'Kaise Jeebo Re' a film directed by Anurag Singh & Jharana Jhaveri on October 5 in room 6-120 at MIT at 2:00pm.
Ashish Agarwal
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SANGAM, The THISTLE and The ALLIANCE FOR A SECULAR AND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH ASIA
present
KAISE JEEBO RE!
(How do I Survive, My Friend)
a documentary directed by : Anurag Singh and Jharana Jhaveri
The film will be followed by a discussion session with one of the
film's directors, Jharana Jhaveri.
When : October 5, 1997 Sunday 2 PM
Where : Building 6 Room 120 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Public Transportation: Close to Kendall Square T stop on the Red line
and on Rte. 1 (Mass. Ave.) Bus
A BRIEF SYNOPOSIS OF THE FILM
Kaise Jeebo Re! (How Do I Survive, My Friend!) is a story of uprootment,
of struggle, of survival, and of human dignity. In the last fifty years of
Indias independence, in the name of development, millions of people have
been forcibly uprooted, rendered homeless, forced to join the ever
increasing mass of unskilled labour.
In the name of "national interest" men, women and children have been
forced out of their homes and lands so that a dam, a mine, a factory or a
wildlife sanctuary can be built. Their struggles against this process have
been crushed, marginalized or ignored. What happens to their lives after
uprootment? The film meets them in Indias city-streets and rural areas as
labour, rickshaw-puller, domestic help and the uprooted.
Who are they? Where do they come from? How did they get here?
"Kaise Jeebo Re!" records the victims account of this uprootment, in this
case caused by dams built on the river Narmada; Bargi Dam in the Central
state of Madhya Pradesh. It records the arduous and heroic story of a
people who have come together to fight a determined battle for justice.
This 80 minutes feature length documentary was shot over six years and
more than 200 hours of footage documented in the Narmada Valley and in
areas where resistance against the dams built or are to be built have
taken place. The film is in Bhilali and Gondi tribal languages, along with
Gujarati, Hindi and English.
DIRECTORS' BIO-FILMOGRAPHY
Anurag Singh has been involved in photography, cinematography and
film-making, with issues of political, environmental and social issues
since 1984. Among his films are "Manibeli" ( on the police repression and
peoples struggle in Manibeli village, the first village of Maharashtra
State to be submerged by the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam); and
"Battle for Peace" (on the Burmese students in exile in India).
Jharana Jhaveri, who started as a student of social movements, has been
involved with human rights, anti-communal, labour and environmental
movements. Using films as a medium of social transformation and training
rural as well as urban people in using this medium for sensitizing and
empowering. She has made "Angan Manch" ( forum in the courtyard) on
womens participation in a movement for self-empowerment in the interior
villages of South Bihar and "Devdasi", on the age old religious practice
of dedicating young girls to Goddess Yellamma and forcing them into
prostitution; their journey from temples to brothel houses.
For more information contact: ram...@mit.edu (617) 328-6226
ra...@mit.edu (617) 642-1266
aas...@mit.edu (617) 253-3225
http://web.mit.edu/sangam/www/
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