A still from the movie 'Narmada, a Valley Rises'Kochi: Film editor Bina Paul is bringing ‘Our Lives to Live’, a hard-hitting package of award-winning documentaries delving into the travails and heroic struggles of underdogs, to the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2014’s Artist’s Cinema package.
Beginning on Sunday, the package will have a daily screening till March 8 at the Aspinwall pavilion at 6:30 pm.
The films, both from India and abroad, look at people’s dignified and non-violent struggles for their land and livelihoods, the effects of globalization, revolution, families and, through it all, convey the idea of taking these important stories to the world.
Burmese film ‘Burma VJ’ is about courageous, young undercover journalists, who risk jail and torture to shoot and transmit stories on the Burmese police state around the world.
The thought-provoking, sometimes disturbing, films, dating from a couple of decades back to the present times, stand out for giving a voice to the underdogs.
“This series of films sparked in me thoughts on how difficult it is to find films that have created history, because ironically they get confined to history,” said Paul, the award-winning film editor. “These are the films that, in fact, shaped not only many of us as individuals but also created dialogues that still rage in society.”
The Indian films- ‘Voices from Baliapal’, ‘Narmada, a Valley Rises’ and ‘Aazadi’- are all related to the land: a three-year struggle by fishermen and farmers in Odisha; activist Medha Patkar-led struggle on the Gujarat border; and people’s struggles to protect their livelihoods from the colonial to present times, respectively.
“The Biennale becomes an opportunity to look back and in a sense look forward,” said Paul.
“Revisiting them revives the film and makes the content relevant again. I chose the films with these thoughts in my mind. The filmmakers have all moved on to create works that are varied and unflinching, but it is always interesting to see where they began.”
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