Monday, April 21, 2025

26th Social Justice Film Festival, Thrissur

 26th Social Justice Film Festival 2025, Thrissur

Jointly organised by Centre for Media Studies, St Thomas College, MARUPAKKAM & International Film Festival of Thrissur (Kerala)


Venues: St Thomas College, Thrissur


Curated by Amudhan RP


10 am Inauguration 


10.30 am 


Dindigul Diaries 

Dir: Annette Danto; 01:07:41 min; Documentary; United States



Synopsis: Shot over a twenty-three year period, Dindigul Diaries is a feature length documentary telling the stories of four women living in the Dindigul region of Southern India. Dindigul Diaries is about the dignity of labor and the resilience of working women. It addresses human rights topics of girls education, dowry, and cultural restrictions and expectations of females around the world.


Beyond Ratings 

Dir: Aprajita Gupta; 37:30 min; Documentary; India 



Synopsis: Three women share their experience of navigating the app-world in the metro city. The sharings reveal gendered battles as platform workers and the tiresome reality of gig-workers' identities against the absent bosses, masked behind their apps. Filmed in the streets of New Delhi, the protagonists share about their door-to-door gigs, the surveillance at their workplaces and the absence of accountability in the urban landscape. 


Hues & Blues 

Dir: Vinayakram C; 45:24 min; Documentary; India 



Synopsis: Prasanna, Prasenjit, Ayushi and Vivek are individuals living separate lives and having distinct careers in different cities of the world. Being queer is a common thread they have and united by chance, they come together to throw a camping festival for the queer community in India. The festival is named "URU" meaning "VILLAGE" in the southern languages of India. 


1 pm : Lunch break


2 pm 


Formless Form 

Dir: Deba Ranjan; 60:00 min; Documentary; India 



Synopsis: Worshipping idols and scriptures, fasting, pilgrimaging, following discipleship, believing in sin and redemption have been the religious tradition of Indian subcontinent. This upholds the caste system and social hierarchy in the society. This film is about the journey of a religious faith - propagated by Mahima Swamy and Bhimabhoi in eighteenth century of Odisha, eastern part of India opposing the caste system, idol worship and pilgrimage. The Mahima Dharma, as it is largely known, then spread as mode of resistance in those feudatory states of Odisha where exploitation by the Britishers and feudal lords were more. During the life-time of Bhimabhoi the Jagannath Temple at Puri was also attacked. Where this faith stands now? Do its followers still oppose the caste system, or, has it been co-opted by the same Hindu religion against which once it had raised its voice? 


Bonded

Dir: Shobhit Jain; 56:19; India; Documentary



The film takes an ethnographic look into the life of a bonded labourer in a remote tribal village in central India.


Vattam - The Holy Sin 

Dir : Vivek K.A.; 28.20 min; India; Documentary 



Cows are revered as sacred in Hinduism, practiced by nearly 80 percent of India's 1.3 billion people. Many states already prohibit cow slaughter. Though cow is worshiped as god in many parts of the country, for the percussion artists in God’s Own Country, the skin of the slaughtered cattle is a means of livelihood as chenda and other percussion instruments are made of the tanned skin of cattle.


4.30 pm : Interaction and closing remarks 

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

27th Social Justice Film Festival 2025 : Entries invited!

27th Social Justice Film Festival 2025

19-21 September, Chennai

Last date to send entries : 15 July 2025

Thanthai Periyar 

27th edition of International Social Justice Film Festival of India will be organised on 19-21 September 2025.

We invite Indian and international documentaries, short fiction, animation films, experimental films and music videos.

About us :

The film festival was started by MARUPAKKAM in 2014 in association with Goethe-Insitut Chennai.

We organise 2-3 editions per year depending upon the requests from various educational and cultural institutions across India.

We are happy to inform you that we will be organising our 26th edition in September to celebrate the birthday (17 September) of Thanthai Periyar, the well known social reformist from Tamilnadu.

The upcoming event is organised by MARUPAKKAM in association with various institutions in Chennai.

It is a non competitive film festival.

The rationale behind the film festival is to appreciate and support films on Social Justice from both Indian and international filmmakers, producers and distributors.

Categories : Documentaries, short fiction, animation, music videos and experimental films

Rules & Terms :

1) Films based on Social Justice are invited
2) Indian and international & Old and new films are invited
3) One filmmaker / producer can apply any number of films
4) Films that promote hatred will not be accepted
5) Both Indian and international films can be sent
6) It is a non competitive film festival
7) No screening fee will be paid.
8) Selection committees' decisions are final
9) One member per film, from the selected films will be invited to the physical event
10) No travel will be provided; a simple stay for 2 days will be provided
11) Only the films (all languages) with subtitles in English will be accepted
12) Festival will be organised physically depending upon the local rules by administration. If the physical event is not possible, films will be shown online
13) Interactions with the filmmakers will be organised online if required and possible

Click here to send entries!

26th Social Justice Film Festival, Thrissur

 26th Social Justice Film Festival  2025, Thrissur Jointly organised by Centre for Media Studies, St Thomas College, MARUPAKKAM & Intern...