UK Nepal Climate Change Film Competition - 3 minutes shorts

We deliberated for about 16 hours and watched 124 shorts before coming up with these results... The film competition was sponsored by DFID and the British Council. Check it out here:
http://www.himalassociation.org/climatechange/
_________________________________________

Out of the 126 entries that were received, the following films have been declared winners by the three member jury which consisted of Dr. Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha (writer and conservationist), Sushma Joshi (writer and filmmaker) and Kesang Tseten (writer and filmmaker).

Winning Short Films
Director(s)
Position

Act Locally Think Globally
Santoshi Nepal and Ishu Lama
Winner

Jeopardy
Shiva Sharan Koirala
1st Runner Up

3 Cs of Climate Change
Binod Kr. Dhami and Padam Raj Paneru
2nd Second Runner Up

Get Your Act Together
Suresh Limbu
Special Mention

Participatory Video

This book, by Shirley A. White, mentions PANI (Water) in the book.

The potential of new information and communications technologies is acknowledged by all today. This book examines the importance of participatory video as a catalyst for development. It shows how powerful video images have been used to promote changes in attitudes and social behaviour, helping communities identify development solutions that are within their reach. Video has been used to reach policymakers, to empower women and to rescue the culture and heritage of indigenous people. As a mediation tool, the power of video has been used to resolve conflicts, achieve consensus and find common ground for collective action. This book brings together practical information on innovative experiences with the use of participatory video. It contains a thoughtful analysis of some essential issues to be taken into account in planning and implementing video processes.

Participatory Video: Images that Transform and Empower
By Shirley A. White
Published by Sage Publications, 2003
ISBN 0761997636, 9780761997634
412 pages

From Video Voice Collective Blog:

Professor White’s book is an incredible contribution to practitioners of participatory video. It is one of perhaps 3-4 books written on this subject; an early adapter extraordinaire that is sure to be followed by a flood of books on participatory video in the coming years! Professor White’s book reminds us that we are arriving at a truly miraculous era of participatory media and culture. We have a lot to be thankful for because it has never been easier to collaborate, produce, and distribute videos with communities across the globe.

Nepali Film Festival, Vancouver, 2008

"PANI" and "A Nepali Emigre in Paris" will be showing at the Nepali film festival in Vancouver on February 24th, 2008. For more information, visit the website:
http://www.tras.ca/filmfest/2008/films.html

Himalayan Film Festival, London

PANI is showing at the Himalayan Film Festival in School of Oriental and African Studies, London on October 13. Please go if you can!

www.himalayanfilmfestival.co.uk/

Saturday Films (13th Oct)
The Living of Jogimara 7pm
A film about 17 young men from Jogimara village in Dhading district who were killed by security forces while they were building an airport in Kalikot.
[Dir. Mohan Mainali, 38mins]


The Living of Jogimara - The Wait Continues 7:50pm
This is the follow up to the first film to bring us up to date with what has happened in the same small village in Dhading.
[Dir. Mohan Mainali, 14mins]


Operation free voice 8:10pm
Hasta Gurung’s documentary is a chronology of the crackdown on the media after the February 2005 military coup by the king. Overnight, newsrooms were turned into barracks, there was direct censorship and FM stations were not allowed to broadcast news. Operation Free Voice documents the stories of the journalists in the frontlines, how they struggled to uphold their freedom, defied controls and then used media’s power to restore democracy.
[Dir. Hasta Gurung, 43mins]


Pani (Water) 9pm
This video presentation shows the very lively discussions between the inhabitants of the rural Nepali village, Lele, about the daily problems of their water supply system and its management. It follows the growing conflict in the community after a water pipe and tap system was installed. Gender and caste differences play a vital part in the disputes as women and lower caste members are excluded from decision making even though they are the principal users. The video tracks the wide disparity in control and communication revealing frustrations that result in the pipe being cut and maintenance fees unpaid. The lesson portrayed is that even small scale models of development will not work unless traditional social infrastructure, especially gender biases and cultural discrimination, are addressed by donors and local managers.
[Dir. Sushma Joshi, 28mins]


Suk Bahadur Adhikari 9:30pm
After a life spent working as a driver in the British India Government, 79 year old Sukh Bahadur Adhikari has returned home to his village in rural Nepal. At the age when most are content with retirement, Sukh Bahadur sets on the path to fulfill his dreams of pursuing a school education at the age of 79. He attends the local school sitting next to his granddaughter in class 4, and they sit alongside at home completing their assignments. Though lacking formal education, Sukh Bahadur is a man of wisdom and his insights into the nuances of life, religion, culture and development are thrilling to watch. This film provides a heart touching glimpse into the life of a man and his quest for education.
[Dir. Dil Bhusan Pathak, 24mins]


*All films are in English or with English subtitles.
**Please also note that seats are limited and those that arrive first will take priority.

The extraordinary wisdom of the tantrics

Water scarcity and water management become big issues as the globe warms up and we edge closer to the 11th hour. A while back, I had the good fortune to accompany a few friends to see the Raj Kulo, a mediaval water system that brought water to the Kathmandu Valley. Astonishingly, the Raj Kulo still works where people haven't dug it up or sunk concrete foundations into the water sources.

The "hiti" (Newari water spouts made of stone) of Patan and Bhaktapur are fed through this elaborate system in which the water is brought through canals all the way from Tika Bhairav. Knowing the meddlesome (and stupid) nature of modern people, the ancients devised a tantric secrecy around their water system. The tantric priests were the only ones who knew when the water sources were located, perhaps as a way to counteract acts of sabotage from warring neighbours. The water was piped in through an elaborate filtration system so good people still go to drink water from one particular spout in Patan, believing that the water promotes longetivity. The secrecy protected the water systems from being completely overhauled and destroyed when modern engineering and water system came into being. Interestingly, the Kathmandu municipality’s water system, run through rusty and damaged water pipes, is more unreliable than the hiti sources. At least in one location in Patan, we found out that the locals actively pumped water from their Hiti straight up into their tanks during the night.

The smartest thing people living in Kathmandu could do, in the face of increasing water scarcity, is to look into ways to revive their old stone spouts and hiti systems. The second smartest thing would be to build rainwater harvesting systems in their backyards, since Severns Trent is hardly likely to fulfill the Kathmandu Valley’s water demands.

India is considered the big bad brother when it comes to water and Nepal (it wants to grab all the water, it builds dams that overflow and cause floods on the Nepal border) so it is refreshing to see that at least in one respect its doing something right: The Indian Government is giving a respectable amount of money to repair the Raj Kulo. Stay tuned for more…

"The Escape" accepted to the Berlinale's Talent Campus, 2007

THE ESCAPE (2006)
DIRECTOR: SUSHMA JOSHI
9 MINS, 16MM, BLACK AND WHITE
PRODUCED AT THE NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY, LA FEMIS, PARIS, FRANCE

This short is based on an incident told by a schoolteacher from Mugu, Western Nepal, to the filmmaker in a camp for internally displaced refugees in Kohalpur, Southern Nepal. A squad of Maoists come to execute a teacher, who escapes and runs through the jungle for two days to reach help. The teacher now lives a life as a displaced internal refugee in Nepalgunj.

