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A PRIEST'S FILM, BJP & MINORITIES, JESUIT ALUMNI, FALEIRO VISITS J&K PRIEST'S FILM SELECTED FOR INDIAN PANORAMA IFFI2004: GUWAHATI, Assam (SAR NEWS) -- A film produced in Tripura's tribal Kokborok language has been chosen for the 10th Kolkata International Film Festival, Indian Panorama of IFFI 2004. Mathia, meaning 'bangles' in Kokborok, the premier tribal language of Tripura, deals with witch hunting, branding of women and punishing them in Tripura's tribal society. Debut director Salesian Father Joseph Pulinthanath told SAR News that the 45-day shooting of the film had put human endurance to the test. "We had to brave inclement weather, sicknesses like malaria which claimed one life, and left two nearly dead, adverse terrain, insurgency, poor transportation and other facilities. In spite of these we have tried our best to picture tribal life accurately. Most of the actors are first timers and the entire film was shot on location and not on sets." Mathia treats with accuracy and passion the story of trust, betrayal, memories and desires, all centered on the social evil of witch-hunt, which Father Pulinthanath said, is still rampant in Tripura. The film helps to empower women as well as provide social awareness and education to the people, he said. Mathia, which was screened at the Kolkata International Social Cinema Seminar in 2003, won the best feature film award at the 18th International Film and Television Festival of Niepokalanow, Poland. The Kokborok Sahitya Academy and the Tribal Research Institute as well as the state government have lauded the film. "We wanted to come up with something recognisable and distinctly tribal. In the process, it also became truly universal," said Salesian Father Joseph Kizhakkechennadu, the producer of the film. Mathia is one of the few films in the country shot on DV cam and made into 35mm by reverse telecine. The film shot with more than 100 artistes, most of whom first-timers, and a 15-member crew, carrying about six tons of equipment, often traveled on foot and buffalo carts to reach remote villages in the state. Father Pulinthanath told SAR News that the rupees 2.6-million production took 45 days for completion, and the entire film was shot with a single camera with no sync sound and dubbing. Speaking on the ordeal, Father Pulinthanath said: "We wanted to do this film in the best way possible as we knew a whole community was doing it." "The selection of the film for the 10th Kolkata International Film festival is a first-time honour for Tripura, for the Sampari Pictures, and for all of us," he added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- BJP ASKED TO SPELL OUT STAND ON MINORITIES: NEW DELHI (SAR NEWS) -- Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao of Delhi has called upon the new president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lal Krishna Advani, to choose means that "promote communal harmony" and not allow any means that may "create bad blood" among or between various communities. Quoting Advani's words that the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 was "a very unfortunate" incident, the prelate urged the BJP leader to "ensure that all minority groups, including the Dalits and tribals, are taken into confidence and that the poor and marginalised are given full support to uplift themselves." Archbishop Concessao, in a recent congratulatory letter to Advani, has asked him to clarify the party's stand with regard to minorities without explicitly mentioning the Christian community. "We would be happy to know about the party's stand with regard to the minorities and that India belongs only to those who consider it as their Pitrbhu and Punyabhu? If not, it would be appreciated if it is clearly stated." "Otherwise", the letter stated, "the concern and anxiety will remain." The archbishop appealed to Advani to play a "more constructive and positive" role as the Opposition leader in Parliament, keeping in mind the welfare and development of the country in line with the noble goals of the Indian Constitution. The prelate assured the former deputy prime minister of his personal prayers that "your leadership may bear good fruits for the welfare of the whole country". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- JESUIT ALUMNI FOURTH NATIONAL MEET IN GUJARAT: AHMEDABAD, Gujarat (SAR NEWS) -- "A true Jesuit alumnus will never be part of a conspiracy of silence; he will have the courage of his convictions," said Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, while addressing the Federation of Jesuit Alumni Associations of India (JAAI), at their 4th National Congress held at Jamshedpur, October 30. In keeping with the JAAI anthem, which pledges "to give and count no cost (since they) are not just faces in a crowd (but) pledged to make a difference", Father Prakash exhorted the alumni to "stand up and be counted; to provide enlightened leadership and good governance and be men and women for others". To