Friday, September 19, 2014

Screening of Amudhan R.P. films at Visag!

Screening of Amudhan R.P.’s films at Visakhapatnam!

Jointly organized by
Environmental Film Society & Vizag Film Society.
Date: 21 September 2014; Time: 10 am
Venue: Builders association hall, Tycoon Hotel 4th floor, near Siripuram Jn. Visakhapatnam.

Films:

1) The Road
10 minutes; Tamil with English subtitles; 2008
Who owns the highways? When foreign direct investment and multinational Indian companies take over the road with heavy funding for construction and expansion who owns them finally? Do the villagers who were robbed off their lands own it? What about the school children? When the houses and trees are bulldozed along with the deities, Hitler’s dream can also be implemented in India.

2) Seruppu (Footwear)
64 minutes; Tamil with English subtitles; 2006
This film portrays the life and struggle of the inhabitants of Dharmanathapuram, an old slum in Tiruchirappalli with the combination of ethnographic and point of view style.

The protagonists are dalits/untouchables/harijans involved in making footwear for their livelihood, which is their traditional caste based occupation. They are also Catholics and that religious identity “officially prohibits” them from getting benefits such as reservation/quota in education and jobs, scholarship for students, and other measures that are otherwise available for fellow “Hindu” dalits under the same Indian constitution.

Besides the external trouble, they also face discrimination within the church as their fellow Catholics who happened to be “upper castes” practice untouchability and hegemony over the lower caste Christians. Also the entry of multinational companies because of globalization and privatization deprive them the market share, apart from the apathy shown by both the state and central governments who are in the process of slowly stopping all the support mechanism that has been guaranteed to the small scale and cottage industries in India.

3) Hey Mr.Gandhi, Leave the Indians Alone!
28 min; Tamil with English subtitles; 2011
3 villages near Madurai in south India will be robbed off 1500 acres of fertile lands by Special Economic Zone (SEZ) a chain of no-tax zones to promote industrialization initiated by Government of India across the country. People are being forced to leave the lands that were part of their lives for generations.

The filmmaker will be there to introduce the films and for post screenings discussions!


Amudhan R.P.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dear Mr.Amudhan,
Last week, I came across an interview with you in "Mathrubhumi" weekly and is very impressed with many of your views on social, especially caste issues. The topics of your documentaries itself is of great interest to me and I would like to watch them. Sorry to ask you this question - how can I get hold of these documentaries?

Thanks in advance,
Jinaraj