City: Mumbai
Location: Alliance Française auditorium
Date: Fri, 2013/05/17 – 7:00pm
In partnership with Vikalp Film Archive
Ika (The Feather), by Raam Reddy (15’)
Ika is a film about Rajesh, a boy living in a slum in Bangalore who wants to make a film. He doesn’t have a camera; he builds a camera using a cardboard box and a magnifying glass, and sticks an old VHS tape onto the side of it. He then sets out with his friend Prashant, searching for an idea for his film, telling Prashant that ‘Whatever is in your mind will go into this tape.’ Then, when they find that one of their friend’s chickens has been chased away by a dog, they decide to make a detective film about searching for the chicken.
“Seemingly simple, this evocative film has a sharp eye, a warm, wise heart and a clear intellect… ‘IKA’ is an example of how a careful, clear crafting can create an almost documentary sense of warmth and spontaneity. In a few fluid minutes it takes us into a story, a world and another life, creating pleasure and empathy as only art can.”
– TOTO Awards Jury
Ghar Amcha Haq (A Home Is My Right), by Ashutosh Pathak (56’)
“Ghar Amcha Haq-acha” is the war cry of thousands of slum dwellers in Mumbai today. But these cries barely permeate the tall columns of concrete and glass, a city largely impervious to the fact that 60% of its population lives in slums.
Set in the bylanes of Khar East, the film follows the fortunes of a small society in a slum in 2011, as they band together to face the illegal demolition of their homes. Their struggle is not very different from Anna Hazare – who shot at corruption and missed – but noticeably absent is the media coverage, the mass support and hysteria over black money.
Corruption here is the metallic arm of a bulldozer crashing onto your roof. You march on empty stomachs, you gather in the crumbling debris of homes crushed to pieces.
At the grassroots, what price is paid for “progress”? In a city that rumbles on relentlessly in search of prosperity, this film is witness to the courage and sacrifice of the working class, as they struggle to make themselves visible again.
The filmmaker, Ashutosh Pathak, will be present for a discussion after the screening.
