Highlights from the mumbai edition of

 

OUR LIVES…TO LIVE

(NO!to gender violence

(films of courage, protest, hope)

 

7-9 Dec 2013

FD Zone Auditorium, 10th Floor, Films Division, 24 Dr G Deshmukh Marg (Peddar Rd), Mumbai-400026

 

 

Selections from WOMEN MAKE MOVIES (WMM) special package

 

Friday 7 Dec at 12.10 pm 

Sarabah (Maria Luisa Gambale, Gloria Bremer / USA-Senegal/ 60 min)

Rapper, singer and activist Sister Fa, a childhood victim of female genital cutting (FGC), travels back to her home village in Senegal, where she fears she and her message against the practice will be rejected. Yet she speaks out passionately to female elders and students alike, and stages a rousing concert that has the community on its feet.

 

Friday 7 Dec at 6.50 pm

Going Up the Stairs: Portrait of an Unlikely Iranian Artist (Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami / Iran/ 51 min)

When Akram, an illiterate 50-year-old Iranian woman, became a painter unexpectedly, she hid her work from possibly disapproving eyes. Now her children have arranged an exhibition in Paris, but she must obtain permission from her husband in order to attend.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 4.10 pm

God Sleeps in Rwanda (Kimberlee Acquaro, Stacy Sherman/ Rwanda-USA/ 29 min) ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION

Heart-wrenching and inspiring, this powerful film is a reminder of the brutal consequences of the Rwandan genocide, and a tribute to the strength and spirit of the women who are moving forth.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 8 pm

Scarlet Road (Catherine Scott/ Australia/ 70 min)

Sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele – people with disabilities. Working in New South Wales, where prostitution is legal, her philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence. She fights both for the rights of sex workers and for access to sexual expression for the disabled through sex work, bringing together these two marginalized groups.

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 6 pm

Orchids: My Intersex Adventure (Phoebe Hart/ Australia/ 57 min)

Phoebe Hart knew she was different growing up – but she didn’t know why. This award-winning documentary traces Phoebe’s voyage of self-discovery as an intersex person, as she embarks on a road trip with her sister to meet other intersex people and hear their stories.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS FROM SOUTH ASIA

 

Friday 7 Dec at 8.05 pm

The Sari Soldiers (Julie Bridgham/ USA-Nepal/ 92 min)

An extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties.

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 11.50 am

How Green Was Our Valley (Fereshteh Joghataei/ Iran/ 32 min)

A dam has been built and the water is rising. 63 villages will be flooded and the residents must be uprooted. People wait for a miracle at a holy shrine.

 

 

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 2.15 pm

Something Like a War (Deepa Dhanraj/ India/ 52 min)

This celebrated documentary traces the history of the family planning program and exposes the cynicism, corruption and brutality which characterizes its implementation.

 

 

from SPECIAL FOCUS ON WOMEN & PUBLIC SPACES

 

Friday 7 Dec at 4.30 pm

My Letter to Pippa (Bingöl Elmas/ Turkey-France/ 60 min)In 2008, Pippa Bacca embarked on a hitch-hiking expedition

from Rome to the Middle East to promote world peace. She disappeared outside Istanbul. Her raped body was

later recovered. In this road documentary, Kurdish director Bingöl Elmas undertakes to continue the journey.

 

INDIA PREMIERES AT THIS FESTIVAL, ALSO SHOWING IN MUMBAI

 

Gulabi Gang (Nishtha Jain/ India- Norway- Denmark/ 107 min) (India premiere was at the Delhi edition of this festival on 25 Nov; screened in Mumbai at the launch on Wednesday 28 Nov)

In Bundelkhand, the pink sari-clad women of Gulabi Gang travel long distances by tractor and train to wrest justice for women and Dalits, undeterred by sneering policemen and condescending bureaucrats. They encounter resistance everywhere, as whole villages connive in protecting the perpetrators of violence.

