22nd Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai

22nd Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai  

11-13 April, Goethe-Institut, Chennai 

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut, Chennai 

Curated by Amudhan RP

Screening Schedule 

11th April 2024

6 pm : Inauguration 

6.30 pm 

My Name is Happy

Dir: Nick Read, Ayse Toprak; 82 min; UK; 2022

Mutlu Kaya is on the verge of her breakthrough as a singer when she narrowly survives a femicide. Five years later, her beloved sister Dilek is killed by her fiancé. Mutlu fights - for her own recovery and for justice for her sister.

12th April 2024

11 am 

Bridge

Dir : Binoy Krishna; 21 min; Short Fiction; India; 2023

Ramji, a bank manager, struggles to find a home due to his caste background, despite his efforts to hide it.

Parai - the untouchable music instrument 

Dir: Senthil Kumaran; 31 min; Documentary; India; 2019

Parai is one of the oldest musical instruments in India. The film traces its cultural and social history.

Alien

Dir : Vidyut Latay; 56 min; Documentary; USA; 2024

ALIEN intimately follows five Indian high-skilled immigrants and their families as they build lives and families in this country in an uphill battle toward their American Dream. ...

Adios My Love

Dir : Sneha Karar and Sournali Singha; 14 min; Documentary; India; 2024

This film revolves around the conversation between a woman and an old house. She grew up in the house. She loves that house very much and thinks that the house also has a soul. Forgetting their deep love, being together, thousands of memories, she decided to sell her beloved house under political pressure.

2 pm 

Zameer (The voice of Conscience)

Dir : Uma Chakravarthy; 89 min; Documentary; India; 2024

The film Zameer (The Voice of Conscience) is built around the experiences of

women who were drawn into movements of resistance as they have unfolded in India since the new millennium and were jailed for their participation in movements defending lands, livelihoods and ways of living. 

Migration and Language Scenario 

Dir : Subhasis Chakraborty; 28 min; Documentary; India; 2014

Migration and Language Scenario is a documentary film on the discourse of the east Bengali diaspora, who have settled themselves in different parts of West Bengal, aftermath of the partition of India in 1947.

4.30 pm 

Colors of Kollywood - A Melanin Deficiency 

Dir : Paro Salil; 23 min; India; Documentary; 2023

Through this documentary, the trend of Colour Discrimination (a.k.a Colourism) in Tamil Cinema, especially pertaining to Actresses, is examined through the lens of Industry Professionals, Artists as well as Social Activists and the common people.

Kyaa hai ye Samjhauta / Coming to terms or, Making your terms?

Dir : Hansa Thapliyal; 9 min; Animation; India; 2023

Do you make your terms? Do you come to terms? This film works with material of the everyday, scraps of cloth, needle thread and the timbre of human voices to explore these questions.

Insides and Outsides

Dir: Arbab Ahmad; 53 min; Documentary; India; 2022

Insides and Outsides starts its journey from the end of 2019, when the government approved discriminatory citizenship laws and a Nazi Germany-esque registry, the combination of which threatened violent disenfranchisement of India's Muslim community. 

In between us (Humare Beech Mein)

Dir : Rajkumar Prajapati; Ruchika Negi; 35 min; Documentary; India; 2023

In Between Us is a conversation between two women about making a film on caste.

Yes Sir

Dir: Mudit Singhal; 20 min; Short Fiction; India; 2023

Ramnarayan Tiwari, a Brahmin (dominant caste in India) is a peon/attendant in a government office to a Dalit (lower caste community that has been oppressed and treated as 'untouchables' by upper castes for centuries) who has risen to become a big officer. 

@buddistandqueer: their path from saree to robes

Dir: Daniel Sanchez- Lopez; 20 mi; Documentary; India; 2020

Tashi, a young queer activist in India, renounces their sexuality, and wearing sarees, to take on Buddhist robes. Flagging both their queer gender and their faith, they pushes on the fight for LGBTQI+ rights in the turbulent oceans of current Indian politics.

How to Build a House out of Wreckage and Rags

Dir : Bernd Lutzeler; 8 min; Documentary; Germany; 2021

Found footage: California in the 1950's and 60's. A young Indian couple enjoys their personal American dream come true in their home somewhere in the suburbs of San Francisco. Around the same time, an American missionary couple visits the city of Calcutta to shoot a Christian propaganda film.

13th April

11 am 

Kumva - which comes from silence

Dir : Sarah Mallegol; 108 min; Documentary; France; 2023

Kumva wanders through the memories of men and women who experienced the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda as young children. Their failing memory of a childhood lost collides with that of their parents, who have kept their silence for too long. 

2 pm 

Painting Dhaka

Dir : Lukas Zelinger; 91 min; Documentary; Germany; 2023

"Painting Dhaka" delves into the slums of Bangladesh and questions our perception of a country plagued by corruption. Originally focused on a graffiti workshop for disadvantaged youth in Dhaka, the film evolves into a profound exploration of Bangladesh's core challenge: a wealthy elite profiting from poverty, with the state-owned Bangladesh Railway playing a key role. The film explores themes of power, powerlessness and the struggle for freedom, while showing the transformative power of art.

3.35 pm 

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Now & Then

Dir: Jyoti Nisha; 01:50:50; Documentary; India; 2023

Dr. B. R Ambedkar: Now & Then, is a feature length documentary film that explores deep questions of human condition. Questions of liberty, equality, fraternity, social justice, exclusion and marginalized representation through, Jyoti Nisha, a Bahujan feminist filmmaker’s gaze in an upper caste Indian film industry. 

The film aspires to translate the praxis of Ambedkarite politics to image making and representation of marginalized subjects’ culture, history, politics in popular cinema and media. Driven by Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy epistemologically, the film symbolically and politically documents the representation and assertion of Bahujan people in the contemporary era. Questioning the institution of caste in India, this film is a commentary on religion, revolution, politics, and the freedom of speech.

5.45 pm 

Beyond hatred and power, we keep singing

Dir: Ramdas Kadavallur; 1:55:44; India; Documentary; Competition

In the times of authoritarian interventions that stifle democratic voices and constitutional rights, by hate mongering and spreading animosity among the people, the documentary chronicles the resistance of people through songs and lyrics. As tellingly enunciated by Maya Angelou, these are ballads for creation of a new world order, by raising their voices against those who unabashedly trample upon the democratic rights. it germinated out of the firm conviction, rooted in and expressed by Bertolt Brecht, that “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Curated by Amudhan RP