A civil conflict raged in Nepal from 1996-2006. Education was severely affected. The Maoists, leading a People's War, killed schoolteachers and forced them to leave the villages for supporting political parties, teaching Sanskrit, or for suspected spying. Amnesty Internationa recorded cases of schoolteachers executed by the guerillas.

Maoists pressured teachers to teach the Maoist curriculum, and to contribute half of their salary to the People’s War. The rebels held indoctrination meetings in schools. They abducted schoolchildren for periods of time, and pressured them to join the movement. The state security forces, including police and the Royal Nepal Army, retaliated by imprisoning and torturing teachers suspected of sympathizing with Maoists. Security forces fired on school-grounds as rebels held meetings.

Schoolteachers, caught in-between the conflict, migrated to Kathmandu and other cities between 1996-2006. Unable to find work, they live in dire poverty.

(This short is a fictional, dramatic re-interpretation of a real incident, re-created through actors. )

A summer of cinema in Paris

In the summer of 2006, I attended the New York Film Academy's directing program in Paris. NYFA's program is based in La Femis, one of Paris's premier film institute. These are the 16mm shorts I shot:

The Escape (2006)
9 minutes, fiction
16mm, black and white
A schoolteacher from Mugu, Western Nepal, flees a troop of young Maoist cadres who come to kill him. Based on a true story told to the filmmaker by a teacher in an internally displaced camp in Kohalpur.

A Nepali Emigre in Paris (2006)
4 minutes, fiction
16mm, black and white
A Nepali man flees political repression and leaves for Paris as the fight for democracy begins. He has no reason to look back for twenty years—till now, when both his loyalty and his love are torn between two sides.

Suzanne (2006)
4 minutes, fiction
16mm, black and white
An homage to Leonard Cohen’s song.

PANI (WATER) in Japan

I showed PANI (WATER) to students at Okinamizu University in Tokyo, Japan to a packed and ethusiastic audience of feminist scholars and students. In addition, I gave a talk about justice during Nepal's civil conflict at Tokyo University and also at Amnesty International's Japan group.

Everybody was absolutely fantastic and hospitable, and I kept being reminded by Nepalis working there that "Japanese and Nepalis are the same: we are Asians, we share similar values." I wasn't there long enough to figure that one but I did definitely enjoy my time there...

There was the expected blow-up with the immigration official at the airport, but what's new. The tense relationship with airport officials and the Nepali passport is an ongoing saga. It didn't help that the official holding my passport hostage walked back and forth like some Japanese soldier in a WWII film--that stiff walk that we've seen in too many films to believe is real, until you see it again, eeirely recreated by a Japanese airport bureaucrat. Suffice to say I missed my train to Tokyo after hours and spent the night at a hotel with two other suspects: a Syrian and a Pakistani engineer, both of who were so used to being pulled off and harassed at airports they ate their kebabs and drank their whiskeys and went to sleep with an easy mind, unlike me--I spent the night fuming. We were all pegged on our supposed terrorist connections, I imagine. Perhaps the Japanese airport official, and all other officials of this nature, have a list of Third World countries with a tick next to it saying: "Harass these people. Traumatize them and make sure they never return." Something of this nature. But once past the dragon Japan was fantastic.

Here are some photos:
www.picasaweb.google.com/sansarmagazine

WATER (PANI)

PANI (WATER)
Director: Sushma Joshi
Producer: IRC and Nepal Water for Health, and Ton Schouten Film Company, Netherlands
Format: Beta and digital
Running Time: 29 minutes

Featured on CNN International's Q and A with Riz Khan

WATER (PANI) is a documentary that explores the notions of "community", in the context of development. The people of Lele, a village near Kathmandu, narrate the history of how they set up a committee to manage their drinking water system. The narrative moves from a fairly uncomplicated story told by the leaders about the initial installation to the complexities of gender and caste relations.

Women, the main users of water, voice their exclusion. The water committee is made up of upper caste Chettri men. Women, while token members, are not allowed to make decisions. In contrast, a neighbouring Tamang village, in which a women's group has also been set up, cite their successes in raising cattle and savings activities. This women's group makes the decisions amongst female members in a cooperative manner. The success of this group is in stark contrast to the quarrels of the water committee.

A maintenance fund is set up when the system starts to break down. But this external solution, proposed by a non-governmental organization from Kathmandu, becomes the locus of conflict. A monthly fee is to be paid to the fund. But the leadership is not transparent or accountable with the funds. People stop paying their monthly fees because they are not sure how the money is used. They also believe that the meager Rs.1000 (around US $ 15) paid annually by a commercial mineral water factory that taps water from the spring is enough to maintain the system. The fund dissolves as people stop paying and passively stop participating in the development process.

The fault-lines of caste is revealed as the village's powerful political leader reveals his prejudices in the process of voicing a liberal, no discrimination party line. This is juxtaposed with the views of an older woman from a group considered lower caste. She reveals the ambiguity of notions of joint ownership and "community" in a society deeply fractured by gender and caste power relations.

This documentary looks at the contradictions and conflicts that come up in any organized effort to create social change. By giving voice to the frustrating lack of coherence, it allows a deeper look into the exclusions of development. Ultimately, it looks at the process of alternative, small-scale modes of development, which are becoming more popular, and questions whether its promise can be realized if traditionally discriminatory systems, encoded in axes of power of gender and caste, are not fully addressed.

Chettri: Hindu group considered to be higher on the caste hierarchy, in which gender is more segregated.
Tamangs: Ethnic group with animistic traditions, considered to be lower on the Hindu caste hierarchy. High rates of male migration have also allowed women more responsibilities and rights within the household.

DISTRIBUTION
This video has been used as a training video for 700 different communities inside Nepal. People working in the water sector have used it to generate discussions about gender and caste in community management.

This video has been shown outside Nepal, in venues like:
Q and A with Riz Khan, CNN International
UN World Water Forum, Kyoto, Japan
Okinamizu Women's University, Tokyo, Japan
Flickerfest Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
International Watercourses Conference, Middlesex University, England
The School for Oriental and African Studies, London, England
The Southern Asia Institute, Columbia University, NY
South Asian Women's Creative Art Collective, NY
South Asia Program, Cornell University, NY
The Graduate Center, CUNY, NY
The International House, New York, NY

PANI - Where to Buy

You can buy PANI from IRC Netherlands.

Directed by Sushma Joshi, produced by NEWAH (Nepal Water for Health Kathmandu, Nepal) (2001)

This 28-minute video presentation in Nepali (with English subtitles) shows the very lively discussions between the inhabitants of the rural Nepali village, Lele, about the daily problems of their water supply system and its management. It follows the growing conflict in the community after a water pipe and tap system was installed. Gender and caste differences play a vital part in the disputes as women and lower caste members are excluded from decision making even though they are the principal users. The video tracks the wide disparity in control and communication revealing frustrations that result in the pipe being cut and maintenance fees unpaid. The lesson portrayed is that even small scale models of development will not work unless traditional social infrastructure, especially gender biases and cultural discrimination, are not addressed by donors and local managers.

Target audience: Staff working in the water sector, field staff, developers of training material and trainers. It can be used in training sessions, for example, to start discussion about the critical aspects of community water supply management.

To Sustain Life: Water and Development in Nepal

This teaching guide for high school teachers was developed by Educate the Children and Cornell's South Asia Program.

