Vikalp Films for Freedom is happy to invite you to Let It BE ! a six-day
festival of Indian and Belgian documentaries and shorts from March 20 to 25.
The festival will take place at the conference hall of the National College
in Bandra every evening from 6 pm onwards.
Let It BE ! brings a superb selection of Belgian independent cinema,
representing a wide spectrum of film making from the experimental to the
humourous to the political. Alongside internationally acclaimed films like
`Une Part Du Ciel’ (Cannes 2002), and the work of renowned film-makers like
Pascal Baes and Boris Lehman, the festival will also showcase the work of
Brussels’ famous film-making ateliers where master film-makers work in
collaboration with other artists and students.
Every evening’s screening will be kicked off by a new Indian documentary
film from a package specially curated by Vikalp Films for Freedom for this
festival.
The festival is also designed to create space for filmmakers from both sides
to meet, talk, and discuss future collaborations.
In addition, the festival audience can look forward to exciting discussions
with eminent Belgian film makers Boris Lehman and Benedicte Lienard, who
will accompany the festival and also take part in special interactions with
film makers and students.
Off-venue sessions will be held in the afternoons on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd
at the popular restaurant Seijo and the Soul Dish, a few minutes away from
National College. These session are designed for more intensive interactions
between Indian and Belgian film makers, students, and interested members of
the audience.
Following is the schedule and synopses of films … do spread the word
The schedule is also available at our web site www.freedomfilmsindia.org
March 20-25 6 pm onwards:
Conference Room, National College, Bandra West
Delegate registration and daily pass Rs. 25
Off venue sessions at Seijo and the Soul Dish
The films:
Tuesday, March 20
6:00 pm
Pee (Shit) - 26 min, Documentary
Dir: Amudhan R. P.
Madurai town, early in the morning. A lane beside a temple. Mariammal goes
about her daily work routine - which is to scrape up the shit lying in lumps
all over the place. But the humiliation of this job doesn’t mean she takes
it all lying down… Shot with a hand-held camera that hardly ever cuts,
this is documentary at its rivetting best.
Antaral (Endnote) - 18 min, fiction, experimental
Dir: Ashish Avikunthak
Three women reminisce about their times at school and rekindle and affirm
old friendships. They share a strange secret about each other that is never
made known to us. The film is a cinematic interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s
1967 dramaticule Come and Go
7:15 pm
Muet Comme Une Carpe (Silent as a Fish) - 35 min
Dir: Boris Lehman
The ‘Gefilte Fish’ is a traditional dish for the Ashkenazi Jews. From the
pond to the plate, we follow, accompanied by the rythme of a folkloric song,
a carp among many. Inspired from a childhood memory, the idea of the film is
also to confront the ritual of prayer, the tradition of family gathering and
the mass extermination issue.
Esprit de Bière (The Beer Spirit) - 52 min, Documentary-fiction
Dir: Claudio Pazienza
An X-ray of a glass of beer and the man drinking it. Barley changes in each
of its meetings with water, heat, yeast… but what about the man? Does he,
too, change in the course of his meetings, fortuitous or not? On the basis
of some curious scientific experiments, Claudio Pazienza talks about beer,
beer-making processes, and recipes, then gradually steers the topic towards
what really interests him - authority and his own father. A strange,
surrealistic stroll that reconciles
science and art with delicate grace.
9:00 pm
Topic II - 7 min, experimental
Dir: Pascal Baes
Shot in the streets of Prague on Super 8 film and following the experimental
process of pixilation, our eyes follow figures sliding close to the walls,
as wandering souls. The unstated themes of this film are about censorship
and imprisonment.
Sans titre (Untitled) - 15 min, fiction
Dir: Laurent Govaerts
The camera follows natural elements: the still water, the wind in the
trees… Nature is reclaiming its leadership of this post-industrial area.
In an abandoned place that we can’t localize, a man wakes up. Tinted with
Lithuanian and Tarkovsky’s influences, this film breathes out an obsessive
and dreamlike quest for a link between the zone where you can once awake and
the outer world.
