THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A handful of documentary and academic films will be screened as part of the Ethnografilm Festival to be held at Lenin Balavadi today. Ethnografilm seeks to enhance understanding of the social world through films. ‘Crowning Glory’, ‘Eugene’, ‘El Dia Primera’, ‘Humanexus’, ‘Maturarul’, ‘Choreography’, ‘The Promised Land and Broken Promises’, ‘Woman Who Came Back’ and ‘Near the Mountain’ are the films to be screened.
In Lori Webster’s ‘Crowning Glory’ a distinguished group of black women preserve the legacy of their church heritage by topping off their Sunday best with a stylish hat. ‘Eugene’ is a last-days confessional of a man who died alone in his tent in San Francisco’s Presidio. Known around the area as ‘Buddy,’ he and his cat Trouble were a common sight panhandling on Chestnut Street, his good cheer masking a painful and damning secret about his past. ‘Humanexus’ by Ying-Fang Shen is a reflection on mankind’s long search for ways to connect each other, from cave drawings to tweeting. With significant changes in methods and tools, from very subtle processes of exchange, conversations, and to today’s mass communication and shiny new technologies, the sharing of messages, ideas, and thoughts has become easier.
Land has become increasingly a potent and volatile issue in India today, especially in the context of the contemporary liberalization policies of the State. The Struggles for land by the underprivileged communities and indigenous population are on the rise. In and through three representative heroic land struggles in a small sate in South India with high development index, ‘The Promised Land and Broken Promises’ by Antony Palackal maps the trajectory of broken promises, seemingly a never ending predicament of the excluded and the displaced, in a state known for its revolutionary land reforms in the 1970s and for the political rhetoric thereafter. ‘Woman Who Came Back’ is based on an oral narrative shared by elders of the from Tlicho region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It follows the historic journey of the first Tlicho to make contact with Europeans in the 18th century. The screening starts at 5.30 pm.