PANI Poster and postcard

Planet in Focus: 3rd World Water Forum - March 16 - 23, 2003

2004 Planet in Focus: 3rd World Water Forum - March 16 - 23, 2003

Martin Robertson reported on "Waterworks", the film festival held during the UN World Water Forum in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka, Japan. He says:
"...But by Saturday, some of the shorter docs received considerable feedback, especially “Pani” (directed by Sushma Joshi) with its clear reporting about local community good will projects floundering because of lack of preparedness in communicating to everyone involved about the reasons for decisions, gender and caste bias in the construction of committees, and secrecy about costs and funding."

“Water Works” - A report by Martin Robertson

Planet in Focus was represented twice in Kyoto at the World Water Forum this March with screenings and cultural programming.

“Water Works” a mini event featured on three days with short video docs (schedule) accompanied by story telling and musical performances, was produced by Martin Robertson, the current Chair of Communications and International Partnerships, with a Japanese based partner – David Simpson of Aquarius 21.

“Mother Water” a video documentary on the commodification of water resources in the aboriginal lands of the Hopi, directed by LeAnn Lucero and produced by Susan Green, was shown as part of the Indigenous Forum, adjunct to the International Conference agenda. Susan, has recently been recruited as this year’s Executive Director.

With the war in Iraq superimposed over the whole event, more delegates were watching international news coverage than attending the morning screenings. But by Saturday, some of the shorter docs received considerable feedback, especially “Pani” (directed by Sushma Joshi) with its clear reporting about local community good will projects floundering because of lack of preparedness in communicating to everyone involved about the reasons for decisions, gender and caste bias in the construction of committees, and secrecy about costs and funding.

Many West Africa delegates were delighted with the French language content of “La Loi de l’eau” by Robert Monderie, and several educators, including one from Quebec, requested more information about copies for their classes, proving conclusively the benefit of festivals and screenings as alternate sources of information and inspirational footage.

Both the Executive Director of World Wildlife’s “Living Waters” Program and the International Communications Director attended the Saturday sessions to support their contributions, and news of other successful projects, not represented on tape, was received - notably from contacts in India, Egypt, Iceland, Vietnam, Netherlands and China. Everyone involved in the ongoing dialogue expressed the need for more documentaries to be made and distributed in their regions.

Because of the dominance of hostilities in the Middle East, security was considerably heightened; so much so that when Dave Simpson retreated to the quiet of a nearby green space to record his opening remarks, he was suddenly surrounded by four armed guards who took his digi-cam for scanning and inspection as a weapon!

Currently, the Planet in Focus ‘tour’ of screenings is underway nationally, but Martin Robertson reports that there are plans for more “Best of PiF” or specially themed programs to be promoted internationally as well. Beijing, New Delhi, the World Social Forum in Brazil and the Bioneers Conference in California, are all targeted choices and any one interested with sources of funding or connections in these places is invited to contact him at: firststepsone@hotmail.com.

Water Works Festival Schedule
The most powerful vested interests on the planet gathered at the World Water Forum in Japan (March 16th-23rd) to make decisions about water quality and who gets to control the world’s water supply.

“Water Works” was a programme of films that presented the concerns of global citizens to the World Water Forum from March 20 to 22. Here is the schedule of events...

Aquarius 21, David Simpson
Martin Robertson (Ideas in Motion)
Planet in Focus: Toronto International Environmental Film & Video Festival

Present


"WaterWorks"- an eco doc videofest



Thursday, March 20, 2003 - KICH Event Hall Theatre, 11:30am

Captured Rain (Canada/B.C.) Director: Jerry Thompson (41.30 mins)

Filmmaker Jerry Thompson examines the seemingly unstoppable momentum to privatize Canadian water and ship it to the USA. He illustrates how this urge is generated by two simple needs. In less than seven years, California - which already has a bigger population than all of Canada - will only have 43% of the water it needs; and, 80% of all fresh fruit and vegetables consumed on the entire continent of North America come from that State, which is rapidly draining the rivers and aquifers of the South Western United States to satisfy its irrigation needs. With an interview with Jack Lindsay, an American oil entrepreneur who came up with a business plan to ship water from British Columbia to Santa Barbara, this documentary reveals how vulnerable Canada is under NAFTA to exploitation of its freshwater resources as tradable “commercial goods.”.


------------------------------------------------------------


Friday, March 21, 2003 - KICH Event Hall Theatre, 1:30pm

La loi de l’eau (Canadian/Quebec) Director: Robert Monderie (52mins – French with English subtitles)

A devastating look at the proceedings of a Quebec tribunal into the state of water control and quality, leading to the conclusions that special interest groups are now firmly entrenched with little or no monitoring by the government, and worse - that pollution from every source, but especially industrial and agricultural waste and pesticides, runs rampant. Director Robert Monderie makes the case for new water policies to be created immediately – and not just in Quebec.


Guest Speakers: World Wildlife Fund – Living Waters Campaign Representative and the International Communications Director

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Saturday, March 22, 2003 - KICH event Hall Theatre, 11:30am

Water War (India) Director: Nutan Manmohan, Research/Reporting: Aarti Kapoor (11.07mins)

The Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan that helps the two countries to share the waters of five rivers that flow from Kashmir, has become a point of major confrontation. Analysts warn that if water is used as a weapon in current tension between India and Pakistan, it could escalate into warfare. An estimated four million people in India and one million in Pakistan are directly affected by this water treaty. Kashmir’s people and Government have been clamouring to turn off the taps. The Indian Minister for Kashmir has said: “ We give them water and they send back terrorists.” Pakistan officials have threatened to approach the UN and the World Bank to intervene if India does try to scrap the treaty. The film covers an area of 700 kilometres spanning Ladakh (a Bhuddist area), Srinagar (a Muslim dominated area) and Jammu (a predominantly Hindu region).

WWF Yangtzee River programme (China). Profile of the work of Dr Lei Guangchu (8 mins)

This short film documents the work of persuading and assisting people living along the banks of the Yangtzee River to live with, and adapt to, the annual floods instead of trying to fight them. A pilot village has been established on the river where residents have moved to higher ground and started different industries and agriculture. They are safe from annual flooding and economically the move has been a success. On the opposite bank, another village that decided to stay put but has been following the progress across-stream recently decided to follow suit. WWF is helping finance alternative industries for these villages and hopes to spread the scheme up and down the river.


WWF Niger River programme (Nigeria). Profile of the work of Bawa Ousmane Goah (12 mins)

The flood plains of the Niger River are the lifeline of the Sahel people of West Africa. Millions depend on the region’s natural resources for fishing, grazing land, crops and building materials. Bawa Ousmane Goah is the local co-ordinator of the project PADEL (programme d’appui au developpement locale) in Gaya, Niger. His mission, illustrated in this profile, is to help local communities manage these precious resources in the face of increasing human and environmental pressures.

Pani (Nepal). Director: Sushma Joshi (28mins. English subtitles)

more about Pani

Set in the village of Lele, near Kathmandu, this cinema verite video follows the growing conflict in the community after a water pipe and tap system was installed. Gender and caste differences play a vital part in the disputes as women and lower caste members are excluded from decision making even though they are the principal users. The camera tracks the wide disparity in control and communication revealing frustrations that result in the pipe being cut and maintenance fees unpaid. Its lessons become clear as we witness the more vocal of the villagers debating the issue: even small scale models of development will not work unless traditional social infrastructure, especially gender biases and cultural discrimination, are not addressed by donors and local managers.

