KOCHI: Every year, student Sameera Shah travels from her college in Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the International Documentary Short Film Festival in Kerala (IDSFFK). All because she wants to experience the lives of people, who may not be as privileged as she is.
“In that sense, I do not know how to term my need — personal or political. Filmmakers themselves seem to be straddling between the personal and political — whether to say stories of a collective conscience or to go on deeper individual journeys,” she says.
Probably to state its term clearly amidst this confusion, the IDSFFK came forward to bring out packages that promptly told stories that needed to be heard. Its package ‘Voices, Whispers, and Silences’ has a formidable package of seven films on social justice curated by Madurai-based documentary filmmaker R P Amudhan, whose future effort is to organise a film festival exclusively centred on social justice.
One of the movies We Make Film by Shweta Ghosh in the package shows the journey of disabled people, who are passionate about filmmaking. Mijo Jose, one of the protagonists dreams of making films like Bahubali, Sangeeta Gala feels the doors of Bollywood are tough to open for someone like her but remembers director Sanjay Leela Bhansali for his encouragement and Anuja Sankhe belives the media just dishes out cosmetic sympathy to people with disabilities but those gestures do not help in any way. Together, it is a poignant trek into the minds of filmmakers who are disabled yet keep the fire to tell stories through films burning in them.
“We often speak of accessibility for people with disabilities and we had probably not thought about this aspect,” says Manoj Dhanyam, a movie buff and social worker based in Bengaluru.
He feels film festivals in India (and even outside) reflect less on people’s collective struggle and more on personal dilemmas.
Film festivals were once stages where resistance was shown and discovered. The Cannes, for instance, was created as an answer to the fascist influences under Mussolini’s Italy which controlled the Venice Film Festival.
“But is there any festival venue now more flamboyant than Cannes?” asks Manoj.
But one cannot exactly blame festivals for this, as they are essentially forums where cinema as an art form is celebrated, says Amudhan. “A festival would generally cater to all kinds of cinema. The idea of a festival is not just to let oppressed voices be heard. It is basically about the art form, the filmmakers, and their storytelling styles,” he says.
Also, a festival gets several entries and it is not up to the organisers to control this. But the festivals do have the liberty to convey a theme and even take a stand at whatever is happening around them, he says, adding that IDSFFK has taken such a view on the Palestinian issue by including a package on the issue. “This is quite a bold stand considering the country’s changed political environment,” he says.
Amudhan has been organising film festivals based on the theme of social justice and has also curated packages for film festivals across the country. “The idea was to bring films made at different points in time and different countries. The inclusion of such a package is a way to assert the festival’s ideology. This time’s package has a Turkish film on transgender communities, another on Dr B R Ambedkar, and on bonded labour in Maharashtra,” he says.
This apart, there are several allied events organised during the festivals where the audience and the filmmakers get to converse with each other — a huge space that paves the way for better expression, criticism, and interpretations.
“Audience interpretation needs space, especially in socially relevant movies. Socially relevant movies would be relegated to propaganda films if they don’t have that space. And festivals allowing that space is a huge welcome,” says Sameera.
Banoyotsna Lahiri is at IDSFFK to represent her production — Kaidi No. 626710 Haazir Hai. The film, which premiered at the IDSFFK and is included in the festival’s ‘Competition Long’ section, is centred around her partner Umer Khalid.
She says her movie speaks larger stories of denial of civil liberties, growing Islamophobia, etc, even though it is a personalised account.
“The style of narration may be personal but it is part of the change,” Banojyotsna explains. “The perception of social justice too has gone through transformations. For example, the caste equations that bogged people decades ago are not the same as it is now. Hence, to reflect that a different narrative is needed. Filmmakers now use their experiences to state that. This could be a case of changed perspectives where subjectivity is given importance,” she says.
However, there is a need for balance too, as film festivals are grounds where the state of society needs to be blatantly portrayed, she says.
“It becomes dangerous when festivals are seen as weekend getaways rather than learning grounds. The same if stories on caste and oppression are taken as boring and are ignored for personal, nuanced films.”
According to her, short films and documentaries, especially, are resistance movies against social order and systemic oppression. This could be because of the way festivals are being marketed more as brands now. “Also, state intervention plays a huge role in India in stopping political films from being screened. Documentary filmmakers like Anand Patwardhan are finding it tough to screen his movies in festivals. The IDSFFK has, of course, been an exception,” she says.
Director of Dr Ambedkar Now and Then Jyoti Nisha feels the package on social justice in IDSFFK is a welcome sign, when festival dynamics are heavily lobbied, opinionated and marketed as brands.
“The selection dynamics of today is also skewed in many ways. I wonder if there are people on the committee, who will give importance to such voices. Are there enough representations of people from varied sections of society who feel there is a need for caste issues to be portrayed as social issues rather than class struggles? Or gender issues to be shown in its truth? For this, the committees should have experience in working or being from such sections,” she says.
Her movie was rejected at the MAMI festival in Mumbai. “In such circumstances, that there is a person exclusively curating movies that speak of social ails is a huge welcome. I have never seen it at any other festival,” she says.