jayasankar and Chandita Mukherjee.)
The Script to Screen workshop was aimed at giving an insight into documentary filmmaking to the students of Masters of Communication and Journalism, of Mumbai University. The purpose was to further their understanding from both technical as well as critical points of view through a hands-on exercise.
After an exposure to documentary film theory and seeing and discussing various documentary classic, the workshop culminated with an assignment which had the class in four groups. Each was to make a documentary film of 5-8 minutes duration. Having gone through brainstorming sessions and script development discussions, the groups finalised their themes and took their first plunge into documentary film production.
Paani Kum Chai: the disappearing Irani Chai By: Smita Varadarajan, Neeta Gaud, Shilpi Sharma, Suruchi Mate, Sonal Shukla, Snigdha Karjatkar
This is a warm and lyrical portrait of an Irani Chai, typical of the dozens of others once typical of Mumbai. The makers of this film studied the rhythms of life in Café Merwan opposite Grant Road railway station. They show the processes in the bakery, interview the owners, workers and customers, wondering how long this landmark will last. Their approach reflects their nostalgic feelings about this disappearing institution.
One Space Two Worlds by: Ameya Karve, Megha Banduni, Meenakshi Upadhyay, Nancy Singh, Neha Uppal, Shail Kumari Kaushal
The decline of the chawls of Girgaum and with that, the dissolving of the communities who lived there, is the theme of this film. Built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they were the housing of the workers who came to the city in search of work. Over time, these developed into vibrant multi-cultural communities who celebrated festivals together and shared life’s burdens. Today the builders’ lobbies want to see these demolished and replaced with towers. We meet chawl dwellers who will be displaced, others who are cooperating with the builders and the builders’ agents and get to hear different points of view.
Mumbai Kiski? by: Keshav Jha,Amol Gupta, Ashutosh Shukla, Mamta Hinduja, Almas Meherally, Lakshmi Sankaran
The creators of this film question the relevance of the slogan Mi Mumbaikar. They go around the footpaths of Central Mumbai interviewing people about what a person makes a Mumbaikar. The variety of responses all add up to indicate that almost no one they met was actually born here. The film asserts that anyone who works hard and makes a living here is a Mumbaikar. It has nothing to do with their origins because this city welcomes all and gives them its name.
The City Within by: Eisha Sarkar, Neelima Aryan, Rinki Saha, Anand Reghu, Himanshu Patil
The streets around Grant Road station are the subject of this film. According to the hawkers and local people “Physically nothing has changed around here, but people have changed and so have the things sold in the shops.” The film makers quote authors such as Rohington Mistry, Paul Theroux and Mark Twain who have visited this part of the city at various periods of history and give an impressionistic tour inspired by their words.
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