15th Social Justice Film Festival 2022 : Lady Doak College, Madurai

 15th Social Justice Film Festival 2022

27 Sep, Lady Doak College, Madurai 

Curated by Amudhan R.P.

10 am to 4 pm; 2 shows!

List of films :

The Color of My Home (Dir: Sanjay Barnela & Farah Naqvi; 48 min; 2017) 

Shramjeevi (Dir: Tarun Bhartiya; 43.50 min; 2020) 

Being the Other (Dir : Amudhan R.P.; 22 min; 2022) 

The Outside In (Dir: Hansa Thapliyal; 25 min; 2019) 

Crescent (Dir : Fazil Razak; 19.04 min; 2021)

Sweet Biriyani (Dir : Jayachandra Hasmi; 23.38 min; 2021)

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022 : Screening Schedule

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022

16 -18 Sep, multiple venues, Chennai 

Screening Schedule

Day 01, 16 Sep; MGR Film Institute (for students only)

10 am : Inauguration

10.30 am 

Khori
Dir : Kallol Mukherjee; 14 min; Documentary; India

The Case
Dir : Arun Varghese; 11.40 min; Short fiction; India

11 am : Tea break

11.15

City of Lanes

Dir : Dir : Modak KS, Ragini Rao Munjuluri; 39.47 min

Cheepatakadumpa
Dir : Devashish Makhija; 23.53; Short fiction; India

Songs of Defiance
Dir : Anuj Deshpande; 24 min; Documentary; India

Pari & Poori
Dir : Hamed Vahid; 14 min; Short fiction; Iran

1 pm : Lunch break

2 pm

Cycle
Dir : Devashishs Makhija; 19.46; Short fiction; India

Siege in the Air
Dir : Muntaha Amin; 30 min; Documentary; India

Good Girl
Dir: Raheleh Karami; 13.12 min; Short fiction; Iran

Doll Story
Dir : Shakila Samavati; 19.54 min; Short fiction; Iran

One of us
Dir : Hossein Iraji; 14.20 min; Short fiction; Iran

Hana
Dir : Hossein Zolfaghari; 19.06 min; Short fiction; Iran

Let’s Talk About it
Dir : Vittorio Caratozzolo; 4 min; Documentary; Italy

Aravali, The Lost Mountains
Dir : Jigar Madanlal Nagda; 21.42 min; Documentary; India

4.30 pm : Closing remarks


Day 2, 17 Sep; Panuval Book Store 

10 am to 6 pm

10 am 

Happiness Class
Dir : Samina Mishra; 51 min; Documentary; India

Longing
Dir : Bani Singh; 89.42 min; Documentary; India

2 pm

Footloose a story of belonging
Dir : Gulshan Singh; 93.38 min; Documentary; India

Ruuposh
Dir : Mohd Fehmeed, Zeeshan Amir Khan; 32.25; Documentary; India

The Sako Tapes
Dir : Machiel van dan Heuvel; 73.20 min; Documentary; Netherlands

Whose Dreams, Whose City?
Dir: Abhishek Parija; 39.58 min; Documentary; India


Day 3, 18 Sep, Periyar Thidal

10 am to 8 pm

10 am

The Last Man
Dir : Dakxinumar Bajrange; 60.17 min; Documentary; United Kingdom / India

The Price of Cheap
Dir: Barry Stevens; 80 mins; Hindi, Tamil with English subtitles; Documentary; Canada

Emptiness Crossing Us
Dir: Fernando Moreira; 22:58; Portuguese; Documentary/Experimenta; Brazil

2 pm

Land of Women
Dir : Marion Gaborit ; 77.19 min; Documentary; France

80.000 Schnitzel
Dir:Hannah Schweier; 103 mins; German with English subtitles; Documentary; Germany

5 pm

Genocide and Movements
Dir : Luis Carlos de Alencer, Hamilton Borges, Andreia Beatriz; 60.37 min; Documentary; Brazil

Tijuana - Stories from the border
Dir : Matteo Abbondanza; 70.24 min; Documentary; USA

Rat Trap
Dir : Rupesh Kr Sahu; 35 min; Hindi with English subtitles; Documentary; India

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022 : Stories from the Margins

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022

Stories from the Margins : Curated by Amudhan R.P.