bring home his point to the august gathering of alumni -- who have ranged from presidents to the captains of industries and include doctors, innovators, pioneers, teachers, bankers and social activists -- Father Prakash touched upon the reality of today where the greatness of Gandhi's "ahimsa" was eroding in "the most horrendous acts of violence and brutality", as witnessed in the 2002 riots of Gujarat. He said the violation of human rights was still continuing both in Gujarat and in other parts of the country. The Jesuit priest also spoke of the "warped, distorted, prejudiced and unscientific minds" which had written the textbooks full of "factual inaccuracies, historical distortions, gross manipulations, and with atrocious grammar," referring to the doctored school textbooks prescribed for students in Gujarat under Chief Minister Narendra Modi rule. "One of my saddest experiences in Ahmedabad is that in spite of having hundreds of students who have passed out through the portals of our educational institutions, there was hardly an alumnus who came out during the Gujarat carnage in 2002, to say that violence and hate had to stop. I really think that there would have been a different history if some of our prominent alumni had the courage to take a stand," he added. Father Prakash is the director of the Jesuit-run centre for human rights, justice and peace -- Prashant situated in Ahmedabad, which is involved in advocacy, especially in relation to those affected during the Gujarat carnage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- M.P. FALEIRO MEETS J&K CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: Member of Parliament and former Union Minister, Eduardo Faleiro, arrived here October 28 to make an on-the-spot study of the Catholic community in Jammu and Kashmir, on an invitation by Bishop Peter Celestine of Jammu-Srinagar. At meeting in the Bishop's House, October 28, the representatives of the Catholic community apprised the MP of the "pitiable" conditions of the community vis-a-vis government jobs sand admission to professional colleges. They said Catholics had no reservation in government jobs despite the fact that they were all from the Scheduled Castes. They praised the efforts of Bishop Celestine in providing 50 percent fee concession to Christians in institutions run by the Catholic Church. The community leaders also spoke of the harassment meted out to some Catholic institutions in Jammu and Srinagar by the State administration. They requested the Catholic MP to take up the matter with the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and put an end to intimidation of school authorities. A delegation of the Kashmiri-speaking Catholic refugees, who had fled the Kashmir Valley along with 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-90 owing to eruption of terrorism, also apprised Faleiro of their plight and difficulty in getting financial or reservation benefits in the Church-run institutions. In his interaction with the members, the MP asked the Catholic community to take advantage of the educational institutions run by the Church in the State. "Interact with other communities and together make India a great country," he said. He urged the Jammu-Srinagar diocesan authorities to hold inter-faith dialogues in a big way "so that the services of the Christian community are properly understood and apprehensions about conversions are dispelled." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLAN TO UPLIFT SC/ST/BC SEGMENT IN TAMIL NADU: TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Tamil Nadu: (SAR NEWS) -- A joint meeting of the Tamil Nadu Bishops' Conference and the Tamil Nadu unit of the Conference of the Religious of India (CRI), held in Tiruchirapalli last month, evaluated their ten-point action programme geared to implement equal status and equal rights to Christians of Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes/Backward Class origin both in the Church and in society. The members found that the decade (1990-2000) had not produced the desired results and they decided to re-launch the programme with renewed vigour and a detailed action plan. It discussed the evaluation report submitted by the Madras Institute of Developmental Studies, who made the evaluation and found that though some improvement had been made during the decade in the matter, much remained to be done. The consultation decided to set up SC/ST/BC units in each diocese and launch effective steps to implement the recommendations of the joint meeting. The following programmes are planned to be taken up on a priority basis: Conscientise the clergy and the people to bring an end to discrimination against the Dalits in involving them in the Church structures, in educational institutions by giving them admission in general and higher education and technical education in the institutions run by the Church. It decided to fight for equal rights for Dalits before the Government in order to win constitutional rights for reservation