Koro - 13 min, fiction
Dir: Guldem Durmaz
The filmmaker evokes a childhood memory of visits paid to her aunt, who was
a political prisoner in Turkey. We see a visit into a no-man’s land, a place
guarded by soldiers, through the eyes of a little girl. The film experiments
with fluidity travelling shots, and creates an impression for us through the
power of silent images.
Ysé - 15 min
Dir: Lionel Jadot
Ysé is a young woman working in a place we can’t exactly localize. It seems
a well-organized world… but she apparently sees
things that other people don’t. What is dream, what is reality? This film
has been made by a professional Belgian interior architect and set designer.
It gives us a great atmospheric and pictorial movie, with a taste of SF.
Merci (Thank you) - 8 min
Dir: Christine Bobette
A city in the present time. A man gets on the tram and gives us a refreshing
vision of public transport.
Wednesday, March 21
6:00 pm
The Face - 5 min
Dir: Amar Kanwar
We know what Pinochet looks like, we know what Idi Amin looked like but do
we know what General Than Shwe looks like?
Somewhere in May - 37 min, documentary
Dir: Amar Kanwar
On the 17th of May, 2004, Oslo celebrated the Norwegian National Day. This
was also the day the Burmese military dictatorship began a sham National
Convention for Democracy inside Burma. Through the Democratic Voice of Burma
(DVB), a small radio station in Oslo, the Burmese resistance reports on this
sham convention as it broadcasts news which is secretly heard by thousands
within Burma. The film creates a sense of unease, and brings up questions
about democracy, the holy missions of great national projects, and the
individual’s relationship with the politics of today.
7:00 pm
Feu de Décembre (Fire of December) - 12 min, documentary
Dir: Françoise Installé
This is Françoises diploma film on the protests in Brussels, against the
European summit. The poetry and beauty of the film go far beyond the poor
used means.
La Raison du Plus Fort (Might is Right) - 85 min, documentary
Dir: Patric Jean
Instead of fighting poverty, the system fights the poor. Following the
American example, Europe polarizes itself between her rich areas and her
poor suburbs. The poor in general and young immigrants in particular are
fiercely feared. The film breaks the clichés and features them in their
humaneness, in a cell in jail, in the dock or down in the basement with
their emotions, desires, fears and despair. It shows that the European
Democracy is far from being a society of equal rights for
everybody.
8:45 pm
L’Argent des Pauvres (Poor Peoples’ Money) - 24 min, documentary
Dir: Charlotte Randour
The film is set in a socialist and post-industrial town, where the closing
of mines and factories has caused poverty and destitution. After being
fired, the filmmaker’s mother decided to invest in a twin house which she
could pay for entirely with her social fee. She lives there with her son and
his teenage friends. We learn about their daily struggles for water and
electricity, their communication with the neighbourhood… The film allows
us to understand this exceptional woman, as well as the implications of her
choices.
Do you Remember Revolution? - 60 min, documentary
Dir: Loredana Bianconi
In the mid ’70s, Adriana, Barbara Nadia and Suzanna left family, friends and
social life to join the Red Brigades, considered to be the biggest Italian
terrorist group post WWII. All of them became key figures of the movement.
After several years of involvement and after going underground, they were
arrested and condemned to life imprisonment. Years later, they speak about
what brought them to make these radical choices that changed their lives and
the country. They evoke the beginning of the ’70s in Italy, a period marked
by strong social subversion and the will of a revolution. They tell us why
they chose to use violence, while also daring to talk about mistakes, and
problems with the group.
Thursday, March 22
6:00 pm
An Afternoon Amongst the Rocks - 15 min, fiction
Dir: Devendra Balsaraf
A couple snatches a few moments of tenderness out of their humdrum working
class lives, on the rocks at the seashore. But bizzare circumstances
overtake them. Adapted from a short story by Vilas Sarang, a tale that is
hyper realistic and surreal at the same time.
Madsong - 18 min, fiction
Dir: Natasha Mendonca
Set in a nameless timeless place in India, the film centres on an ordinary
woman living an ordinary life wanting to plan an extraordinary party in
celebration of her lover’s return. What happens when her lover comes home?
