Moving docudrama
Gowri Ramnarayan
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ANALYSIS The women director's festival held in Chennai scored in documentaries, all award winners.
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The second edition of "Made by Women," put together by Mumbai's "Point of View" was back on its tour of eight Indian cities to celebrate women filmmakers. Presented in Chennai by the International Women's Association and Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (April 15-19), this year's package, from ten nations in five continents was weak in features, but strong in documentaries.
There was, actually, nothing new among the features. Marzieh Meshkini's `The Day I Became Woman' has made film festival rounds since bagging Best Film award at Venice in 2000. `The Girl' (Hungary) a Black and White 1968 feature by Marta Meszaros, framed the changing faces of oppression. The three features from India — `Sancharram,' `Phir Milenge' and `Amu' were unremarkable except in choice of theme.
`Made by Women' scored in its documentaries, all award winners around the world. In `My Body' (Margreth Olin, Norway), a woman with flat feet, crooked teeth and uneven toes examines herself in the mirror to see what others see, and miss. Cultures clash when a woman trying to make a film about Korean-American directors gets involved with two Asian-American men (`A True Story about Love,' Melissa Kyu-Jung Lee, Australia).
Two films gave the festival value for its concept. Examining the ancient concept of Tharat Hamishpaha or the concept of family `Purity' (Israel) director Anat Zuria discovers how women in traditional Jewish families bear the burden of maintaining the community's welfare by obeying the laws of the Torah, whether the members had come to settle in the Promised Land from New York, or from some remote East European village.
The hesitant voices of the women and the sheepishness of the men before the camera are enough to proclaim that the film is opening taboo areas. Zuria's camera is dignified, it probes without peeping, explores without offending, slow but not tedious. It allows speakers the freedom to express themselves through words, expressions, little physical movements.
Musicians on the subways and sidewalks of the megapolis cannot but make moving subjects. In `Underground Orchestra' (Heddy Honigman, the Netherlands) the director is more eager to listen than to speak, to show than to lecture. We follow a range of musicians underground, street corners, parks, city squares, playing on every instrument from violin and cello to harp and kamacha, even a Japanese trio singing a ballad. What makes the `pilgrimage' worthwhile is that every person is given ample space to establish his/her character and story.
The music makes them special, whether classical, jazz or ethnic, but hardly earns the musicians enough to live above the poverty line. Their stories — told without fuss, melodrama, or any underlining — break your heart.
A rare film,
`Underground Orchestra' makes no exhortations, no accusations. It leaves the
faces of the waifs to speak through the careless crowds, and their music to pierce the soul.
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