Other Films
RITHA DEVI
COLOUR/ENGLISH, 62 MINUTES, 2000
CREDITS:
CAMERA: Alok Upadhyay EDITING: Umesh Gupta SOUND: Suresh Rajamani
PRODUCED BY: C S Lakshmi, SPARROW DIRECTION: Vishnu Mathur
Ritha Devi was born in the cultured and erudite family of poet Rabindranath Tagore and Lakshminath Bezbaroa, father of modern Assamese literature. Ritha Devi feels that she has truly found herself in the lyrical dance-form of Oudra Nritya, the special tradition of the Devadasis of Orissa. Ritha Devi was the first to rescue this art from near extinction and to perform it in many parts of India, Europe and U.S.A. She currently lives in Pune after living for many years in New York, teaching and performing.
Watch full video by clicking on the image below.
HOMAI VYARAWALLA
DV, COLOUR/ ENGLISH, 71 MINUTES-2006
CREDITS:
CAMERA: M.Shanthi EDITING: Swarnima Sinha SOUND: Subhashis Roy PRODUCED BY: C. S. Lakshmi, SPARROW DIRECTION: Anik Ghosh
Homai Vyarawalla, born in 1913 into a priestly family in Navsari, Gujarat, was the first woman photo journalist in the country. Beginning her career as a photographer with the Bombay Chronicle and later the Far Eastern Bureau of the British Information Services, she soon came to be known for her compelling photographic images taken both before and after independence. She has a rare collection of interesting picture of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Radhakrishnan and Mahatma Ghandhi. She freelanced for SPAN, life and many international publications and finally gave up photography in 1970. She was married to Maneckshaw Vyarawalla who was himself a photographer. She lost her husband 34 years ago and her only son 15 years ago. She currently lives in Baroda keeping herself busy with plants on her terrace and all the work, including repair and maintenance, of the household.
Watch full video by clicking on the image below.
FROM SILENCE TO WORDS FROM WORDS TO SILENCE
DV, COLOUR /ENGLISH, 120 MINUTES-2007
CREDITS:
CAMERA: M. Shanthi EDITING: Swarnima Sinha SOUND: Amala Popuri PRODUCED BY: C.S. Lakshmi, CAMERA: M. Shanthi EDITING: Swarnima Sinha SOUND: Amala Popuri PRODUCED BY: C.S. Lakshmi, SPARROW DIRECTION: Vishnu Mathur
A coverage of the women writers’ camp with fifty women writers from all over India held in Kashid, Maharashtra, in January 2006
Watch full video by clicking on the image below.
SATYARANI CHADDHA
DV, COLOUR/HINDI, 30 MINUTES-2004
CREDITS:
CAMERA: M. Shanthi EDITING: Swarnima Sinha SOUND: Santosh Kumar Sahoo PRODUCED BY: C.S. Lakshmi, SPARROW DIRECTION: Vishnu Mathur
Satyarani Chadha is a middle-class woman who like Shajehan Aapa, came into the movement after a personal loss. Dowry demands were behind her daughter being burnt to death. Satyarani waged a long legal battle to punish her daughter's in-laws but she has not quite succeeded. She is the founder member of Shakti Shalini and is even now actively involved in the work of the organisation
Not Available Online
DEGHAM (THE BODY)
DV, COLOUR/ TAMIL WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES, 156 MINUTES-2008
CREDITS:
CAMERA: R V Ramani EDITING: Swarnima Sinha SOUND: Jayanth Pradhan PRODUCED BY: C.S. Lakshmi, SPARROW DIRECTION: Vishnu Mathur
Degham is a film on the transgender experience that attempts to explore the complexities of the body. In the centre of the film are individuals who feel that they are women although they are born as men; individuals who have chosen to change their bodies to suit their minds. Through dialogues with the transgender women and through their creative work, the film reveals the ways of socialisation and the "family" that the transgender women create for themselves in India for emotional support and succour.
The five transgender women chosen for the film have chosen different ways of life to work and live. Priya Babu is an activist who would like to work through the medium of theatre; Narthaki Nataraj is a classical dancer who feels that dance completes her personality; Aasha Bharathi is a senior transgender who runs a dormitory for transgenders but would like to run a home for the HIV affected and Kalki, who is probably the youngest and from an affluent family, would like to perceive her condition as a state in spirituality. Through their experiences the film tries to understand the different meanings of the body and the impossibility of defining what constitutes the male and the female.
.Not Available Online