The film looks at the fine balance of sanity, as we see it, perceive it and
understand it. The time span could be a whole life, a day or a moment; the
story could be a beginning or an end.
Zulmat - 21 min
Dir: Ishaan Ghosh
An brooding portrait of young people living on the streets – on the edges of
the city’s life. They are creatures of the night, and we see them only by
the sickening yellow of dim street lamps. A student project from the Srishti
School of Design, film-maker’s skill only makes us feel more acutely the
unsettling, edgy nature of the subject matter.
7:15 pm
Yassin, d’un Trait (Yassin’s Scribbles) - 3 min
Dir: Anne Closset & Aline Moens
Yassin is a boy who lost his home in the Palestinian unrest. Starting from a
workshop with young children, the film is about how a video portrait can be
sketched in some seconds, evoking the here and now.
Sonate Blanche (White Sonata) - 27 min, documentary
Dir: Manon Coubia
The filmmaker follows her sister while she is preparing a piano audition.
She speaks with sensitively about this challenge, as Manon Coubia’s sister
is deaf. The insisting presence of light and the close-ups become the touch
of this intimate work. Going beyond the frame, and the secrets told, it
opens doors to inner feelings.
Roma Rushes - 10 min, documentary essay
Dir: Kika
Three days in Rome. Daily wanderings - I’m only passing by… The city gives
itself away in sharp lights and rough images: the film is shot without
editing. Visions of the city and its passengers.
Déjà Jadis (Already Gone) - 30 min, documentary-fiction
Dir: Christophe Van Collie
This poetic documentary is made of samples of life, in a video amateur
style, to raise questions about the universal themes of family and the
inheritance of generations. The beautiful images, mixing Super 8 and DV
footage, the haiku-style rythms and the mise-en-scene invite us to enter
into a personal feedback on family, mixed culture and paternal relationships
8:45 pm
Two Hands - 6 min, documentary
Dir: Fabio Wuytack
Palestine has only four cardiac surgeons and Mohammed Tamim is one of them.
In 2003 he came to Belgium to specialise in paediatric surgery. But the
second Intifada has made Mohammed a war surgeon, and every day he is
fighting his own war. Despite it all, Mohammed has a dream that keeps him
alive.
World Of Blue, Land of O - 52 min, documentary
Dir: Bram Van Paesschen
Brussels, Belgium. A hospital in the inner city. Three patients in the
infectious diseases ward. In this precarious and isolated existence, the ill
are involved in a fight with their own mind and body. The filmmaker is a
privileged witness to an utterly personal event, but he consciously avoids
the customary human interest approach. Human confrontation turns
into cinematographic confrontation: he denies himself, and the viewer, any
release.
Friday, March 24
6:00 pm
Is Mod Pe Kuch Nahin Hota (Nothing Happens on This Turn) - 23 min,
fiction
Dir: Hitesh Kewalya
Uday runs. Not to escape from anything, but to catch the bus. He misses it
by a whisker every day. He is now a reality show. The whole nation has
advice to offer him, on how to get to that bus before it drives off leaving
him panting on the footpath. Can he ever win? At the same time, in the same
town, a middle-aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Srivastava, are moving out of the
house in which they have spent a lifetime. The film moves between the snappy
style of contemporary TV, and a lyrical mood from another time and place.
6:45 pm
Tentatives de se Décrire (Trying to Describe Oneself) - 165 min,
Documentary-fiction
Dir: Boris Lehman
“To keep on and on going around oneself - clearly impossible but what else
to do? I come back to myself as in a nostalgic dream, each time filming what
no longer exists, what has died in me… already the past and shadow of
myself”.
After many films, master film-maker Boris Lehman comes back with the second
part of a very singular project filmed in the manner of a personal letter
that includes travels, documentation about what he is doing, his social
environment, the contemporary artist, anything that is close or rezoning
upon his universe. Trying to Describe Oneself is a film about
representation, exploring how it is possible, through film, to describe
oneself and describe others, with the camera as mirror and third eye.
Something between documentary and feature film, this is a portrait of Boris
Lehman from 1989 to 1995.