1) Longing

Dir : Bani Singh; 89.42 min; Documentary; India 

Against the backdrop of Partition, newly independent India’s first hockey team defeats England, their erstwhile coloniser, to win the Gold at the 1948 London Olympics. 

Six decades later, when Nandy Singh, a member of this iconic team suffers a stroke at the age of 84, his tenacious will to recover inspires his daughter to go on a journey to discover the champion he was before she was born. 

2) Footloose a story of belonging

Dir : Gulshan Singh; 93.38 min; Documentary; India

Minorities from Pakistan & Myanmar came to India to save their lives. They had heard that Indian is a secular country where there is no religious discrimination. But, in the last few years, religious discrimination has increased leading to communal riots which ultimately ended up being the sole agenda for contesting elections.

3) Whose Dreams, Whose City?

Dir: Abhishek Parija; 39.58 min; Documentary; India

Whose Dreams, Whose City?' is a 2021 Odia Independent documentary that takes a flagship state building called 'Krushi Bhawan (Center for Farmers)' sitting at the heart of Bhubaneswar as its focus. It uses that to explore the aspects of artisanship, agriculture, and public art/architecture in a city, things that the building claims to celebrate.

4) Land of Women 

Dir : Marion Gaborit ; 77.19 min; Documentary; France 

"Land of women" tell the story of five women farmers around the world, working the land, which plays a key role in the planet’s food production. A tribute to some of these women, invisible but essential links in the chain who ensure subsistence agriculture every day and everywhere on earth. 

5) The Last Man 

Dir : Dakxinumar Bajrange; 60.17 min; United Kingdom / India 

‘The Last Man’ aims to show the ground reality through everyday life of manual scavengers engaged in different types of manual scavenging, endangering and losing their lives in cleaning the choked sewers, and manholes in India. 

6) Rat Trap

Dir : Rupesh Kr Sahu; 35 min; Hindi with English subtitles; India; Documentary

It is a film about the rat-hole coal miners who risk their lives to earn a livelihood. While doing this activity, many mishaps go unreported, which we cannot see from the outside. Their lives are devastating enough that they are called thieves in their own house, and during a case of mine collapse, they cannot even shed a tear or claim their loved ones’body. This film narrates their daily life.

7) Happiness Class
Dir : Samina Mishra; 51 min; Documentary; India

Happiness Class is a journey through the unique and fascinating world of children: their preoccupations, their worries, and most importantly, their idea of happiness. Set in the context of an experimental happiness curriculum inspired by the ideas of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and included as part of formal pedagogy in the schools run by the Delhi government, Happiness Class explores this landscape in schools and diverse neighbourhoods, with resident and refugee families, across the metropolis of New Delhi.

8) Emptiness Crossing Us
Dir: Fernando Moreira; 22:58; Portuguese; Brazil; Documentary/Experimenta

Crossed by greed, two hundred and seventy-two people were buried by tailings from the Vale mining company in Brumadinho (MG), Brazil. The emptiness that now crosses those who try to carry on will never be filled. This tribute film is dedicated to the victims of the irresponsible mining tragedy that continues to take its toll with blood and devastation.

9) 80.000 Schnitzel
Dir:Hannah Schweier; 103 mins; German with English subtitles; 2020; Germany; doc

Berta Zenefels (84) has never seen the sea. She has barely left her beloved farm,”Zollhaus“in Bavaria. A life shaped by hard word, a life that nobody wants to live anymore. During her lifetime she had to bury her firstborn son, her husband, her grand-son and her youngest son. Every single one of them lived and died for the big dream of the Zollhaus. But without a successor the heavily indebted farm is threatened with bankruptcy. But now the granddaughter Monika appears out of nowhere and decides to save the family-owned farm.

