Report: Kolkata People’s Film Festival

I made it to the venue at Uttam Mancha just in time to catch the first film, Kayo Kayo Colour? (Which colour?). Directed by Shahrukhkhan Chavada, the plot of this Gujarati film revolves around the struggle of a young girl, Ruba, to buy a canned beverage worth Rs100 from her neighbourhood store in an old locality of Ahmedabad. Her persistence reveals the deeper aspirations of someone growing up in a lower middle class household. Other subplots that play out simultaneously cast light on aspects of the lives of Muslims in the city.

READ MORE: Interview: Shahrukhkhan Chavada, director, Kayo Kayo Colour

Next up was Bo Thet Htun’s The Forgotten Hands, which narrates the true story of a group of people from the Karenni community trying to flee the onslaught of the army in Myanmar. A re-enactment of the events by the actual people who were being chased away, this is a moving story of loss. Narrated from the perspective of the female lead, it touches on what happens when her sister doesn’t return from the forest after completing her daily chores.

Organised by the People’s Film Collective, the KPFF is independent and remains solely funded by the public in an age when corporate funding is integral to cultural festivals across the country. Founding member Kasturi Basu says the aim was to create a platform to showcase contemporary politically committed work emerging from South Asia both in the documentary and fiction space. In its tenth year, the festival, which began as a four-day event, now runs for five days and includes a new section on retrospective cinema. This year, the section included five films that played a significant role in the collective life of the Indian public and continue to be relevant. Apart from this, the KPFF was also intended to be a forum to talk about current events and express solidarity with those who are suffering across South Asia and in Palestine too. Towards this end, the short film, Nur y Abir (Nur and Abir), about two Palestinian school girls, who dream of swimming in the ocean, was screened.

Barir Naam Shahana (A House Named Shahana), set in 1990s Bangladesh, is about Dipa, a young woman who is married off to someone in Britain over a trunk call. When she gets to the new country, she is shocked to see that she has married an elderly man. She is expected to wipe off her individuality, follow her husband’s diktats and endure marital rape. Dipa decides to escape her husband and flee the foreign land. Directed by Leesa Gazi, the film follows the evolution of the protagonist as she takes control of her life.

Apart from film screenings, the Kolkata People’s Film Festival gave viewers the opportunity to listen to directors talk about their inspirations and challenges. In a conversation with documentarian Sanjay Kak, Deepa Dhanraj talked about her documentary Kya Hua Is Shahar Ko? (What Happened To This City?), which is about the Hyderabad communal riots of 1984. She revealed that shooting it was difficult as the advanced technology that film makers use today did not exist back then. She recounted having to go into crowds to collect footage and crew members being separated from each other. However, the cameraman was instructed to keep shooting whatever the situation. All these decades later, the film continues to be relevant.

In another session, author Arundhati Roy talked about the targeting of human rights defenders and the shrinking of spaces for having conversations around building solidarities. She stated that a writer’s aim is to bridge the gap between thoughts and words and that’s becoming difficult as the concept of meaning itself is under assault.

After the screening of her film Zameer, historian and filmmaker Uma Chakravarti talked about the condition of the Indian prison system. She highlighted the torture meted out to women prisoners, especially those who are activists. Her concluding message was that the women’s movement needs to be an inclusive one and talk about people from different sections of society.

At a time when the screening of a National Award winning movie Ram ke Nam (In the Name of Ram) was attacked at three different places across the country, it was shown at the KPFF. The carefully-chosen collection of cinema presented at the event highlighted the problems that engulf our world today. True to its name, this festival not only focussed on the issues of the people, it allowed common citizens to actively discuss them too.

Chittajit Mitra (he/him) is a queer writer, translator and editor from Allahabad. He is co-founder of RAQS, an organization working on gender, sexuality and mental health

I made it to the venue at Uttam Mancha just in time to catch the first film, Kayo Kayo Colour? (Which colour?). Directed by Shahrukhkhan Chavada, the plot of this Gujarati film revolves around the struggle of a young girl, Ruba, to buy a canned beverage worth Rs100 from her neighbourhood store in an old locality of Ahmedabad. Her persistence reveals the deeper aspirations of someone growing up in a lower middle class household. Other subplots that play out simultaneously cast light on aspects of the lives of Muslims in the city.

READ MORE: Interview: Shahrukhkhan Chavada, director, Kayo Kayo Colour

Next up was Bo Thet Htun’s The Forgotten Hands, which narrates the true story of a group of people from the Karenni community trying to flee the onslaught of the army in Myanmar. A re-enactment of the events by the actual people who were being chased away, this is a moving story of loss. Narrated from the perspective of the female lead, it touches on what happens when her sister doesn’t return from the forest after completing her daily chores.

Organised by the People’s Film Collective, the KPFF is independent and remains solely funded by the public in an age when corporate funding is integral to cultural festivals across the country. Founding member Kasturi Basu says the aim was to create a platform to showcase contemporary politically committed work emerging from South Asia both in the documentary and fiction space. In its tenth year, the festival, which began as a four-day event, now runs for five days and includes a new section on retrospective cinema. This year, the section included five films that played a significant role in the collective life of the Indian public and continue to be relevant. Apart from this, the KPFF was also intended to be a forum to talk about current events and express solidarity with those who are suffering across South Asia and in Palestine too. Towards this end, the short film, Nur y Abir (Nur and Abir), about two Palestinian school girls, who dream of swimming in the ocean, was screened.

Barir Naam Shahana (A House Named Shahana), set in 1990s Bangladesh, is about Dipa, a young woman who is married off to someone in Britain over a trunk call. When she gets to the new country, she is shocked to see that she has married an elderly man. She is expected to wipe off her individuality, follow her husband’s diktats and endure marital rape. Dipa decides to escape her husband and flee the foreign land. Directed by Leesa Gazi, the film follows the evolution of the protagonist as she takes control of her life.

Apart from film screenings, the Kolkata People’s Film Festival gave viewers the opportunity to listen to directors talk about their inspirations and challenges. In a conversation with documentarian Sanjay Kak, Deepa Dhanraj talked about her documentary Kya Hua Is Shahar Ko? (What Happened To This City?), which is about the Hyderabad communal riots of 1984. She revealed that shooting it was difficult as the advanced technology that film makers use today did not exist back then. She recounted having to go into crowds to collect footage and crew members being separated from each other. However, the cameraman was instructed to keep shooting whatever the situation. All these decades later, the film continues to be relevant.

In another session, author Arundhati Roy talked about the targeting of human rights defenders and the shrinking of spaces for having conversations around building solidarities. She stated that a writer’s aim is to bridge the gap between thoughts and words and that’s becoming difficult as the concept of meaning itself is under assault.

After the screening of her film Zameer, historian and filmmaker Uma Chakravarti talked about the condition of the Indian prison system. She highlighted the torture meted out to women prisoners, especially those who are activists. Her concluding message was that the women’s movement needs to be an inclusive one and talk about people from different sections of society.

At a time when the screening of a National Award winning movie Ram ke Nam (In the Name of Ram) was attacked at three different places across the country, it was shown at the KPFF. The carefully-chosen collection of cinema presented at the event highlighted the problems that engulf our world today. True to its name, this festival not only focussed on the issues of the people, it allowed common citizens to actively discuss them too.

Chittajit Mitra (he/him) is a queer writer, translator and editor from Allahabad. He is co-founder of RAQS, an organization working on gender, sexuality and mental health