Saturday, March 24
6:00 pm
Taaza Khabar - Hot off the Press - 31 min
Dir: Bishakha Dutta
Are free and fair elections being held in Nihi gram panchayat? How does the
quarrying of a hill affect farmers in Bharatkup village? Why have eight
people died of tuberculosis in Sukhrampur village? The film follows the
all-woman team of journalists at Khabar Lahariya, an 8-page newspaper
published from a small town in UP’s Chitrakoot district, on a breathless
journey through police stations, polling booths, power cuts, printer
failures, and sleepless nights… all part of a determined effort to ensure
that Issue 62: Election Special reaches its rural readers right on time.
6:45 pm
Têtes aux Murs (Heads against the Wall) - 91 min, documentary
Dir: Bénédicte Liénard
We enter the lives of 4 youngsters in an institution and under legal
supervision from the summer of `95 till the winter of ‘97. As it is legally
prohibited to identify the underage delinquents on film, the director
transforms this hardship and creates an alternate, powerful form of filming.
The relationship between the visual/sound and the making of a frame creates
its own cinematic vision. Bénédicte establishes a confident and trustful
relationship with the teenagers, who give her testimonies from their hearts.
8:30 pm
Une Part du Ciel (A Piece of Sky) - 90 min, fiction-documentary
Dir: Bénédicte Liénard
Joanna is in prison. It would seem that the illicit acts perpetrated by
Joanna were justified by her difficult work conditions at the factory and
pressure from the management. At the factory, the workers, her former
colleagues, regret not having supported her. In fact, this is even more the
case for the trade unionist, as we discover it. In prison, she revolts
against the guardians, lives through conflicts with fellow prisoners and
struggles to curb her violent and self-destructive
impulses… In this film, Bénédicte Liénard describes two mirror universes:
the prison and the factory. In both cases, confinement and submission to an
iniquitous hierarchy prevail, along with the exploitation of work.
Sunday, March 25
6:00 pm
I Am The Very Beautiful - 60 min, documentary
Dir: Shyamal Karmakar
If a human being is the best plot, then Ranu is one thick plot. Over the
past 6 years of filming, she has moved from one relationship to another,
from one home and even one country to another. After an extremely modest
upbringing in a refugee family, an abduction, a child, suicide attempts and
many failed relationships later, Ranu is a total contrast to Shyamal, the
film-maker who is well educated, well to do and of course, well respected.
Their relationship grows with the film as the two accept each other despite
moral archetypes and the film ultimately, turns out to be a sign of their
trust and respect for each other as human beings.
7:15 pm
La Cafetière (The Coffee Machine) - 3 min
Dir: Nadine Abril
The adventures of a coffee machine, or how can an object become different
through the point of view of its possessor. Satisfied, or do you want your
money back?
Pour Vivre J’ai laissé (To live, I left) - 29 min,
documentary-fiction
Dir: Bénédicte Liénard
Moustafa is number 44 632 on his entry pass to the asylum centre. This pass
gives him the right to clothing, medical support and sanitary supplies. He
questions the governmental procedures for asylum seekers, and feels that his
identity revolves around it. His biggest dream is to marry and have
children. One of the thousand stories in this no man’s land called `The
Small Castle’ in Brussels.
Neglect - 9 min, Video-letter
Dir: Amir Najmi
A very personal insight on the mysteries of mankind and life, imagined by an
Iranian member of the video collective PTTL.
Les Sociétaires (Screen) - 16 min
Dir: Vincent Meessen
This film mixes African fairytale and contemporary images to corrupt the
standard documentary imagery and reveal multiple, related meanings. The
images are filmed in African streets through the windows of a bus.
Les maîtres-chanteurs (The Blackmailers) - 50 min, documentary
Dir: Tristan Wibault / VOX
Migrants from Iran have gathered in a church in Brussels. Lying and sitting
on the ground covered with blankets, they are looking at the wall paintings
describing Christian scenes. These men have started a hunger strike, which
will last until they have received an answer from the Belgian government
concerning their regularisation. The shooting takes place during the 9th and
the 10th day of their strike, when they still have enough energy to speak
and tell us their stories
