The Earth matters
SAVITHA GAUTAM
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The 25 films shown at the ‘One Billion Eyes’ festival had one common thread — save our environment!
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ECO-TALK: Scenes from some documentaries shown at the festival.
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?
The lyric of Michael Jackson ‘Earth Song’ aptly sums up the state of the world today. Mirroring the same sentiment was the just-concluded ‘One Billion Eyes’ documentary film festival, hosted by Prakriti Foundation in associati
on with Alliance Francaise. Twenty films made by Indians … and the message was universal — save Planet Earth! Most films showcase an India that’s consumed by greed and globalisation, and where Nature is plundered without a single thought being spared about the future. There are stories of hope as well. Some of these films were shown at schools and colleges with the hope to ignite a thought process in Gen Next about steps that need to be taken to save our environment.
One area that many films dealt with was the damaging effects of deforestation and dumping of industrial waste on our thinly-balanced ecology. This means higher levels of air, water and land pollution. The other worrying issue is that of genetically modified (GM) foods that are silently making their way to the shelves of Indian supermarkets.
Food and forest
In fact, the first film, directed by Ajay Kanchan and simply titled ‘Poison In A Platter’, saw people such as Mahesh Bhatt (who has produced the short), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev express concern over the effects of GM foods on humans. On similar lines was C. Sarath Chandran and P. Baburaj’s ‘1000 Days and a Dream’. At the centre of a controversy was a Coke factory at Plachimada in Kerala.
The effluents from the factory polluted the ground water and spread respiratory diseases. The fight between the simple town folk and a corporate giant attracted national and global attention.
Finally, the factory was shut down. But not every Indian village or town fighting industrial development is Plasimada. Acres and acres of forest land are being converted into factories or mines.
Films such as ‘Disposable’ and ‘Wasted’ (both Vimlendu Jha), ‘The Mall On Top Of My House’ (Aditi Chitre), ‘Apna Aloo Bazaar Becha’ (Pankaj H. Gupta), and ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Sea’ (Saraswati Kavula) focussed on how globalisation/ industrialisation has impacted the ecology. If garbage dumps pollute the air and underground water, marine life is being threatened by mechanised trawler fishing. The films also throw light on the pathetic plight of tribal communities.
Equally distressing was ‘Only An Axe Away’ by Sarath Chandran and P. Baburaj, which highlighted the fight to save Silent Valley National Park in Kerala from dam construction and invasion by the Electricity Board. A campaign is still on to save the park which is home to several rare species of flora and fauna.
Wildlife woes
Taking of fauna, Krishnendu Bose’s ‘Tiger-The Death Chronicles’ investigated the declining tiger population in the country. Activists such as Ullas Karanth, Valmik Thapar, Sunita Narain and Belinda Wight are vociferous in their campaign to protect our national animal. ‘Hope another Sariska does not happen’ is the message. On a positive note, Bose’s camera also captures the success of Corbett National Park where a tripartite agreement between the Forest Department, the Villagers and the resorts has helped save tigers and other wildlife.
Similar is the case of sloth (dancing) bears as shown in Ashima Narain’s ‘The Last Dance’. The film followed an undercover operation to rescue a dancing bear. Though entitled with the same protection as the tiger, the sloth bear is often captured and made to dance.
Among the other films, Amar Kunwar’s ‘Marubhumi’ documented the water woes of Jodhpur. It juxtaposed the past with the present and showed how history and politics play a vital role in shaping the destinies of a people. However, Nutan Manmohan’s ‘Water Warriors’ shows people such as Vishwanatha who have come up with innovative methods to conserve water. Yet another positive voice emanated from Vijay Jodha in his ‘Healers of All Reasons’.
The film dwelt on how people such as Rehmat ‘Gopal Bapa’ Khan and Karimbhai Surma (Gujarat) rely on traditional and eco-friendly methods to heal animals, humans and even plants. With their simplicity and generosity, they become symbols of hope and happiness. But will they survive the onslaught of a consumerist society where profits make or mar a decision?
At the end of the evening’s screening, one walked backed home wondering when we, as a nation, will wake up to the impending ecological disaster. Remember the Cree proverb… “Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realise that we cannot eat money.”
And the winners are…
Prakriti Foundation had announced an award of Rs. 25,000 for the best documentary shown at the fest. Not one but two shorts won the hearts of the judges Monisha Mukundan (writer-editor), Shakti Natrajan (writer-researcher), Nityanand Jayaraman (indep
endent journalist-researcher) and Dharmesh Shah (environmental activist, works with Bhopal gas tragedy survivors).
Vinod Raja’s ‘Mahua Memoirs’ paints a dismal picture of the Adivasis who live along the Eastern Ghats.
The film gives those helpless and unseen people a voice to tell the world how systematically policymakers and industry are destroying natural wealth and rich forest lands by setting up mining projects. And remember, these resources can never be replenished by man!
The second film tells the story of Delhi’s rag pickers and waste dealers. ‘Scavenging Dreams’ by Jasmine and Avinash Roy, showcases a world which thrives on the waste that the city generates, and on which the lives of thousands of children working as rag pickers depends.
The other films that got special mention were – Many Faces of Madness, Water Warriors, 1000 Days and a Dream, Only An Axe Away, Faecal Attraction, Tiger: The Death Chronicles and Healers For All Reasons.
SGP
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