Guest speaker: Director Sushma Joshi.

INTERNATIONAL WATERCOURSES LAW FOR THE 21st CENTURY

With Special Reference to the River Ganges Basin
4-5 June 2001

PROGRAMME TIMETABLE -- 4 JUNE 2001
10.00-10.30 Registration and Coffee
Morning Session: Chair, Professor Surya Subedi, Middlesex University
10.30-10:35

Opening by Professor Michael Driscoll, Vice-Chancellor, Middlesex University
10.35-10:45

Welcome by Professor Surya Subedi, Middlesex University
10.45-11.00 Key Note Speech by Professor Philippe Sands, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: "International Watercourses Law in the 21st Century and the River Ganges Basin"
11.00-11.20

"Problems and Prospects for co-operation between the Riparian States of the River Ganges Basin", by Professor B. S. Chimni, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
11.20-11.40

Discussion
11.40-12.00 Coffee Break
12.00-12.20

"The View of the Civil Society on the Law and Policy of the Riparian States of the River Ganges Basin", by Mr. Ajaya Mani Dixit, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu.
12.20-12.40

"The Experience of the Rhine River Basin", by Professor Andre Nollkaemper, University of Amsterdam
12.40-13.00

Discussion
13.00-14.00 LUNCH
Afternoon Session: Chair, Professor Jeremy Cooper, Middlesex University, London
14.00-14.20

"The Legal Regime of Nepal concerning the Utilization of Water Resources", by Mr Surya Nath Upadhyay, Former Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources, Kathmandu.
14.20-14.40

"Utilization of Water Resources and Prevention of Pollution of Water in India", by Professor Bharat Desai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
14.40-15.00

"The Law and Policy of Bangladesh concerning the Utilization of her Water Resources", by Mr. Humayun Kabir, Senior Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Dhaka.
15.00-15.20

Discussion
15.20-15.40 Coffee Break
15.40-16.20

"The 1997 UN Convention on International Watercourses Law and Freshwater Resources Problems of the World", Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Queen Mary College, University of London and Professor Gerhard Loibl, Universitat Wien, Austria.
16.20-16.40

Discussion

PROGRAMME TIMETABLE -- 5 JUNE 2001
9.30-10.00 Registration and Coffee


Morning Session: Chair, Mr Stephen Homewood, Principal Lecturer, Middlesex University.
10.00-10.20

"The Experience of the River Mekong Region", by Ms Bantita Pichyakorn, Researcher, Bangkok, Thailand.
10.20-10.40

"Problems and Prospects of Water Sharing between India and Bangladesh", by Mr Anjan Datta, Centre for Environment and Geographical Information Systems, Dhaka.
10.40-11.00 "International Law and the Legal Regime of the River Ganges Basin", by Professor Surya Subedi, Middlesex University.
11.00-11.20

Discussion
11.20-11.40

Coffee Break
11.40-12.00 "The Way Forward for the River Ganges Basin", by Mr Ramaswamy Iyer, Winrock International, New Delhi.
12.00-12.20

"Proposals for the Sustainable Use and Management of the Water Resources of the River Ganges Basin", by Professor B. S. Chimni, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
12.20-12.40

Discussion
12.40-13.00 Concluding Remarks, by Professor Surya Subedi, Middlesex University
13.00-14.00

LUNCH
14.15

VIDEO
PANI (Water), by Ms Sushma Joshi, Kathmandu, Nepal. A documentary about water in Nepal, made in conjunction with IRC Netherlands and Nepal Water for Health.

REVIEW: FILM SOUTH ASIA '01, Festival of South Asian Documentaries

New Abilities
REVIEW: FILM SOUTH ASIA '01, Festival of South Asian Documentaries

By Sushma Joshi

Nepal is a country known more for its mountains and trekking trips than for its film festivals. You'd imagine that budget travelers would be more likely to be seen downing an apple pie en route to Everest than catching the latest at a documentary festival. But Film South Asia, the film festival of South Asian documentaries, has been drawing an eclectic crowd of residents as well as travelers since its debut in Kathmandu in 1997. The first four-day film festival, held in the cosy new theatres of the Russian Cultural Center in downtown Kathmandu, drew crowds of people for the latest documentaries from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Fifty-five documentaries were shown at the first festival, including Nusrat Has Left the Building, But When? Pakistan's Farzad Nabi's experimental docu-drama, and The Spirit Does Not Come Anymore, the first-ever prize winner by Nepali filmmaker Tsering Rhitar. The works spanned the spectrum, from human rights and activist work to ethnographies and experimental. The FSA traveling film festival, which was organized to bring the films to audiences in North America and Europe, has put documentaries from South Asia on the global circuit.

The concept of independent film production, especially independent documentary, is almost unknown within Nepal. With the exception of a
few isolated cases, filmmakers within the country have concentrated on low-budget Bollywood remakes for commercial consumption. The film festival, which is held every two years, has created a heightened interest in low-budget, independent productions from the subcontinent that has not existed before. Kanak Dixit, who is senior editor and founder of Himal magazine as well as the founder of Film South Asia, attributes the success of the film festival to the fact that it is organized by non-film people like print journalists. "We have been doing serious magazine-length journalism, and documentary
filmmaking comes closest to that, which is probably why we went for it," he says.

India, with the largest film industry in the world, still has no significant festival or movement around independent documentary. While small clusters of activists produce their work within their own communities, these usually do not find the distribution they deserve. Film South Asia has filled this void by providing the subcontinent with a major film festival which has highlighted work on an international level. While the festival has done a lot to open up audience access to independent productions from South Asia, problems still remain.

The festival is dominated by works from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, with a few works from Nepal and Bhutan. Works by women are underrepresented, primarily because women outside the activist circuit do not have the funds to create their own productions. As Kanak Dixit concludes: "We need to consider why more documentaries are not being made, and look at the real challenge of expanding the audience for the documentary all over."


Film South Asia [www.himalassociation.org/fsa] accepts applications from South Asian filmmakers and filmmakers of South Asian descent from around the world. The next festival is being held Oct. 4-7 in
Kathmandu, Nepal. Submission deadline: June 30.


From www.docs-in-progress.com (now offline)

Q and A with Riz Khan, October 2000

PANI (WATER) was featured on the Q and A with Riz Khan, a program on CNN International, on October 2000. More information on this program at this link:
http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/qa/frameset.exclude.html

On why Riz Khan left CNN, here's a good interview:
http://www.yorku.ca/walrus/06-01/feature2.php

The Sound of Silence in Yamagata Documentary Film festival

The Sound of Silence in the Yamagata Documentary Film festival

The Sound of Silence

New Asian Currents, Yamagata Film Festival, 1997

Layers of miscommunication between a well-meaning American couple and a visiting Sherpa man, compounded with the dilemma of the Nepalese filmmaker who is caught in between as interpreter, prompt the viewer to review the limits to language and communication. Innocent discussions about food and culture reveal much about relative positions, through statements that could only be made through untranslated remarks and silences.