10) The Price of Cheap
Dir: Barry Stevens; 80 mins; Hindi, Tamil with English subtitles; 2021; Canada; doc

The stories of modern slaves in textiles manufacturing supply chains and the brave individuals fighting on the ground against immeasurable odds to help them. Joseph Raj, runs an organization called T.E.S.T. (Trust for Education and Social Transformation) in Tamil Nadu, India as he goes on raids to rescue underage children from unsafe and labor intensive factories.

11) City of Lanes

Dir : Modak KS, Ragini Rao Munjuluri; 39.47 min

The documentary offers a look at the implications of a recent urban development project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh through the perspectives of the city's residents. The documentary explores themes of citizen-state engagement, governance and development, urban land rights, notions of modernity and socio-cultural dynamics in the city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022 : Official Selection

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022

16-18 Sep, multiple venues, Chennai 

Jointly organised by

TN Government MGR Film & Television Institute

Panuval Book Store

Periyar Self Respect Media

&

MARUPAKKAM

List of films (official selection)

1) Songs of Defiance
Dir : Anuj Deshpande; 24 min; Documentary; India

This short documentary tries to trace the personal and collective journeys of artists of Kabir Kala Manch, a People's cultural troupe consisting of youth from marginalized backgrounds, who sing songs of resistance in the Vidrohi Shahiri tradition. This film profiles these artists and their lived experiences in the context of an unjust and hostile system they are struggling against.

2) Cheepatakadumpa
Dir : Devashish Makhija; 23.53; Short fiction; India

CHEEPATAKADUMPA’ follows three women over less than a day as they awaken their naughty teenage alter egos when they meet again after years, unleashing mischief on each other, and in turn on the biased patriarchal belief systems of the India they were born into. In a masculine culture that is unduly serious about making the rules that women are expected to live by, can Teja, Santo and Tamanna find true and happy rebellion in the gasping throes of this mischief?

3) Cycle
Dir : Devashishs Makhija; 19.46; Short fiction; India

'Cycle' is the story of a wronged young tribal woman who, in the absence of systemic justice, turns rebel, but struggles to be able to fulfil all the expectations that the path to retribution demands.

4) Siege in the Air
Dir : Muntaha Amin; 30 min; Documentary; India

Women in Indian Administered Kashmir weave memory threads to piece together a narratorial picture of what it feels to live under perpetual uncertainty and unending cycles of lockdowns in Kashmir laying focus on the recent communication blockade of 2019, post the Article 370 abrogation.

5) Tijuana - Stories from the border
Dir : Matteo Abbondanza; 70.24 min; Documentary; USA

Behind the Wall of Shame that separates the city of Tijuana (MEX) from San Diego (USA), some migrants tell their stories about what living in the city with the most journeyed border in the world is like, under Trump's coercitive immigrant policies. Federico Quaranta's voice walks us through the narration.

6) Ruuposh
Dir : Mohd Fehmeed, Zeeshan Amir Khan; 32.25; Documentary; India

Ruuposh is an idiosyncratic documentary that features Ruksana Begum- her late father Mehboob Khan and her son- Mohd Fehmeed, who belong to a Muslim minority family of India 2021. The documentary follows a personal narrative of how Mehboob Khan stayed back in India at the time of partition while his entire extended family moved to Pakistan. Ever since, there had been an on and off contact with the relatives in Pakistan which completely ceased off a few decades ago. And while, the younger generation wants to establish contact with the parted relatives- does the political circumstances of the two countries allow the possibility and sustenance of any friendly relationship?

7) Aravali, The Lost Mountains
Dir : Jigar Madanlal Nagda; 21.42 min; Documentary; India

Aravali: The Lost Mountains is a documentary on marble quarrying in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district, India.

The Aravalli Range is the world's oldest fold mountain range, and it helps to sustain the ecosystem. Ground water levels have been drained and average rainfall has also been depleted as a result of continual mining for the past 35 years, resulting in a serious water crisis and air pollution in Rajasmand. On the other hand, mining is the primary source of income for the majority of the population. As a result, this film examines both sides of the same coin, namely, the economy and the environment.

8) The Sako Tapes
Dir : Machiel van dan Heuvel; 73.20 min; Documentary; Netherlands

A film about Sako, an eccentric Indonesian man with Chinese roots.

