Press Note
The International Centre Goa and Moving Images will be screening K Stalin’s
award wining documentary India Untouched on November 21st at 6.30 p.m. at the
International Centre Goa. The screening is open to the public and will be
followed by a discussion with the director K Stalin.
‘INDIA UNTOUCHED- Stories of a People Apart” (108 minutes. Multi linugual with
with English sub-titles, Directed by Stalin K., Produced by Drishti and
Navsarjan) is the most comprehensive look at the “untouchables” in India.
Motivated by ancient religious edicts, no amount of governmental encouragement
has been able to stem the tragic custom that separates human beings according
to their birth. Those considered untouchable suffer more than isolation, they
are forced to fulfill menial tasks in their communities, drink from separate
containers, remove their shoes on the street as a sign of respect and perform
or exhibit many other outward signs of their perceived inferiority. While the
media projects a positive image of a democratic India, filmmaker Stalin K spent
four years traveling the country across many linguistic boundaries to expose
the continued oppression of the Dalits, “the broken people,” in a wide variety
of communities, including
Sikhs, Christians and Muslims.
Stalin also captures in subtle ways the everyday routine events in which
untouchability comes to be practiced and reproduced. In so doing the audiences
are left wondering if they too are almost with their conscious knowledge are
covertly colluding with this humiliating discrimination.
Stalin K is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. In
recent years, he has become known for his pioneering ‘community media’ work
with urban and rural communities, in which local people produce their own
videos and radio programs as an empowerment tool. He is the Co-Founder of
DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human Rights, and Convener of the Community Radio
Forum-India. He is a renowned public speaker and has lectured or taught at
over 50 institutions ranging from the National Institute of Design and the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences in India, to New York University and Stanford and
Berkeley in the US. He currently lives in Goa and heads Video Volunteers, a
media and human rights organization dedicated to empowering community voices.
‘INDIA UNTOUCHED’ is Stalin’s second film on the issue of caste—his earlier
film ‘Lesser Humans,’ on manual scavenging, won the Silver Conch at the Mumbai
International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at Earth Vision Film
Festival, Tokyo, and helped to bring international attention to the issue of
caste.
Awards:
Silver Dhow, Second-best Documentary, Zanzibar International Film Festival,
Tanzania, July 2008
Golden Conch, Best Documentary, Mumbai International Film Festival, February
2008
Best Film of the Festival, Mumbai International Film Festival, February 2008
Best Documentary, Mahindra IAAC Film Festival, New York, November 2007
Best Film, One Billion Eyes Film Festival, Chennai, India, August 2007
Festivals:
DC Meets Delhi Film Festival, Washington DC, September 2007
CineCufa Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2007
Hamptons International Film Festival, New York, October 2007
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, November 2007
Mini Indian Film Festival, Connecticut, November 2007
Mumbai International Film Festival, India, February 2008
Amnesty International Film Festival, Netherlands, March 2008
Tallahassee Film Festival, Florida, May 2008
India Express Film Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 2008
Bahrain Human Rights International Film Festival, May 2009
Shrikant Vinayak Barve
For Moving Images
9403175973
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