The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Screening List (1997)
http://www.yidff.jp/97/97list-e.html

International House Yearbook

I shot and edited the 2001 International House of New York Yearbook. The video features people as diverse as Fareed Zakaria, Bill Moyers, Gerry Adams etc.

INTERVIEW: Anand Patwardhan

INTERVIEW WITH ANAND PATWARDHAN DURING FILM SOUTH ASIA 1997
By Sushma Joshi
INT: How did you start making films?
AP: Partly by accident. I had a scholarship where I was studying in America, in 1970, in Brandeis University. It was the time of the Vietnam War. We were organizing against the War in our university. There were lots of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations so I borrowed equipment from the theatre department - although that wasn't what I was studying, I was studying sociology. But, as part of the anti-war effort, I filmed some of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. That's when I began.
1971 was also the time when millions of refugees were coming from Bangladesh - although it wasn't Bangladesh yet, it was East Pakistan. We organized a hunger fast for a day in our university to send the money to the refugees. I made my first completed film then, asking people whether they were eating or not on that day. That film was called Business as Usual, because we found funny responses.
Then I came back to India and worked in a village project for a few years. I wasn't doing anything in film, but I did a small film strip with still photographs of a TB clinic that we were running for rural patients. In 1974, I joined the JP Movement in Bihar - a student movement against corruption, and made a film about the Bihar movement. That movement ended up with the Emergency being declared in India. The film became an underground film, because it was banned. During the Emergency, I also began a film about political prisoners, which was completed after the Emergency ended. It was called Prisoners of Conscience.
My filmmaking has always been related to other work that I was doing. The last years, I have mainly been making films against religious violence. I have made three long films about the rise of fundamentalism in India The first one was called In Memory of Friends, and it deals with Punjab. Second part is Ram Ke Naam, about Ayodhya, and the third part is called Father, Son and Holy War. In each of the three films, I have dealt with the issue of communal violence, but with a slightly different analytical tool.
In the first film, I talk about class struggles, because it was the idea of Bhagad Singh and the Left Revolutionaries who believed that class solidarity would be the antidote to communalism. If the working class realised that it was class issues that mattered, not religious divide…
In Ram ke Naam, the second film, I was looking not only at the Left's response to communalism, but also to the caste question. The people who have benefited from the revivalism are basically the upper castes. The lower castes have been oppressed for centuries. So they really have nothing to gain from the revivalism. The lower castes were not even allowed in temples, so why should they fight for temples?
In this film, I also talk about Liberation theologies. What has happened in India is that Hinduism has been hijacked by Hindutva, by a group that wants to use this only for political gain and financial gain. It has nothing to do with the essence of Hinduism necessarily. There are disputes about what Hinduism actually means. It is so broad. One of the main protagonists of Ram Ke Naam was the priest of the Ram Temple who actually spoke out against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu fanatics. He was, by the way, murdered a year and a half after the film was made.
Then I made Father, Son and Holy War, which deals with the connection between gender and communalism. Mainly between machismo - the male psyche that is behind the violence that is taking place.

INT: So you think violence is derived from models of masculinity?
AP: As I pointed out in the film, its not necessarily only men who are doing it, because women are part of the same patriarchal system. It wouldn't survive if it were all only men doing it. So I show women using patriarchal language to rouse thousands and thousands of men against Muslims - you men are impotent, that kind of thing.

INT: Do you think we need to be moving towards a new construction of gender in order to deal with violence?
AP: I think we have to break down this masculine-feminine thing completely, because these are constructions which people have been socialised into. I don't think that there is a biological difference, and if there is, we can't do anything about it, so we need not even try. So the fact we are trying means that there is not a biological difference. These are social baggage that we are carrying, images of manhood...

INT: What kind of alternatives do you envision or propose?
AP: There is no distinct answer to this, but we have to discourage and laugh out of existence those ideas of manhood and masculinity which is perpetuated by advertising, perpetuated by everything we read, the posters that we see. Everything. So that's why Father, Son and Holy War tried to show you what popular culture has done with this as well. One has to basically reunderstand what it means to be a human being, and forget about male and female.

INT: Have you done other work in areas of violence?
AP: No. It's not that I set out to do something against violence. For instance, the Narmada Diary is about a non-violent movement. It happens that the movements that I have been attracted to most were people fighting with non-violence as the means. But I have also made films on Naxlites who in fact were using armed struggle.
My main concern is to fight for social change, but my personal opinion says - violence finally dehumanizes, even when its violence for a just cause. So I have problems with that, although I can't actually sit in judgement over others who have chosen this as a means to use. I couldn't say that in South Africa people shouldn't use armed struggle to overthrow Apartheid. I don't think that personally I can impose my views on other people. But I myself was drawn towards non-violence as a means to fight.

INT: You started out being involved with Vietnam. Was that part of the reason for being drawn towards non-violence, since that is associated with non-violence?
AP: Not necessarily. Not everybody was non-violent. (Laugh). Yeah, yeah, flower-power and all that. People in my university even killed a policeman and robbed a bank to protest against the War. So there were all sorts of people doing all sorts of things.

INT: So were you ever involved in violent acts of protest?
AP: No. Non-violent protests, for which we were arrested.

INT: Do you think your documentaries have had some effects in mitigating the current communalist violence in India?
AP: Asking about violence is not the right question. The films that I made are not specifically aimed towards fighting violence. Each one deal with different issues. They deal with issues of social justice.

INT: Do you get reactions?
AP: Oh yeah, I get that all the time. I also travel all over the country, showing films and having discussions, so I can get a fairly good idea of what effect they are having. That also changes how I make them interacting with the audience.

INT: Can you give us some examples?
AP: If you want a dramatic example, I had people who were doing Kar Seva, who actually went as part of the Hindu fanatic brigade to demolish the Babri Mosque. But after seeing Ram Ke Naam, they came and told me that it had changed their perspective and that they had left the party. There were two people, and probably more that I don't meet. So I get enough feedback to make the whole exercise worthwhile.
Even though my films are not normally shown on TV so they don't have a huge, big audience. They were finally shown on TV after a big fight in the courts. Then they reached millions of people but normally the films are shown when we take our projectors around. Or by video. It wasn't banned per se; it was just that TV wouldn't show it. Three of them were shown on TV after I won a court case. Three court cases.

INT: What are your future projects?
AP: I am doing a film on fish workers right now.

INT: What's the focus?
AP: Fighting against the factory ships. These foreign factory ships that are depleting the oceans around the whole region. And against aquaculture which is destroying the coastline, depriving the coastal community of drinking water, because all the water is becoming saline.

On The Road With The Red God

On The Road With The Red God

Kesang Tseten’s new film captures both the Rato Machhindranath festival and the preprations accompanying the grand event
Issue 2, Nation Weekly Magazine, 2004

BY SUSHMA JOSHI

The sight of a priest proudly display- ing a tiny vest at the Rato Machhindranath festival has been etched into our national consciousness. “On the road with the Red God: Machhindranath” is a film recently made by Kesang Tseten. Tseten takes 110 hours of footage of various acts of human ingenuity and devotion to what seems like a lost cause—namely, the construction of an unwieldy 100 foot chariot that gets tangled up in the electric wires of Patan and tilts drunkenly as it is dragged and pushed and pulled by enthusiasts across flood-washed roads every 12 years, and where men get roaring drunk and get into fights all the way from Bungmati to Patan, and then repeat the process all the way back.

