Some days, the black kites lit­er­al­ly drop from the sky—the air pol­lu­tion in Delhi, India, can be so intense that flocks of the birds fall to earth. If they’re lucky, they’ll find them­selves in the care of Nadeem and Saud, two heroic broth­ers who are con­cerned about the ani­mals’ wel­fare. They’ve set up an impro­vised sanc­tu­ary for birds of prey, where they treat the ani­mals, feed them until they can fly again. 

There is no false opti­mism here. The broth­ers are some­times down­cast about the point­less­ness of their efforts, but doing noth­ing is not an option. Against the back­drop of grow­ing ten­sions that make the sit­u­a­tion increas­ing­ly desperate—particularly for the Muslim minor­i­ty to which the broth­ers belong—there is hope to be had from the simple fact that there are people who do care. (Idfa)  

SHAUNAK SEN (*1987 in India) His debut film CITIES OF SLEEP was already screened at Film­fo­rum 2017. ALL THAT BREATHES was nom­i­nat­ed for an Oscar and won numer­ous awards at Cannes and Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val among others.   

Direc­tor: Shau­nak Sen
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Ben Bern­hard, Riju Das, Saumayan­da Sahi
Edit­ing: Char­lotte Munch Bengtsen
Music: Roger Goula
Pro­duced by: Rise Films, Kit­er­ab­bit Films
Dis­tri­b­u­tion: The Film Collaborative

Four strangers - same room, same cloth­ing, same city. Four people who would rarely meet in real life, enter into dia­logue. Love, money, faith and some kind of dif­fer­ence. Four times Kolkata, India. An exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­tary about iden­ti­ty and society.

A house gives us a sense of belong­ing. It envelops us and pro­tects us. It is a symbol of the time, the cul­ture, and the beings that it inhab­its. A house has a unique iden­ti­ty, like a living, breath­ing being. Each house is dif­fer­ent, with its own perks and glitch­es. WITHERING HOUSE is an obser­va­tion­al piece about Maheshb­hai, Tarun­aben, Gan­patb­hai and their house. They have been living in a hun­dred-year-old house for the past 20 years in the heart of Ahmed­abad, but now they have decid­ed to move into a new apart­ment that was made avail­able to them under the Prime Minister’s Hous­ing Scheme. Are the chang­ing times and cir­cum­stances lead­ing towards a strange kind of uni­for­mi­ty under the shadow of ‘urban­ism’ and ‘devel­op­ment’? Or do tra­di­tion­al struc­tures fail to cater to our chang­ing needs?

Nes­tled in the Himalayan range in Uttarak­hand, India, the town of Kalap may soon have a road suit­able for motor­ized vehi­cles. Until then, the vil­lage con­tin­ues to be 10-kilo­me­ter walk uphill from the near­est road. The film delves into the lives of the people of Kalap, who for gen­er­a­tions have been nego­ti­at­ing their own path for sus­tain­able living, and Kot­gaon, a town which is already con­nect­ed with a pass­able road. Will easy access to the world beyond bring a grad­ual shift in social and cul­tur­al values across gen­er­a­tions? KAHAN KA RAASTA is an immer­sive jour­ney through time and space into the every­day real­i­ty of Kalap and Kot­gaon. It tran­spires at the pace of vil­lage life and unveils its many facets.

Why do people sing when they work? In Phek, a vil­lage in the hills close to the border between India and Myan­mar, almost all res­i­dents work togeth­er in the fields. While prepar­ing the rice ter­races, plant­i­ng seedlings, or har­vest­ing the grain and car­ry­ing it up impos­si­bly steep slopes, the rice cul­ti­va­tors of Phek sing. This oral folk music tra­di­tion, called Li, keeps their work going and cannot be sung by a single voice. It can only be ren­dered as a har­mo­nious, poly­phon­ic col­lec­tive that goes “up down and side­ways.” In group inter­views, the rice cul­ti­va­tors share the sto­ries behind the songs and talk about what the music means to them. Com­bined with impres­sive, atmos­pher­ic pic­tures that follow the rhythm of their work, UP DOWN & SIDEWAYS is a vivid por­trait that explores this rural musi­cal culture.
UP DOWN & SIDEWAYS is the first fea­ture film by the u-ra-mi-li project, which rep­re­sents a larger body of work ini­ti­at­ed by an artists’ col­lec­tive drawn to music, move­ment and rhythm in the everyday.

This film has been select­ed for the main pro­gram as well as the stu­dents’ plat­form. It is both a debut film and is out­stand­ing for its col­lec­tive development.

No Eng­lish trans­la­tion available.

No Eng­lish trans­la­tion available.

No Eng­lish trans­la­tion available.

No Eng­lish trans­la­tion available.

No Eng­lish trans­la­tion available.