Selecting the right Oscar Entry :)

The movie Eklavya was selected by the Film Federation of India for an entry to the Oscars. The nearest competitor of a movie 'Dharm' has alleged bias and the Bombay High Court has decided to intervene. On the 30th of September, a division bench of the Court passed a order stating prima facie bias in the selection.

Hell! What's happening to our judiciary? The very idea of separation of powers seems to be getting diluted. I can just imagine if the matter goes ahead; the judges infront of a 70mm screen watching the movies and deciding the selection. :)

I have not seen Eklavya. I dont see many of these hindi movies. But I still don't think the Court should interfere in deciding whether an organisation's choice is right or not.

- Eklavya choice for Osacrs biased : HC- The Economic Times

- Eklavya for Oscars? Court to decide - The Hindu

Final Solution : Bestowed the Recognition

Banned by the censors, rejected by Mumbai International film festival, now being awarded by the President of India!

In the just announced 53rd National Film Awards, Rakesh Sharma's internationally-acclaimed documentary Final Solution about the Gujarat carnage has been given the Special Jury award comprising a Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs Ten Thousand. The Jury awarded the film "for its powerful, hard-hitting documentation with a brutally honest approach lending incisive insights into the Godhra incident, its aftermath and the abetment of large scale violence". ( http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2007/aug07/53rd_nfa-2005.pdf)

Said Rakesh Sharma, "Final Solution itself is a perfect illustration of why there should be no censorship for documentaries. The President of India is now recognizing the film for its merit and excellence. Curiously, in sharp contrast to the National Film Award Jury, the CBFC (censor board), while banning the same film in 2004 had observed that the film "promotes communal disharmony among Hindu and Muslim groups and presents the picture of Gujarat riots in a way that it may arouse communal feelings and clashes among Hindu Muslim groups." According to the CBFC, the film "attacks the basic concept of our Republic i.e. National Integrity and Unity. Certain dialogues involve defamation of individuals or body of individuals. Entire picturisation is highly provocative and may trigger off unrest and communal violence. State security is jeopardized and public order is endangered if this film is shown.... " Widespread public outcry and protest campaigns led the CBFC to clear the film without a single cut in Oct 2004. Both the ban and CBFC's subsequent clearance came during the UPA's regime.

Ironically, the government-run Mumbai International film festival (MIFF) rejected the same film on the grounds that it wasn't good enough, refusing even to screen the film, let alone allow it in Competition! However, the week after MIFF, Final Solution created history at Berlin by winning two awards, including the Wolfgang Statudte award, never given before to a documentary film!

Reacting to the National award itself, Rakesh Sharma said, "I am delighted and saddened at the same time. Delighted because after 30 international awards for my last two films, this is my first National Award! Delighted also as now Doordarshan will telecast the film to a wider audience in view of its policy convention and judgements by the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court. Saddened because the ugly shadow of censorship continues to mark the National Film Awards, leading to its boycott by a section of documentary film-makers."

Stressed Rakesh Sharma, "When an arm of the Government of India honours the film while another arm harasses the film-maker and then bans the film, it makes the Indian State appear schizophrenic. I hope the Government will do away with censorship for documentaries, especially in view of its stated commitment to Right to Information as well as Freedom of Expression. Documentaries should instead be brought under the purview of the Press Council of India - after all, what is the difference between an NDTV special report on Gujarat riots and Final Solution? A ban on Final Solution seems absurd! Police action to prevent screenings of documentaries seems totally farcical. There is no space for such censorship in a mature Democracy - I urge sections of civil society to join us in our campaign against censorship of documentaries."

Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat during the period Feb/March 2002 - July 2003, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide of Moslems in Gujarat. Final Solution is anti-hate/ violence as " those who forget history are condemned to relive it ".

The film has over 20 international awards and has been screened at over 80 international film festivals (details below and on www.rakeshfilm.com). These include two awards at its premiere at the Berlin International film festival and the prestigious Index on Censorship award in 2005

Final Solution (India; 2004; DVD; 149 minutes)

Awards:

Wolfgang Staudte award & Special Jury Award (Netpac), Berlin International film festival (2004)

Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Documentary, HongKong International film festival (2004)

Montgolfiere d'Or (Best Documentary) & Le Prix Fip/Pil' du Public (Audience award), Festival des 3 Continents at Nantes (France; 2004)

Best Film, Freedom of Expression awards by Index on Censorship (UK ; 2005)

Silver Dhow, Zanzibar International film festival (2004)

Best documentary, Big MiniDV (USA; 2004)

Special Jury Award, Karafest (Karachi; 2004)