Sako is struggling with his past. He is traumatized because of the murder of his innocent father, who was one of the approximately half to a million alleged communists that were killed in the transition period to the Suharto regime in Indonesia in 1965.

Sadly, this brutal period is still taboo in Indonesia and what makes it more painful for Sako is that during this time, he supported the responsible regime. To break the taboo and process his trauma, Sako went out with his camcorder and filmed people close to him and talked with them about their experiences related to this past.

9) Genocide and Movements
Dir : Luis Carlos de Alencer, Hamilton Borges, Andreia Beatriz; 60.37 min; Documentary; Brazil

The setting up of a solo performance, the outbreak of revolt, the collective clamor of the marches. Art, organization and rage against the genocide of black people. An audiovisual manifesto recorded between 2008 and 2016, in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.

10) Pari & Poori
Dir : Hamed Vahid; 14 min; Short fiction; Iran

Its about a little girl who is trying to save their donkey.

11) Good Girl
Dir: Raheleh Karami; 13.12 min; Short fiction; Iran

My daughter is a good girl don't punish her.

12) Doll Story
Dir : Shakila Samavati; 19.54 min; Short fiction; Iran

It's the story of a girl that shows her life with the dolls.

13) One of us
Dir : Hossein Iraji; 14.20 min; Short fiction; Iran

It's the story of a teenager who has been engaged to an oldman and she gets pregnant.

14) Hana
Dir : Hossein Zolfaghari; 19.06 min; Short fiction; Iran

The problems of a binary gender girl in a traditional society…

15) The Case
Dir : Arun Varghese’ 11.40 min; Short fiction; India

When Renu, a lawyer, questions another woman's decision to withdraw a court case, she comes to terms with her own dilemma that threatens to take her world apart.

16) Let’s Talk About it
Dir : Vittorio Caratozzolo; 4 min; Documentary; Italy

We all live under the same sky, the Earth is only one and we must discuss together the real problems of the world, without weapons, in peace.

17) Khori
Dir : Kallol Mukherjee; 14 min; Documentary; India

The short documentary intends to explore the plight and expressions of migrant workers residing at Khori Village, Faridabad which is declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India and their houses are already in a demolishing state without proper rehabilitating of the villagers.

18) Section 298
Dir : James Joel Dann; 19.15 min; Documentary; United Kingdom

Told through the eyes of three persecuted female Ahmadiyya, Section 298 unveils the realities of life under Pakistan's deadliest law.

Section 298 of the Pakistan Penal code (also known as the Blasphemy law) openly allows prosecution, imprisonment and death for those who identify as Ahmadi Muslims, a minority Islamic movement in Pakistan. Since 2010 over 200 Ahmadi Muslims have been killed inside their mosques by suicide bombs and vigilante mobs.

Persecuted from birth, Ahmadiyya's are prohibited from working, voting, owning a passport or declaring themselves as Muslim. Section 298 takes us into the heart of the Pakistani Ahmadi community as they fight to keep their families, community and traditions alive.


Official Selection Committee :

Mitali Biswas, filmmaker (Kolkata)

Indraneel Lahiri, filmmaker (Mumbai)

Dr Roshini, film enthusiast (Chennai)

Senthil Kumaran, filmmaker (Chennai)

Amudhan R.P.

Festival Director

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022 : More details!

14th Social Justice Film Festival 2022

16,17,18 September, Chennai 

Schedule :

16 Sep; 10 am to 5 pm; TN Government MGR Film & TV Institute, Tharamani

17 Sep : 11 am to 5 pm; Panuval Book Store, Thirvanmiyur

18 Sep; 11 am to 8 pm; Annai Maniammaiyar Hall, Periyar Thidal, Vepperi

Selection Committee

Mitali Biswas, filmmaker

Indraneel Lahiri, filmmaker

Dr. Roshini, film enthusiast

Senthil Kumaran, filmmaker 

Jointly organised by 

MARUPAKKAM

TN Government MGR Film & TV Insitute

Panuval Book Store

Periyar Self Respect Media

More details soon!