in education and employment. Priority in admission to candidates to priesthood and religious life and projects for social and employment development under the Church projects were also discussed. The new action plan was released in the meeting presided over by Archbishop Peter Fernando of Madurai, October 16. Many of the bishops of Tamil Nadu, including CBCI Commission for SC/ST/BC chairman, Salesian Bishop A. Malayappan Chinnappan of Vellore, Bishop Peter Remigius of Kumbakonam, Bishop Antony Devota of Trichy, Madras-Mylapore Administrator, Father Lawrence Dorairaj and CBCI Commission secretary, Father Philomen Raj attended the meeting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEW -- GOD, SUFFERING HUMANITY AND THE ARTS: (By Ronita Torcato) MUMBAI, Maharashtra (SAR NEWS) -- Brueghel, the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, was noted for landscapes and scenes of the lives of ordinary people. His Biblical and mythological narratives and the religious allegories of Hieronymous Bosch, whom Carl Gustav Jung described as "the master of the monstrous... the discoverer of the unconscious", have served as inspiration for Mumbai artist Milburn Cherian nee Misquitta. Cherian has trained at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad; attended art camps in Australia, Singapore, and London. If Cherian were a writer publishing a book, one of the blurbs she would assuredly choose would be culled from laudatory opinion pronounced by an American-Jewish archaeologist photographer who has spent six months of the year in India for several decades and thinks the figurative painter is India's finest. If the responses I'd overheard from the metro's urban art aficionados on the first evening of the exhibition, Cherian's third in Mumbai, are anything to go by, Cherian's work is "Magnificent! Superb! Wonderful!" Let me confess, those are not dissimilar from the superlatives yours truly had uttered on first seeing Brueghel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus some years ago at the Musee Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels. But I, satiated by a meal of mussels in garlic and butter, wasn't, alas, inspired to write a poem about it (the painting) like W.H. Auden or William Carlos Williams. Auden visited the museum in 1938, viewed the Brueghel and wrote a beautiful poem. Two other Brueghel paintings are alluded to in Auden's poem: The Numbering at Bethlehem and The Massacre of the Innocents. This is how it goes: "About suffering they were never wrong,/ The Old Masters; how well, they understood /Its human position; how it takes place / While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;/ ". In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may /Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, / But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone / As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green /Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen / Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, /had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on." Like the Brueghel painting, Auden's poem reflects on suffering and the way people react to the suffering of others. The relationship between God and suffering humanity has been explored by artists, poets, writers and saints. Each of Cherian's paintings which combine Biblical or subaltern scenes with the surreal demand cogitation but the most riveting by far is a large canvas of a New Testament (Luke 8-44) miracle: Veronica, the woman with the issue of blood, touches the hem of Christ's garment. Like the great Brueghel, Cherian fills the frame with bountiful detail in a warm palette of amber, ochre, and mahogany: a tumultuous mass, handicapped, wretched and careworn surges towards the centre-point - the Christ. Says Cherian, "I wanted to show Christ overwhelmed by hordes of sick and poor people. The eagerness to be saved, healed is what moved me." Cherian's 'Woman Who Touched Jesus' Cloak' painting will be displayed with artworks by 39 artists from across India at Old Goa's Se Cathedral in an exhibition coinciding with the Exposition of the sacred remains of St. Francis Xavier, Goa's patron saint. The show titled 'Bridging The Gaps Through The Gospel' is the first exhibition to be held at the Se, the oldest heritage church in Asia. Cherian has participated in a group exhibition in New York. Her new show travels to the Mayfair in London next year (April 25-May 6) and later, New York. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor-in-Chief: Michael Gonsalves; Managing Director: Fr. George Veliparambil. SAR News, 2/5, 4th Cross, Vivekananda Nagar, M.S.Nagar P.O. Bangalore -560033. Tel.(080) 25482480 Fax: (080) 25476706, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 7000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers write -- or share what they have written -- pro bono, and deserve hearing back from those who appreciate their work. 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