TOTO FUNDS THE ARTS
Short Films
This package of 8 short films comprises a selection of the best entries, both
documentary and fiction, submitted for the annual Toto Awards for Short Film since
2013. As the purpose of these awards (two are given every year) is to applaud
emerging talent, only Indian filmmakers between the ages of 18 and 29 are eligible
to apply for them. The films will be screened in chronological order, starting with the
first year of the awards and ending with the last.
A DREAM CALLED AMERICA (Documentary, 24 mins)
Director: Anoop Sathyan (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2013)
This is a documentary about Shahbaz, a 15-year-old boy from Gujarat. His father
Aftab makes a living repairing cycles on a footpath. Shahbaz has studied for a year
in the USA on a scholarship, where he was hosted by an American couple. He
returns to India with a changed attitude and perspective, having experienced a
much more comfortable and carefree life away from home. Now he yearns to go
back to the USA and settle there, putting his parents in a dilemma.
HAMARE GHAR (Fiction, 30 mins)
Director: Kislay (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2014)
Kamla works as a full-time maid in an upwardly mobile modern Indian family’s
home. The lady of the house is affectionate and regularly showers her with gifts and
old clothes. In this ‘modern’ home, there is no obvious violence or hierarchy but, as
Kamla slowly realises, it is concealed behind caring words and gestures of love.
The film explores class relationships in an atmosphere of love and affection.
A SUMMER FLU (Fiction, 17 mins)
Director: Priyanka Chhabra (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2014)
Wrapped in long afternoon siestas or stuck in an abandoned house, lie endless
pockets of time. Bright white walls carrying the shadows of pink bougainvillea
overlook desolate community parks. They say the hotter the summer, the sweeter
the mangoes. This film delicately balances the imagined and the real.
LITTLE HANDS (Fiction, 8 mins)
Director: Rohin Raveendran (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2015)
This film traces the stressful journey of a sixth-grade student, Jobin George, as he
sits through a difficult Maths examination. With hostile classmates all around, their
pencils in motion, and a strict teacher on the prowl, Jobin is forced to answer
several difficult questions, both about Maths and about life. Without uttering a single
word, the film makes you revisit the innocence of childhood and the unselfishness
of our younger selves.
MEMORIALS (Fiction, 24 mins)
Director: Korou Khundrakpam (Shortlisted for the TOTO Short Film Awards, 2016)
This film renders an evening in the life of K as he is nudged to deepen his
preoccupation with loss. Finding his pet fish dead on returning home, he responds
by enacting various rituals to trace an imprint of the life, the only testimony of which
will soon perish. Later, he is tempted to open an old almirah stuffed with the
belongings of his late father. The rituals continue to take new forms during the
course of the evening and attest to his nuanced relationship to death.
KURLI (Fiction, 17 mins)
Director: Natesh Hegde (Long-listed for the TOTO Short Film Awards, 2018)
Siddi Subba steals bananas from a landlord’s farm where he works as a servant.
On the same day, three children go to catch crabs in the same farm. Meanwhile, the
landlord and his son find a bunch of bananas hidden in a pit and realise that
someone has stolen it from their farm. Although one of his sons is accused of being
the culprit, Siddi Subba does not confess to his crime.
BISMAAR GHAR (Documentary, 26 mins)
Director: Shreyas Dasharathe (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2018)
A house gives us a sense of belonging. A symbol of its time and cultural milieu, it is
like a living, breathing being with a unique identity. This film explores how with
changing times and circumstances, we are moving towards a strange kind of
uniformity in the wake of ‘urbanism’ and ‘development’. And it is especially visible in
the most personal embodiment of our selves—our house.
DIVE (Documentary, 19 mins) Director: Archana Chandrashekar (Winner of the TOTO Short Film Award, 2017)
DIVE observes life under Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad, and tells a story of displacement and survival through 10-year-old Manna’s daily romance with the river Sabarmati.
No comments:
Post a Comment