Culture, Education and Expressions

Theme: CULTURE, EDUCATION & EXPRESSIONS

(The Beyond Borders Feminist Film Festival ended on 25th December 2022. Please email space.kriti@gmail.com if you are keen to watch these and similar films.)

BREAD AND BELONGING
(50 mins./ English, Konkani, Kannada with English subtitles/ 2020/ Docu/ India)
Dir. Sonia Filinto
As Goa, India’s smallest state, comes to grip with growing migration, three stories unfold around pão, Goa’s unique bread. Stories of people dealing with migration, changing culture and the ever present need to earn a living.

GHUNGROO

(9:15 mins/ Punjabi and Urdu with Eng. subtitles/ 2018/ Docu/ Pakistan)
Dir. Ali Rizvi
This short documentary is about a dancer named Dawood, who challenges toxic masculinity in a conservative Pakistani society by wearing ghungroos (bells) and performing Kathak, an eastern classical dance form that is typically performed by female dancers.

PORTRAIT OF A WILLOW WOMAN 

(29:29 mins/ Hajong, Bengali, Garo with Eng. subtitles/ 2021/ Drama/ India)

Dir. Supriya Prasad Rauniar

This film paints the life of Deeptimoni Hajong, an old indigenous woman from an obscure village in Meghalaya who lives without remorse and clings to traditional healing practices, beliefs, and dreams. 

SMALL-TIME CINEMA
(30 mins/ Assamese, Hazaragi with Eng. subtitles/ 2022/ Docu/ India & Pakistan)
Dir. Priya Naresh
The film follows two Youtube filmmaking groups, one living in Balochistan, Pakistan, and one living in Assam, India. The film follows these groups, as they make space for their complex history and cultures.

SONGS OF OUR SOIL
(52 mins./ Telugu with English subtitles/ 2019/ Docu/ India)
Dir. Aditi Maddali
Uyyala songs are an agricultural tradition rooted in the political expression of women in Telangana. Through these oral traditions, Songs of our Soil traces the histories of their resistance and memories of disillusionment. By looking at women’s participation in major political movements, from the Telangana People’s Movement to the demands of justice from the contemporary Mallana Sagar Irrigation project, this film attempts to complicate the relationship between memory, history and cultural production.

THE SEVENTH WISH 

(27 mins/ Urdu, English with English subtitles/ 2014/ Docu./ India)

Dir. Varun Trikha

Jinns/ Genies are spirits made of smokeless fire. They live longer than humans and so can elongate and preserve historical memory. But are they real? Rekhti poetry, written from the early 18th to the late 19th century in Lucknow and Delhi, was explicit about the desires of women (including lesbian desires). Were those desires real? 

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to watch films under other themes,  please go to the BBFFF home page and click on the respective theme poster. For any support or responses please reach out to us on space.kriti@gmail.com/ https://krititeam.blogspot.com