Behind the vest rests a red god, known as the Rato Machhindranath. This is the divinity worthy of all that work—painters, artisans, rope-makers and carpenters donate days of working hours to build him that sky-high vehicle. Thought to be a manifestation of Avalokiteswor, the Buddha of Compassion by some, and Shiva by others, the Rato Machhindranath enjoy a popular following. While we have all seen this god in one form or another—postcard, photograph, television appearance—what is not clear to most Valley residents is why this god in general, and his festival in particular, took on such national significance.

Tseten’s film, by carefully documenting the entire process from the beginning, brings us a rare behind-the-scene glimpse of a production involving uncountable actors and decision-makers, from the guthis of Bungmati and Patan to the hundreds of people who materialize to drag the chariot back and forth between the two cities.

The festival can appear, on first sight, to be a classic excuse to get drunk and get into a good fight. Buff young men fight each other to get on the prow-shaped steering brake. The ousted men are unceremoniously pulled off. Acrimonious exchanges involving everything from the division of meat to the dogs to assigning blame for the tilting of the chariot is apparent. Scenes of conflict abound, and after a while you begin to wonder how people even manage to get that goddamn chariot upright, let alone drag it all the way from Bungmati to Patan.

If the chariot falls down and touches the ground, bad things happen. Kings can die, royal families can get massacred, and the guthi people can mysteriously get sick and die in mass numbers. The chariot has to be rebuilt anew in the event of such a calamity. So there rests a level of national responsibility amongst all the people involved in the venture. Some measure of co-operation amongst all the different people—from the men who run alongside and swiftly put a piece of wood in between the wooden wheels to brake the momentum, to the men perched on top who give the navigational directions, to the buff young men doing the steering, to the hundreds of volunteers who pull the ropes—has to exist. And don’t forget the women who brew all that potent alcohol.

After a while, the seeming chaos and loose organization take on a logic of their own. In spite of the overt conflict, which gets hashed out at every level, it’s apparent that the co-operative nature of Newari society remains the core spirit that guides the enterprise. While it started out as a local Newari festival, the discourse on the streets makes it clear that all Nepalis think of the festival as their own. When the chariot finally makes it into Jawalakhel, the level of mass participation and work involved in the process comes to fruition. When the priest takes out that tiny vest and displays it so proudly to the country, he is not just taking out a medieval garment—he is also taking out the symbol of a process in which, in spite of the conflict that exists at every level of society, the spirit of co-operation has again triumphed over small differences and created a structure in which such a mind-bogglingly complicated event could take place.

In both a literal and a symbolic level, the festival is an analogy of any large structure, i.e., our nation-state. Conflict exists at all levels in every organization. The trick is to find a way to resolve it without major calamity. Tseten, by actively editing footage to show the reality of conflict and its day-to-day resolution, follows more than a chariot. He is following the god behind that vest—the god of compassion that can allow a society made up of diverse and heterogeneous groups of people to come together and work on a national project without getting crushed.


(Full disclosure: Kesang is a friend. At Wayne's house, with Kesang, Wayne, Ann, Chris and me: if my face is cut off, it means I took the photo!)

INTERVIEW: Bhaskar Dhungana

BHASKAR DHUNGANA

Bhaskar Dhungana, one of the owners of the Jai Nepal Cinema Hall, talked with Sushma Joshi of the Nation Weekly about the hall’s history, upcoming plans for digital exhibition, and the potential for Nepali films to be more widely distributed with new digital technology.

Jai Nepal Hall is doing successful business at a time when most cinema halls are barely breaking even.
We are surviving.

Why is cinema not doing so well in Nepal?
Cinema is not cinema anymore. It was a social event before. Now it’s a place where people are herded together in a commercialized space. We have to recreate the social aspect, in my opinion. We have to make it fun. And by this I mean a clean environment, and a place where families and children are welcome. Cinema is also about light and sound as well, and the technology has to be good.

How did you get interested in starting a cinema hall?
I always thought it would be nice to have theatres like the one in foreign countries in Nepal. I was studying in the US from 1990-1996, in Luther College in Iowa. After I came back, I was interested in making my own films, but I never found people to collaborate.

What attracted you to this location?
I went to see Caravan at Jai Nepal Hall, and thought it would be a great hall to refurbish and renovate. I passed by the hall one day and talked with the owner about the state of the hall. That’s when he mentioned he was interested in leasing it. So we got a ten-year lease.

How did you fund the initial renovation?
There are three of us at Vision Quest: me; Nakim Uddin, my jwai; and Rajesh Siddhi, who studied with me at Luther. At first, we had no money. We approached a lot of institutions. Finally, we got funding from the Nepal Share Market, plus our own initial investment.

How do you choose your movies?
We don’t give priority to high-brow movies. The average Nepali doesn’t like it. We like to show action-oriented movies in Hindi and English. Nepali films don’t run well. We ran Bheda Ko Ooon Jastai for seven days, but that had a lot to do with the good marketing of the producers. Bluntly speaking, Nepali films are not of good quality, technically and content-wise. Bollywood is not far behind Hollywood in technical terms.

You are starting digital exhibition of films in your hall for the first time. How would this affect viewers?
We are working with two companies called GDC and AdLabs, based in Hong Kong. They’re promoting a new technology that would put films on digital data disks. The quality of this is higher than DVD. We’re promoting digital exhibition in five theatres nationwide. This is a useful technology for small cities and towns which don’t have access to a print release.

There’s been a lot of hype about a digital revolution, not all of which has materialized in the last few years. Would hall owners end up investing in a technology that could become obsolete within a few years?
The digital exhibition technology we’re promoting has been approved by SMPT. They set the global standards. There is cheaper technology, but we believe this one is around to stay.

People say that Nepali films are not being given priority, as theatres only show Hindi films.
Movies are not made or selected for nationalistic reasons. People go to see films because they are fun. They won’t watch it unless they enjoy it, or at least they get their money’s worth. Why shouldn’t we give Nepali films priority? If they did well, it would be great for us as distributors.

What about the argument that Hindi films take away the market by competing with Nepali films?
This is like saying rice is not selling because there is too much chow-chow. People will watch the best movie that is being shown, whether it’s from their country or not.

How do the censors affect your choices?
The censors are pretty liberal. Problems only arise in political content. For instance, they objected to the film LOC, which was extremely critical of Pakistan. We agreed with them.

What was your biggest grossing films?
It was Kal Ho Na Ho and Kohi Mil Gaya for Hindi, and the Matrix and James Bond for English.

Any plans to go into the production business?
We thought about it. But first we have to develop a platform in which these films can be shown. Its useless to have a movie with good sound if the hall doesn’t have the equipment to broadcast it.

What about concerns about security?
A bomb went off in our parking lot once. But I don’t think they were targeting us specifically – three other bombs went off around the Royal Palace at the same time.

How do you see Jai Nepal in ten years’ time?
Overall, I think it will be thriving. There need not be a revolution in production. There can be a revolution in distribution, like the large format I-Max theatres. I-Max needed special equipment before, but now digital has superceded that need. Bheda Ko Oon would never be released commercially on a global level today. It could be if we had digital exhibition, and they could put their film on a data disk.

