22nd Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2020
6-10 Dec, Online Film Festival
Retrospective II – Sanjiv Shah
About Sanjiv Shah
Studied a bit of Architecture in the mid 1970’s. Worked briefly with an organization engaged in social housing and issues related to housing rights in Kolkata., and has been an intermittent filmmaker working on diverse fiction and non-fiction films for the past 4 decades. Mainly interested in exploring forms of the medium to effectively communicate and engage with issues that are socially, culturally and politically relevant.
Brief Filmography:
Studied editing/filmmaking at FTII, Pune between 1977 and 1981. Edited the Hindi feature film MIRCH MASALA; produced, edited and directed several documentaries on issues like Housing Rights, drought in the grasslands of Kutch, struggles of organized landless labourers across India, and ecosystems of the desert of Rajasthan and the Himalayas.
Produced, directed and edited a Gujarati film HUN, HUNSHI, HUNSHILAL in 1992. The film was an attempt to look at contemporary social and political history of India around the time of the rise in globalization and growing fundamentalism, which also coincided with manifest intolerance towards alternative voices and dissent, both from the state and civil society. It was an exploration of the cinematic form to allow a more nuanced and multi-layered look at recent history.
sanjiv.bandhej@gmail.com
Films by Sanjiv Shah (shown as part of his retrospective)
FAMINE ‘87
Editing: Sanjiv Shah / Manishi Jani
Camera: Navroze Contractor
52 min; Gujarati with EST
Lo-Band Umatic 1987
PRAKRIT MEDIA COLLECTIVE
For centuries, the grasslands in the North- Western, in an otherwise arid region of Gujarat bordering Pakistan have been home to the Maldharis, a predominantly Muslim community of traditional cattle grazers who have a rich heritage of culture, art and music.
Fifty years after lndia's independence the entire pastoral community and their habitat is under threat of extinction from natural calamities and human intervention in the name of development. Traditional practices of survival have been disrupted; native knowledge and skills have been made redundant. In the fourth successive year of drought an entire population has been reduced to digging ditches and carrying mud - surviving on dole.
During this re-telling of peoples' histories, what emerges is an understanding of the larger causes of scarcities and famines. And the need to review the very processes of planning and development which have deprived not only the people of BANNl, but the dispossessed all over the world of the right to survive on their own terms.
Thar: The Secrets of the Desert
Direction & Editing: Sanjiv Shah
Sound: Indrajit Neogi
Camera: Navroze Contractor
Produced By: Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi. 1995
A minister of the Govt. of India, or may be a leading politician of the time, was once being taken on a tour of the Jaisalmer district. Travelling for a while through the region and song the lush green Khadins, the water filled nadis, and the not-so-poor looking people, he kept on saying that this was not a 'registaan' ("ise registaan kahte ho?"). The journey continued and he kept on castigating the local people for insisting on calling the land a 'barren desert'. The sun climbed on and lunch was taken. The journey resumed and the temperatures outside rose to unbearable limits. The minister desired the cavalcade to stop for a brief rest. But where were they to stop. For miles on end there were no trees and no shade. All was dry; barren and bleak. And one of the local persons accompanying the minister said, "Sab, ye registaan hai!"
Apocryphal though the story may be, it succinctly illustrates the paradox that is the Thaar. A unique landmass that looks bleak and hostile with undulating sand dunes, lowly rock hills bereft of vegetation, saline marshes, and little vegetation, and yet supports a large human and animal population an moderate comfort. The documentary attempts to capture the spirit of the land and the people, who together have evolved into a rich, multifaceted society, and survived through centuries of droughts and scarcities. And the fate of the same land and people now, when the promise of modern science, knowledge and 'development' has brought them on the crossroads which lead into the unknown future
Redemption or destruction is the question. And which road to travel on, what direction to take?
A PLACE TO LIVE
Direction & Editing Sanjiv Shah
Camera Ajay Noronha
Navroze Contractor
Additional Camera Prathmesh Kharatmal, Jigar Kapdi, Daksh Punj, Githartha Goswami
Location Sound Suresh Rajamani
Production Manager Prathmesh Kharatmal
Project Manager Ela Singhal
Produced by Architecture Foundation and UDRI
Supported by TATA TRUSTS
Duration: 92 min
2018
Migration due to lack of opportunities, natural calamities, civil strife and forced displacement due to ‘development’ projects have made India a country with one of the largest homeless populations in the world.
The film argues for broader and inclusive imagination of our villages, towns and cities; acknowledgement of the fundamental rights of people to shelter and food and a model of development that is rooted in the ecology of the land.
