EKTA - Anand Patwardhan

Anand Patwardhan
Film Retrospective
Knuth Hall
San Francisco State University
Oct 20th & Oct 28th

A festival of Award Winning, Provocative and Political Documentaries by one of South Asia's most celebrated and controversial filmmakers. A prolific and award-winning independent filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan has been making political documentaries for nearly three decades pursuing diverse and controversial issues that are at the crux of social and political life in India. These issues range from the relationship between communalism and masculinity to environmental degradation to violence affecting marginalized communities.

All films followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.

War and Peace
(Jang aur Aman)

A Work in Progress

Filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA - beginning with nuclear tests in the sub-continent in 1998 and culminating in the 2001 attack on America, WAR & PEACE / JANG AUR AMAN is an epic documentary journey of peace activism in the face of global militarism and war. more ...

(2001, 180 minutes, color)

Ribbons for Peace

An anti-nuke music video incorporating the music of Kishore Kumar. more ...

(1998, 5 minutes, color)

Fishing in the Sea of Greed
Documents the response of fishing communities in India and Bangladesh to the "rape and run" industrial-scale fishing that has begun to dominate their livelihood and decimate their environment. more ...

(1998, 45 minutes, color)

Occupation: Mill Worker
Follows workers' strikes, demonstrations, and clashes with police in Bombay as textile mills are closed by owners with an eye on real estate.

(1996, 20 minutes, color)

Narmada Diary
Film co-directed with Simantini Dhuru on the Narmada Bachao Andolan's (Save Narmada Movement), battle against the giant Sardar Sarovar Dam that will displace 200,000 people in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. more ...

(1995, 50 minutes, color)

Father, Son and Holy War
On the relation between religion, violence and male identity. Does the root of India's recent bloodshed - perhaps all bloodshed - lie in male insecurity, itself an inevitable product of the very construction of "manhood?" more ...

(1994, 120 minutes, color)

We are not your Monkeys
A Dalit critique of the Ramayana epic.
more ...

(1993, 5 minutes, color)

In the Name of God
On the rise of Hindu fundamentalism as reflected in the temple/mosque conflict in Ayodhya which led to nation wide carnage. more ...

(1992, 90 minutes, color)

In Memory of Friends
On the efforts of a group of Sikhs and Hindus to rebuild communal harmony in strife-hit Punjab.
more ...

(1990, 60 minutes, color)

Bombay our City
On the daily battle for survival of Bombay's slum dwellers. more ...

(1985, 82 minutes, color)

All films are in English or subtitled in English.
Each film to be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.