How would this new technology affect the distribution of Nepali films?
Nepali films could eventually get a worldwide audience. It is also easy to subtitle in digital. In ten years time, it will be a different ballpark. That’s the future. But we have to start the work now. We’re meeting up with the producers to discuss how the government might help support and ensure the growth of digital cinema, so we could push this technology forward.

REVIEW: Shooting Karma by Tsering Rhitar

Shooting Karma
Dec 5, 2004, Nation Weekly magazine

Shooting Karma
Tsering Rhitar is a perfectionist who works his scenes meticulously, getting take after take until he’s ready to move to the next scene

BY SUSHMA JOSHI
Tsering Rhitar stands by the reception area in the Sherpa Hotel, directing his film. The film, titled “Karma,” is a story about a nun who walks down from Mustang to Pokhara to Kathmandu to track down a man who owes money to the monastery. The nuns need the money to do a puja. The film, says Rhitar, is about the paradox of the co-existence of materialism and spirituality.


“Use your own language,” Rhitar urges his actor. The director is wearing a brightly colored Nepali topi as he directs his multinational crew his cameraman Ranjan Pallit is from India, his actors are Nepali, and he himself has a partial Tibetan background. His shooting script is written in English, with scribbled notes in Tibetan. Little storyboards have been drawn in stick figures next to the script. The dialogue is being translated from the only shooting script.

“We don’t have to be politically correct,” says the director, as a discussion about the usage of the word “aimai” ensues. “We want to speak like people speak.” The actor finally decides to use the colloquial word.

The actor, who has worked with the director before, translates the gist of the dialogue into his own words. The crew waits patiently for the director to finish. Then the grip and gaffer move in with lights and translucent paper that act as filters for the low-budget film.

Ranjan Pallit, the cameraman, says working with Rhitar is: “Very democratic. We can always make suggestions, and he will listen.” Pallit says he loves Nepal and has been here 10 times already. A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of Pune, Pallit has also worked with other Nepali filmmakers.

The clapboard says: “scene 73, shot 12, take 1.” By the end of the hour, the take will have increased to 7. The sign of a good director is perfection. Rhitar is a perfectionist who works his scenes meticulously, getting take after take until he’s ready to move to the next scene. Pratap, the actor, is working on a comic scene where he leers at the nun and asks her for some Mustang apples. The line is said over and over again until the director is satisfied. In-between takes are long moments of lag-time as actors try their lines, check their postures and gestures, and listen to the feedback from the assistant director. The process could try the patience of a saint, but the crew, remarkably, seems to hold up well. “And by the way, give me some Mustang apples,” the actor says, leering at the nun. The crew bursts out laughing the line, finally, has punch. “Don’t cut me!” the actor jokes as the director finally says: “Cut.”

“Karma” is being shot in digital video which allows for the flexibility of multiple re-takes. Unlike 35mm film, video is cheap to shoot. Film scripts have to be more tightly rehearsed in order to get maximum mileage out of the budget. For Rhitar’s working process, which involves a lot of impromptu directing and rehearsing on the set, video allows the flexibility of making mistakes and correcting them on location, without a lot of expensive re-shooting. Digital video is becoming the medium of choice for many indie filmmakers who don’t want to be tied down by commercial constraints and who can experiment without having to lug expensive and heavy equipment around in remote places.

Padam Subba, brother of Nabin Subba, who directed “Numafung,” is assisting on the set of “Karma.” “Tsering helped us a lot during ‘Numafung,’” he says. This reciprocity between the small and tight-knit film community has worked to its advantage people share resources and networks, and this has allowed for better working relationships between the different directors.
Rhitar has been shooting for 25 days in Mustang. The crew lived and worked closely with the nuns at the Tharpa Cheling nunnery. The process, said Rhitar, was very moving, and the nuns made good friends with the crew. The nuns cried when the crew departed.

Like many independent films produced internationally, Rhitar’s film is being personally funded by the filmmaker. The Rs. 3 million just covers the production and post-production costs. The rest of the funds, including the telecine transfer process, will be raised by the filmmaker later.

“I am not thinking about distribution at the moment,” says Rhitar. “I want to make it first, and then think about it.” He says he would like to have it widely distributed in the Nepali market, but he also wants it to be available to the international market. Rhitar is a rare breed—an indie filmmaker who follows his artistic vision and avoids the dictates of the market. Unlike many of his compatriots who spend their days hashing out virtual photocopies of Bollywood hits, Rhitar spins stories out of his own experiences and his community. This integrity has brought him international recognition.

Rhitar’s previous films include “The Spirits do not Come Anymore,” about the dying tradition of shamanism, which won an award at Film South Asia. “Mukundo,” shot in 35mm by the same crew as the one shooting “Karma,” won international recognition in film festivals in Japan, France, Sweden, India and the United States. It also won an award for the script from the Producers Association of Nepal. Shown at such well-known festivals as the San Francisco film festival, the film garnered respect, although it was never formally distributed on a commercial scale.

In the Sherpa Hotel, the phone rings, a group of German tourists enter with huge backpacks, but the actor remains on his job. “Okay, another take!” he says enthusiastically. “Nice. Lights off,” says the tired cameraman. “Get into emotion, Pratap-ji,” says the director. “Don’t talk, anybody,” the actor says as he closes his eyes for a few seconds and allows the noise to fade out as he enters his private world. A few seconds later, he opens his eyes and nods. He is ready. “Rolling, and action,” says the director. The actor says his line flawlessly. The last take goes fabulously well. The entire room of expectant spectators bursts into applause. A small miracle of filmmaking has just taken place. But there is no time for rest—it’s time for the next scene.

INTERVIEW: Nabin Subba

This interview was published in the Nation Weekly magazine in 2004.

KHULA MANCH

Nabin Subba (35), the director of the acclaimed film Numafung, talked with Sushma Joshi of The Nation Weekly about his films, the Nepali independent film movement and his visions of nation-building.

The Nation: How did Numafung come about?
NS: During the pre-democracy days, I worked in journalism for almost a decade, first in Nepali Awaj for 3 years, and then in Deshantar for 5 years. I was doing mainstream reporting. Then I started to focus on art and culture, and later exclusively on film. I was dissatisfied with Nepali films, and would write critiques about them. I had long discussions with my filmmaker friends about making a film that would have a Nepali identity, but they all said it was not possible. They said it would not be commercially viable. So I said, okay, I will have to do it myself.

The Nation: So you took it as a challenge?
NS: Yes. I wanted to experiment with a Nepali form, one which would reflect a Nepali identity.

The Nation: What do you mean by form?
NS: A film has two aspects: form, and content. I wanted to see if we could create a specific Nepali film language. We copy Bollywood, so we have a South Asian language of film, but not a Nepali one.

The Nation: Do you think you have been successful in this endeavor?
NS: This is an evolving process, one that will not happen with one film. It takes contributions from lots of people before we create a new language.

The Nation: Did Numafung break ground for a new Nepali independent film movement?
NS: New Nepali filmmakers are slowly coming up with new work. Manoj Pandey just did Laxya. Its very different from the usual stuff. Then there are the documentaries: Bheda ko oon jasto, The Life of Laxman Magar etc.