Special Jury Award, Film South Asia (Kathmandu; 2005)

Human Rights Award, Docupolis (Barcelona; 2005)

Special Jury Mention, Munich Dokfest (2004)

Special Jury Mention, Bangkok International filmfest (2005)

Nominee, Best Foreign Film, Grierson Awards (UK; 2004)

Best Documentary, Apsara Awards (India;2006)

Special Award by NRIs for a Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI), NY-NJ, USA (2004)

Special Award by AFMI, USA-Canada (2004)

Special Jury Award, Worldfest 2005 (Houston)

Special Jury Award, Mar Del Plata Independent film festival (2005; Argentina)

Screened at over 80 international film festivals.

Rakesh Sharma: A brief profile : Rakesh Sharma began his film/TV career in 1986 as an assistant director on Shyam Benegal's Discovery of India. His broadcast industry experience includes the set up/ launch of 3 broadcast channels in India: Channel [V], Star Plus and Vijay TV and several production consultancy assignments. He returned to independent documentary film-making in 2001. His first independent film Aftershocks : The Rough Guide to Democracy has been screened at over 100 international film festivals.

It got the Best documentary film award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and at Jeevika ( India) and won 8 other awards {including the Robert Flaherty prize}at various festivals in USA and Europe during 2002-03. His latest film Final Solution deals with the politics of hate. It has been screened at over 80 filmfests and has over 20 awards ( Berlin, HonKong, Karachi, Zanzibar, Index on Censorship etc). Both films were rejected by the government-run Mumbai International film festival in 2002 and 2004 respectively.

website: www.rakeshfilm.com

blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com

Vikalp Screenings : 'My Country My Country'

Dear All,

Greetings from Vikalp@Prithvi !

Vikalp@Prithvi is a monthly series of documentaries and shorts brought to you by Vikalp:Films For Freedom in Collaboration with Prithvi Theatre.

On Monday 28^th May, 2007 at 7 p.m., we show Oscar Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature 'My Country My Country' filmed by Laura Poitras.

All are invited! Please post widely and forward to friends and colleagues!

Regards

Vikalp@Prithvi

For Screening Information Contact:

Anand Patwardhan 9819882244 Lynne Henry 9820896425

………………………………………………………………………………………………

VIKALP: Films for Freedom

In collaboration with Prithvi Theatre

Presents

MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

A Film by Laura Poitras

(Nominee, Oscar Awards)

(Nominee, Independent Spirit Award)

On

Monday, 28 ^th May, 7 pm

At Prithvi House,

Opp Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Mumbai 400049.

More information is available through

www.prithvitheatre.org / vikalp.prithvi@gmail.com

*ENTRY FREE, LIMITED SEATS.

*REGISTER AT CONTACT DESK BETWEEN 6 P.M and 6:45 PM.

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MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

Laura Poitras/USA/2006/90 mins

In Arabic, English, and Kurdish with English subtitles

Working alone in Iraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. An outspoken critic of the occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish

democracy in Iraq, arguing that Sunni participation in the January 2005 elections is essential. Yet all around him, Dr. Riyadh sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence. Dramatically interwoven into the personal journey of Dr. Riyadh is the landscape of the US military occupation, with Australian private security contractors, American journalists and the UN officials who orchestrate the elections. Unfolding like a narrative drama, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY follows the agonizing predicament and gradual descent of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.

Dr.Riyadh at the Abu Ghraib Prison

"Oh My Country"

Original Music Score by Kadhum Al Sahir

"Oh my country, may you have a happy morning.

Reunite everyone; heal your wounds.

I yearn to see you smile some day,

When will sadness set you free?..."

About the Filmmaker

LAURA POITRAS (Director / Producer / Camera / Editor) received a Peabody Award for her last documentary, FLAG WARS (2003). FLAG WARS received numerous other awards, including Best Documentary at the 2003 SXSW Film Festival, Best Documentary, Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Filmmaker Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. FLAG WARS had its U.S. television premiere on PBS's P.O.V. documentary series and was nominated for both a 2004 Independent Spirit Award and a 2004 Emmy Award. Laura's past work include OH SAY CAN YOU SEE...? (2003), and EXACT FANTASY (1995). She studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute and the New School. Before making films, she worked as a chef. She currently resides in New York City

Awards

Inspiration Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Best Long Documentary, Flahertiana Film Festival, Russia

Human Rights Award, Durban International Film Festival

Henry Hampton Award, Council on Foundations Film & Video Festival

More information on the film available on

www.mycountrymycountry.com / www.zeitgeistfilms.com

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About Vikalp:Films For Freedom

