Festival Diary. Day One-March 31

Kolkata People’s Film Festival 2022. In a post-pandemic landscape, after two years of sea changes in the world. Deepening political fissures, widening social divides, losses in livelihoods, education, and lives.

Two years that have seen extraordinary activism, people-based movements. Undoing the damage, if at all possible, is a massive task and one that involves rebuilding. A restart of dialogue, gatherings. With the purpose of forging ahead, notwithstanding the polemics of the nation-state.

The 8th Kolkata People’s Film Festival (KPFF) is situated in that space. The Kolkata People’s Film Festival started in 2014 with a vision to create a space for political and anti-fascist films. After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, the 8th edition attracted a large gathering at 10 am on Wednesday, its first day, despite being a working weekday. People gathered in the lobby looking through the art installations in solidarity with the historic farmers’ movement, the migrant crisis and other unbridled hardships brought on the masses in the last few years.

The first day began with the screening of Discount Workers, directed by Ammar Aziz and Christopher Paz.

Gareeb zaroor hai, lekin insaan hai. (We are poor, sure! But we are human)

Who is responsible for the lives of those who work in sub-human conditions? Where do they stand in a consumerist world, obsessed with fast fashion and unsustainable lives? Why must the road to justice for those who provide the world with the ‘Outfit Of The Day’ be so long and fraught with turmoil?

Discount Workers speaks about the long-drawn-out search for justice for victims of a fire in a garment factory, taking the viewers through interviews and incidences, giving a stark rendering of the desperation faced in this journey.

The second film screened was Why Not, directed by Shekh Al Mamun.

Memories that will not be forgotten.

Armed conflicts involve mass rapes. The Biranganas from the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Military comfort women from the Japanese occupation of Korea are women who have been humiliated and ignored over generations. Al Mamun connects the women of two different countries, in two different periods, sexually assaulted by enemy combatants, and shunned by their society.

Aashaon Ke Paar (Beyond Hope), the first film in the New Indian Fiction Category and the third film of the day, directed by Rohit Kumar, has several poignant scenes that emphasize both the sense of hopelessness faced by migrant workers in big cities and the relationship between a young man and his partner. In a place of economic uncertainty, it feels like being caught in a vortex, especially when surrounded by the unattainable.

The second film in the New Indian Fiction Category—Green Blackberries— directed by Prithviraj Das Gupta explored access and equitable education in a remote village in northeast India. Made in 2020, the film is especially relevant today, two years since schools and colleges were closed down resulting in massive gaps created in a world where divides in educational spaces are already so prominent.

The first session ended with Green Blackberries, with a short break for lunch. The crowd gathered in the lobby of Uttam Manch to take a closer look at the art installations and carry forward conversations that began in the auditorium.

Post-lunch, we resumed with The Last Man, directed by Dakxinkumar Bajrange. The Last Man focuses on manual scavenging, the violent practice of manually cleaning sewers and manholes for untreated human excreta. The film asks us, that India has succeeded in sending a mission to Mars, but it’s caste system which is foundational to its social fabric sends human beings into pits full of muck, poisonous gases and infectious diseases. Importantly, the film spotlights the Valmiki community and asks us to expand the official definition of manual scavenging to consider other inhuman practices such as dragging dead animals and burning dead bodies.

Borderlands, directed by Samarth Mahajan, is a political documentary about the historically contentious lines fractioning the landmass of the sub-continent. Mahajan weaves together stories of diverse individuals, connected around the Borderlands. Amidst the cacophony of polarization, identitarian divides created by the political leaders and corporate media, one may forget that borders along land, rivers and mountains are peopled spaces. Nationalist rhetoric erases the personal losses people suffer for their imagined communities. Borderlands forces us to move beyond the white noise and concentrate on the human stories. It narrates the lived experiences of six individuals residing around the borderlands. In the context of the anti-CAA, NRC, NPR struggles, Borderlands reminds us that our primary responsibility is towards one another as human beings.

The inaugural ceremony began with a speech by founder and organizer Kasturi Basu, a longtime political activist and filmmaker. Basu highlighted the difficulties of organizing the festival which runs solely on crowdfunding, especially during the pandemic which severely affected the people who are the prime contributors to the festival. However, the need for spaces for political documentaries and fictions are more urgent than ever before. With increasing state surveillance and censorship accompanied by gruesome violence in every aspect of individual life including the practice of any form of art, it has become more than necessary to support and fight for every little space that shines with the spirit of rebellion. In her speech, Basu pointed out how films are becoming a tool for fascist propaganda. Audio-visual communication is a powerful medium. Consider films like Kashmir Files celebrated by RSS-BJP and their supporters. Given the amount of corporate power backing such films, it is increasingly difficult to counter their narrative. Basu warns, “They are telling us what we can remember and forget.” This is a fascist propaganda of erasure and rewriting of history and manufacturing of consent amongst the masses.

She also mentioned the draconian act of merging four functional government bodies: Films Division of India (established in 1948) which houses more than 8000 newsreels and 1000 documentaries, the National Films Archive of India, the Children’s Film Society India, and the Directorate of Film Festivals. All four institutions have been merged under one umbrella body – the NFDC. This is another step toward manipulation of the general conscience and the privatization of public property. Basu extended her support to the group Cinema Solidarity which has started an online movement against the decision.

The inaugural ceremony concluded with a special screening of a short documentary by celebrated filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. Heart to Art is a film that rekindles hope in these troubled times. Students from India and Pakistan organized an art exhibition in Karachi in 2004 focusing on the betterment of relations between the two countries. The film talks about hope above all things. The film spotlights the Gandhian values of harmony, peace and love. Something that we badly need in these troubled times.

My Caste, directed by Amudhan R.P. traces multiple ways in which caste is experienced in Tamil Nadu today. Situated in the backdrop of Dravidian politics, ongoing caste violence, and vibrant people’s struggles, the film invites the audience into a dialogue. When did I experience caste for the first time in my life? What have I gained or lost because of my caste identity? Do I hide my caste? Do I celebrate it? Can I introspect? This is the second film in a trilogy, that inquires into how consensus is secured to create an obedient subject. The question of the obedient subject gains heightened importance with ascendant fascist forces and majoritarian impulses. The film screening was followed by a conversation with the director. The audience had several questions about comparative contexts of caste, caste in other religions, and the intersection of caste and class.

The 1st day concluded with the international premiere of Longen Folk to Go On Pilgrimage, directed by Kunal Vohra. The film traces the annual ritual of the Kanwar Yatra, an annual pilgrimage in which devotees, or Kanwariyas, fill water from the Ganga and carry it back to their hometowns for libations. Documented over five years, the film explores religious, cultural, environmental, issues as well as the performative staging of masculinity. It also spotlights how Hindutva forces penetrate this space. We had the pleasure of having a conversation with Kunal Vohra, who shared the challenges of making a film like this in today’s political context, as well as the possibilities and surprises that surface in such a form of documentation.

We concluded the first day, with an enthusiastic audience staying on to converse with the directors and organizers. We look forward to a promising weekend.

Report-Paroma, Mayurakshi, Devi

Photo-Sayan, Nivedita

Kolkata People’s Film Festival

31 March-3 April

Uttam Manch (Hazra)

Entry Free