The Nation: Your film has a documentary feel to it. Are you influenced by documentaries?
NS: No, I am influenced more by Asian films, which has been recognized as a genre even in the West: films from China, Japan, Vietnam, Iran. I love the work of Majid Majidi, who did the Color of Paradise, and Li Gong, of Raise the Red Lantern. Ang Lee's? - his work is not bad, but my problem with his films is that he's not connected to the roots. They are more Western. Majidi always has Islam in the background of his films; Trang Anh Hung's films have a beautiful rhythm, like the melody of the Vietnamese language. This kind of connection is missing from Lee's work.

The Nation: One major critique of Majidi's work is that his use of children has become cliched. We listen to Numafung's story through her sister, who is also a child. What do you think about this?
NS: Our societies tend to be more melodramatic, so its easier to show it through the eyes of a child. We could also say that our societies are less complex than Europeans', although the Chinese might disagree with that, they say that there is no culture more complex than theirs! (laughs.)

The Nation: How long did it take you to do Numafung?
NS: I grew up in Brunei, Hongkong and Malaysia until I was seventeen, then I returned to Nepal. I didn't know much about my own roots then, so I did five years of research to make this film. I read all the books on Limbu culture. I frequently visited the village in Pachthar. By the end of the film, I learnt a lot about my own culture.

The Nation: Why did you choose Pachthar?
NS: My family is from Taplejung, but I needed a village close to Mr. Kumbakarna. The Limbus worship this mountain as a deity, like the Gurungs worship Mt. Annapurna. You see the mountain framed throughout the film.

The Nation: One criticism of Caravan was that it romanticized the culture of the high mountains, and did not reflect reality. Did you hear this about Numafung?
NS: The people in that area still wear those ornaments and those outfits in melas and hats. The brides still wear those outfits. Wealthy people still take horses. Of course, now we're slowly leaving our traditions as globalization takes hold. You can see the jeans and the cassette-players in the film as well.

The Nation: Numafung shows a girl who is forcibly married by her father for the second time. When she runs away he has to pay back her bride-price and becomes destitute. Did you feel some audience reacted by blaming the girl?
NS: Some audience have reacted in that way. But I also heard that the young people of the village are meeting to decide not to take the sunauli-rupauli, and they are trying to get rid of this practice. This practice started as a way to protect the girls, who were married off across the river or mountains. The parents kept the money in case the husband was abusive, or if he died, so she could come back and resume her life. But then the money started to become a prestige issue, and parents started to compete about how much the girl would bring. This also started forced marriage, where lower class men who could not afford the bride-prices would forcibly drag off women from melas. This is how patriarchy works.

The Nation: What were your reasons for choosing the social realism genre?
NS: I made a conscious decision to address gender and ethnic issues. Our country is a country of minorities. Nobody is in a majority. In our nation-building, we didn't take the right path. A lot of minorities feel they are out of the national stream. As a filmmaker or cultural worker, I feel it is my social responsibility to address this issue. If we don't bring small cultures into the national mainstream, the nation will disintegrate. That's the consciousness I had while making the film. You will notice that the accents of the actors in the movie was tinged with local dialect, because that is how people speak. I wanted people to accept that.

The Nation: So has the film proved the naysayers wrong?
NS: The film ran for five weeks, which was one of the longest running Nepali films, especially during this difficult political climate. During the weekends, it did very well. Nepalis have become broadminded, and they are interested to learn more about different cultures. It took us 48 lakhs to make the film. My partner Chabilal Limbu and I jointly funded it. I can say that we have paid all the production money back, and we're planning to make a new film with the profit. Numafung is now slated to open in Europe. These films have an international market, and a diasporic market. There's a hunger for this kind of film, and most filmmakers in Nepal don't see that.

INTERVIEW: Rahul Roy

INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER RAHUL ROY was conducted during Film South Asia 1997
By Sushma Joshi
I got involved in gender issues by accident. I had a lot of friends in college, when I was doing my BA - some of my women friends who were feminists were doing a street play and they wanted a "man". So they sort of roped me in. And then gradually what happened was that the groups got involved in various sorts of protests and issues. Then I got into TV and film school and did my Masters there.
Immediately after that, I started working with my - at that time my girlfriend, now I am married to her - and most of her films were around gender issues. But somehow, throughout, I was very uncomfortable. And by gender issues, I mean basically women's issues. I was extremely unhappy throughout. I couldn't understand what I was so uncomfortable with. It was after almost five, six years - more - that what was actually bothering me was that my involvement with women's issues - I was not involved with it in my position of being a man. I was taking an almost genderless position in my relationship to the filmaker and the subject.
Once I understood that, over the last couple of years I have started addressing my films from the perspective of being a man, on gendered terms. Now I am focusing on making films about men and masculinity, that is my current obsession...Violence kind of fits in. I believe, the way the two sexes interact and communicate with each other, has lots to to do with violence. Violence is the language of communication between the two genders.
According to me - i might be wrong, but I am not a theoritician or an academic - I feel that ultimately what we are looking for is a genderless society. I don't believe that gender as one of the necessary ways in which society has to be organized. I think the point that we always get caught in is this whole thing - that men are not feminine enough, or that women have to break streotypes and identify with more masculine symbols. But I think that that is not the answer. I don't mean to in any way suggest that women have to lose their female identity, or that men have to lose their male identity.There are certain things which come almost from their bodies, certain energies - which I think are very important, this distinction between the two sexes. But masculinity and femininity are cultural constructs. And I think those have to be destroyed, for any gender equality, for violence between the genders to disappear.
One of the ways around which society has been organized is around notions of patriarchy, which is a power sytem, which is very important for the way we approach our social and political lives. The genders play out a certain roles, certain ideologies - that since the inception of setting out patriarchal basis for society.
INT: Men and women have not acheived cultural equality - what's stopping it?
All these factors - cultural, political, economic - they are all linked together. The point is that the power that is experienced by both genders- or the powerlessness that is experienced by both genders has to be removed. So many factors are so critical to this whole relationship between the genders. So equality as a concept has to permeate through these various notions - not just notions, but these relationships, whether it is economic, cultural, emotional, romantic, whatever. All round throwing away of patriarchy - easier said that done, but the point is that at least we have a fair understanding of it now - we know that that's the way we have organized ourselves. We know what we have to dismantle.
INT: What was working with your wife was like and what wwere the problems you encountered in terms of decision making and whether there was conflict between you two?
RR: Any man or woman working together - there's bound to be problems. The way we are constructed socially -we carry our baggages. Sometimes, very unconciously, we behave from our gendered positions. So it is not really possible not to have conflicts. People say it is - I'd like to see that. So there has always been problems - but the point is that we both understood the problems. So I pointed out the problems to her, so ultimately we could understand. We actually enjoyed working together. Looking at the world together. IT's been nice, as well as had its bad moments.
INT: Are you planning to work together on projects with her in the future, or have you two decided to have your own seperate projects?
RR: We will be working together in projects in the future. At the moment, we have taken the decision to work separately since we had become too intertwined and interdependent. So we thought that seperating ourselves from each other - because what happens is that often two people are working together - you sort of start becoming experts on one part of the work. That becomes really limiting. When you know the other person is taking the responsibility for something else, you withdraw. You are not really participating - so we took a decision to work separately in order to experience other aspects of work. But we will be working together... At the moment, we are working separately.