Engendered will formally launch its sixth edition of the Human Rights Film Festival in Delhi on Human Rights Day (December 10). The film festival will encompass a cross-section of themes related to marginalities, gender, belonging and identity, individual rights, climate change, and ecology. “In short, these beautiful, remarkable films reflect the complex world around us,” adds Engendered founder and director Myna Mukherjee.
Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, Canada’s official entry for the 2021 Academy Award, will open the festival at the open-air amphitheatre, DLF Cyberhub, Gurugram, on December 10. “We will have a socially-distant red carpet on the opening night that will be attended by Deepa Mehta, David Hamilton, Dilip Mehta, Divya Dutta, Swara Bhaskar, Faraz Ansari, Onir, Vivek Gomber, Tillotama Shome, Sayani Gupta and Shefali Shah. We are not inviting more than 50 people, and we will follow all COVID safety norms,” she adds.
Rohena Gera’s Sir will screen on December 11 with one industry and press screening of short film Sheer Qorma starring Divya Dutta, Shabana Azmi, and Swara Bhaskar will also be done. On the closing night that is December 20, Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha, Pakistan’s official entry to the Oscars will be screened.
A total of 50 short films, documentaries and feature films from South Asia, Canada, Britain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, Turkey/Syria, Iran, Thailand and India will be screened on the movie app, Plexigo. “Everyone might not have a laptop but everybody has a mobile, and this is the first time these movies will be available on an app,” she says.
Mukherjee has organised the 2020 edition after a gap of three years, the director says, “If you are trying to do it every year, sometimes the quality of content goes down. This year, we have merged the festival with New York’s South Asian Film Festival. We wanted very much to hold the festival this year as the pandemic has really affected the people who are already on the margin. It’s a shared crisis that the world is going through, and we wanted to get different cinematic voices from across the world to highlight and to celebrate that people are still making and watching films,” she adds.
The festival is a hybrid entity as it is not completely virtual. “Most of the films are available on the virtual platform, but we are also doing some physical screenings as a symbolic gesture to the industry badly hit by COVID as people are not going to the theatres,” says Mukherjee.
Highlights from the 13 virtual panel discussions include: A conversation on Archetypes of Justice with Richie Mehta and Shefali Shah of Delhi Crime; a session titled Superdevis, Virgins & Vamps, with Swara Bhaskar, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dilip Mehta; Facing the Elastic Mirror with Four More Shots cast and director; Pakistan series Churails cast and director, and many more. “Instead of Q&A sessions with every director, we will just facilitate conversations with them,” informs Mukherjee. The whole festival is free. To watch the movies, register on the website: plexigo.com/IViewWorld2020.
Must-watch
Documentary
I Am Greta (Sweden) Directed by: Nathan Grossman
Feature Film
Brief Story from the Green Planet (Argentina)
Directed by: Santiago Loza Kasturi The Musk (India) Directed by: Vinod Kamble
Short Films
Saving Chintu (India)
Directed by: Tushar Tyagi
Half a Life (Netherlands)
Directed by: Tamara Shogaolu Let My Body Speak (UK)
Directed by: Madonna Adib with Syrian collaboration Bare Giran-The Heavy Burden (Turkey/Syria)
Directed by: Yilmaz Ozdil