The History: In recent years we have seen riotous mobs burn books, destroy paintings, attack artists, tear down cinemas, rip apart ancient manuscripts and make a mockery of all our constitutional safeguards. The state itself has institutionalized censorship through its Central Board of Film Certification and its counterpart in the world of theatre. Documentary filmmakers have specially borne the brunt of censorship. As the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2004 approached, the then government knew that many films on the Gujarat carnage exposing the ruling party's complicity could embarrass it on an international stage. Overnight a new clause was introduced stating that while foreign films remained exempt, all Indian films would require a censor certificate. Even as over 275 filmmakers united and threatened to boycott MIFF, official censorship was withdrawn, but a dubious backdoor selection procedure excluded some of the best new Indian films dealing with subjects like communalism, caste, gender, sexuality and the environment.

The best way to fight back was to screen the 'rejected' films. So VIKALP: Films for Freedom was born. Many filmmakers whose films were selected for MIFF withdrew their work to screen them at VIKALP. Girish Karnad stepped down from the MIFF jury. Filmmakers pooled in their resources and found a perfect venue right across from MIFF at Bhupesh Gupta Bhawan, whose solidarity was unconditional and whose hall came free. Acoustic problems were overcome by curtains and mattresses. Volunteers poured in and the buzz was electric. Despite word of mouth publicity we had packed houses every day. VIKALP opened with an excerpt from Sadaat Hasan Manto's ' Safed Jhoot', an indictment of censorship and hypocrisy, performed by Jamil Khan, directed by Naseeruddin Shah. From this high, we never came down. For 6 days rapt audiences saw and debated over 50 films and participated in panel discussions on censorship. Across the street every official MIFF bulletin and meeting denounced VIKALP and swore innocence to the charge of censorship. But we were getting across. From juries to filmmakers and audience members, the ranks of the disbelievers kept growing - as they must. For an assault on freedom of expression does not affect filmmakers alone. It is an assault on democracy itself.

The Present: Following this breakthrough we continue to do monthly screenings at Bhupesh Gupta Bhawan. This success has led to collaborations with other venues like Aavishkar in Mahim and Readers Shop in Santa Cruz for monthly screenings. Film-makers in Delhi and Bangalore organize regular screenings in their respective cities. Selections of 'Vikalp' films have traveled to other parts of the country and occasionally to other parts of the world. Now we begin a new collaboration from March 2007 to do screenings at Prithvi, Juhu, on the last Monday of each month at 7 PM.

Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan, Diagonally Opp Ravindra Natya Mandir, 85 Sayani Road, Prabhadevi. Mumbai 400025.

vikalp.prithvi@gmail.com/www.freedomfilmsindia.com

Movie : AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH : A GLOBAL WARNING feat. Al Gore

directed by : Davis Guggenheim/ 93 min

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary film about climate change, specifically global warming. Directed by Davis Guggenheim and presented by Al Gore, the film explores data and predictions regarding climate change, interspersed with personal events from the life of Al Gore.

Gore reviews the scientific evidence for global warming, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced.

The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is insignificant or unproven. For example, Gore discusses the risk of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6m), flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. In an effort to explain the global warming phenomenon, the film examines annual temperature and CO 2 levels for the past 600,000 years in Antarctic ice core samples . An analogy to Hurricane Katrina that destroyed almost a million homes in coastal Mississippi, Louisiana , Alabama, and Florida is also used. The film ends with Gore noting that if appropriate action is taken soon (releasing less CO2, growing more plants and trees), the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed.

An Inconvenient Truth is also the title of a companion book authored by Gore, which reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book contains additional, detailed information, scientific analysis, and Gore's commentary on the issues presented in the documentary.

The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and has several awards to its credit (including Best Documentary Feature, Academy Awards, 2007; Best Documentary Feature, BFCA 2007; Stanley Kramer Award, PGA Golden Laurels Awards 2007 etc). It is the third-highest-grossing documentary in the United States to date. Both Gore and Paramount Classics , the film's distributor, have pledged proceeds from the film to further educational campaigns about climate change. Gore also calls upon viewers to learn how they can help in this initiative. For more information about the campaign, log on to www.climatecrisis.net.

Contact:Anand Patwardhan 9819882244,Lynne Henry 9820896425,Bijon 9833588105
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The movie is specially screened at Prithvi Theatre Mumbai on 26th march as part of the Vikalp Film Festival. (1800 hrs)
The Entry is Free.
For more information, contact Anand Patwardhan - 9819882244, Lynne Henry - 9820896425