Abhivyakti 2010 : April 30 - May 2

The 9th Bihar  low cost videofest at Ravi Bharati, Patna encourages students and young people to express themselves on various aspects of  life with a focus on Human rights. Apart from some 20 videos by students and children on exhibit, Abhivyakti 2010 also features the following films:
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Film: Mithila Sanskar Geet

A Film by Shankar Dutt, produced by Sangeet Natak Akedemi, Bihar

Mithila Sanskar Geet documents the geets and traditional cultural practices of Mithilanchal. These intangible practices are gradually becoming extinct because of rapid urbanisation and migration which are unchecked demographic movements of our times. The security of community life, bonding and togetherness of these cultural practices at birth and marriage are recreated in this documentary film produced by Bihar Sangeet Natak Akademi. [Duration 30 minutes, Language Hindi]

Film: From Hindu to Hindutva

Debaranjan Sarangi,

Pedestrian Pictures Language: Oriya with English Subtitles

Kandhmal violence has been the most ghastly communal violence in the Adivasi areas in India . Close to two years after the violence the tragedy of the area continues, the victims of violence, the rehabilitation, the justice to victims, most of these are no where close to what they should be.

Debaranjan Sarangi, a social activist and writer has effectively caught the Kandhamal carnage in his short but comprehensive film with great amount of sensitivity and objectivity. He presents the whole event with the help of field interviews, the shots of burning of houses and churches and the pathetic condition of the refugee camps. His subtitling and comments not only make the theme more understandable to non-Oriya audience but also connect up different aspects of the material presented by him. The commentary in the form of text is very coherent making the film a powerful analysis of the events of Orrisa. The director weaves the picture with great precision without intruding into the flow of events as told by the perpetrators of the crime and the victims of the same. [Oriya with English Subtitles Duration- 44 Minutes]

Film: ‘Morality TV aur Loving Jehad — Ek Manohar Kahani”, Paromita Vohra’s latest documentary, makes us laugh at our cultural hang-ups and horrified and angry at the same time. The film looks at the idea of love in the Hindi heartland from three different angles, and what we take home is a rueful smile and a head full of questions.

 In December 2005, Hindi TV channels “broke” the story of police action against couples in Meerut’s Gandhi Baug. Meerut is known as a TRP city. In December 2005, when the police invited TV channels to the Gandhi Baug party to see how they ferreted out, slapped, abused and humiliated couples sitting or walking in the park, the channels came with pleasure, tongues hanging out.

Who makes the police the arbiters of morality? Who is on their side — politicians? Parents? What do young people think of love and romance? Where does the phrase “Loving Jehad” come from? [Language: Hindi duration 29 minutes]

film: Do Din ka Mela

“Nothing in the world will last – it is but a two-day fair,” sings Mura Lala Fafal, drawing inspiration from the Sufi traditions of Sant Kabir and Abdul Lateef Bhita'i. He is accompanied on the jodiya pava (double flute) by his nephew, Kanji Rana Sanjot. Kanji taught himself to play and make his own flutes after hearing the music on the radio. Mura and Kanji are Meghwals, a pastoral Dalit community that lives on the edge of the Great Rann of Kutch, in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. They are daily wage labourers and subsistence farmers in an arid zone. Do Din Ka Mela, which the filmmakers describe as “an attempt to represent and interpret the rich musical traditions of Kutch and their connection to the rhythms and textures of everyday life”, is a two-day journey into the music and everyday life of this uncle-nephew duo, set against the backdrop of the Rann.

Filmmakers Anjali Monteiro and K. P. Jayasankar are Professors at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. [Language Kutchi and Gujarati with English subtitles. Duration 60 minutes]

Film: Arzoo

Arzoo is the story of a young woman, compelled by circumstances to go to the Shah Alam Refugee Camp in Ahmedabad for six months post Gujarat Communal Riots of 2002. There she works as a volunteer and soon discovers the emotional wounds that lie buried below the surface. The film depicts the struggle and resilience of a young woman fighting for her beliefs against all odds. The film maker Shashi Ghosh Gupta is an alminus of XIC, Bombay. Over the years she has assisted in many film and television projects. [language Hindi, Gujarati, subtitles: English. Duration 26 minutes]

Film: Khadaan

Children’s stories from the stone quarries of Bihar. A film by Blaise Pascal , Produced by REAP. [Hindi, 26 minutes]