Dr. Binayak Sen Film Festival
May 11, 2009 Leave a comment
Films screened:
1. Tales from the margins: 23 mins Director: Kavita Joshi
On state repression in Manipur, and the struggle of Sharmila Irom, who has been on hunger strike for the past nine years.
2. TATA landmines Adivasis: 20 mins Director: A. K. Pankaj
On police firing in Kalinganagar on adivasis protesting against acquisition of their lands by the TATAs, which led to the death of 13 tribals.
3. Pachuwara: 20 mins Director: A. K. Pankaj
On the heroic struggle of the Santhals of Jharkhand against government attempts to evict them for coal mining.
4. Road to Shanghai: 34 mins Made By NCAS, Pune.
On illegal demolition of slums of Mumbai in 2004-05, as the government attempts to take over slum lands to transform Mumbai into Shanghai.
Irom Sharmila Charu: Another Prisoner of autocracy:
Irom Sharmila, she started her hunger strike in November 2000 against Armed Forces Special Powers Act and she has been on a fast unto death since then. For almost 9 years! She is now being force-fed through a pipe in her nose on the orders of the state administration.
Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) grants special powers to the Indian armed forces to arrest, detain, interrogate or even kill any person on mere suspicion with impunity. Manipur (where Sharmila hails from) and her neighbouring states of north-east India have been reeling under this act for almost half a century.
“My fast is on behalf of the people of Manipur. This is not a personal battle – this is symbolic. It is a symbol of truth, love and peace”, says Irom Sharmila Charu.
Struggle against discriminatory practices of ruling sect :
“Pachurawara+32‘ is a 20 minute documentary, the film gives a glimpse of the future of irrational and destructive mining and ill conceived policies of the Government. The voices are a telling tale of neglect and abuse of Indigenous Peoples and Land. Considered as a “displacement” issue, the Pachurawara people in the film have taken the path they already chosen as issue of livelihood, ownership of natural resources and the power of public action.
“Road to Shanghai” is a fabulous sarcasm of some hopeless entities who dream of glossy beauty of a city in exchange of thumping poor people of slum. Dreaming some thing out of reality and trying to grabs everything belongs to those people with active association of authority.