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 3.10 pm

Can We See the Baby Bump Please? (Surabhi Sharma/ India/ 49 min) (India premiere was at the Delhi edition of this festival on 23 Nov)

The global reach of medical tourism and commercial surrogacy has spawned a range of clinics and practices across big cities and small towns in India. The film meets with surrogates, doctors, law firms,agents, and families in an attempt to understand the context of surrogacy in India.

 

INDIA PREMIERE IN MUMBAI

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 7.45 pm

FACING MIRRORS (Negar Azarbayjani/ Iran/ 102 min) CLOSING FILM

With her husband in prison, Rana drives a taxi to support herself and her young son. During a journey                            to drop Adineh far outside Tehran, Rana makes a discovery that horrifies her. A story of prejudice, friendship                             and redemption.

 

OTHER MUMBAI PREMIERES

 

Friday 7 Dec at 11.15 am

A Day in the Life of Rahela (Dil Afruz Zeerak/ Afghanistan/ 27 min)

PART OF AN AFGHAN PACKAGE AT OUR LIVES…TO LIVE

13-year-old Rahela lives on one of the steep hillsides in Kabul. Every day she hauls up canisters of water from the plains to help support her family and pay for her schooling.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 11.15 am

Fragments of a Past (Uma Chakravarti/ India/ 54 min) ACADEMIC-TURNED FILMMAKER WITH A MEMORABLE FILM

The ephemeral nature of memory and the importance of keeping alive our histories are both underlined in this film essay as it retraces the political journey of activist and writer Mythili Sivaraman.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 12.45 pm

Conversations For The Dark Side Of The Moon: Two Sisters & Shilpi (Putul Mahmood/ India/ 20 min)

INTERVIEWS THAT QUESTION OUR ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS

A dialogue with two sisters who are inmates of the Lumbini Park Mental Hospital in Kolkata; a conversation with Shilpi about her unnerving experiences with psychiatrists.

 

 

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 3.35 pm

Kusum (Shumona Banerjee/ India/ 11 min)

SHORT FICTION BY AN SRFTI STUDENT THAT IS ALREADY A RUNAWAY SUCCESS

Transvestite sex worker Kusum gears up for a regular night. Enter Purab, a troubled English literature teacher who speaks no Bengali. All hell breaks loose as the two struggle to negotiate the night in each other’s presence.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 5.55 pm

Invoking Justice (Deepa Dhanraj/ India/ 86 min)

ACCOMPLISHED FILMMAKER’S RECENT FILM, MUCH-AWAITED IN MUMBAI

In Tamil Nadu, family disputes are settled by all-male Jamaats which function without allowing women to be present. A group of women have established a women’s Jamaat, which works to reform a system that allows men to take refuge in the most extreme interpretations of the Qur’an to justify violence towards women.

MORE FILMS BY WELL-KNOWN FILMMAKERS FROM INDIA

 

Friday 7 Dec at 2.35 pm

The Ghetto Girl (Ambarien Alqadar/ 37 min)

In what is also known as India’s “Little Pakistan” in New Delhi, a girl searches for a lost home movie. The search takes her into the mapless lanes of the place she calls home.

 

Friday 7 Dec at 5.50 pm

Beyond the Wheel (Rajula Shah/ 59 min)

The film takes a look at three women in Indian pottery, across rural-urban and modern-traditional divides, with reference to the taboo of the wheel.

 

Saturday 8 Dec at 2.30 pm

Shit (Amudhan RP/ 25 min)

A street in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. A woman who sweeps up all the shit. Her name is Mariammal and she does this every day of her life. The film raises critical questions about caste, working conditions, the indifference of the Municipal Corporation, and people’s lack of civic sense.

 

Sunday 9 Dec at 11.00 am

Goddesses (Leena Manimekalai/ 43 min)

Three ordinary women who live extraordinary lives, surviving the darkest of times by going against society’s norms to live and work according to the rules they have set for themselves.

 

 

…MANY MORE FILMS AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING PANELS AND DISCUSSIONS ON THE MULTIPLE SITES AND FORMS OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE