SMILE Film Festival

Students’ Mobilization Initiative for Learning through Exposure, a youth programme under Indo Global social service Society is going to organize a documentary film festival titled SMILE Film festival from 24th to 26th April. The programme shall begin at 330 pm on 24th April and will end by 2 pm on Sunday. The film festival has been organize to sensitize young people on social issues. The themes of the movies are related to climate change, human rights, right to information, livelihood, etc. SMILE has organised a series of youth workshop on youth and democratic governance this month to generate awareness amongst youth. Film festival is also another way of reaching out to more and more young people who can debate on the issue which affects their lives.

Films related to RTI by KABIR like Drive against Bribe.

No Body’s man by Mrinal Talukdar

Three award winning documentaries from Jeevika Film Festival a South Asia Livelihood Competition—

Lakshmi and Me
(Lakshmi and Me / English, Tamil, Marathi & Hindi / 0:59:00 / Nov. 2007 / Mumbai / Nishtha Jain)

“What sin did I commit to be born a woman?” Lakshmi wonders aloud. A 21-year-old housemaid in Mumbai, she works ten hours a day, seven days a week. One of her employers, Nishtha, begins to make a documentary exploring their relationship. Lakshmi’s is a precarious existence to begin with; illness and romance compound her problems. As the filmmaker is drawn deeper into Lakshmi’s life, she if forced to question many of the things she takes for granted. During a year and a half of dramatic changes, the process of filming has its own impact on the relationship between the two women.

Chilika Banks-Stories from India’s Largest Coastal Lake –1970-2007
(Chilika Bank$ / Hindi / 1:65:00 / 2008 / Orissa / Akanksha Joshi)

In a canvass spread over four decades, a banyan tree on the banks of the Lake Chilika, silently whispers tales of the lake and her fisher folk. From the times when there was no export bazaar to the time when there may be no lake.

Hollow Cylinder

(Hollow Cylinder / English / 0:23:50 /9th July 2007 / North East India / Nandan Saxena / Kavita Bahl)

The making of the Hollow Cylinder was partly triggered by the controversy amongst India's Foresters and Policy-makers on whether Bamboo was a tree or a grass.
This confusion led to a muddled up policy - bracketing a grass with the trees and shackling it for fifty years or more. Little wonder then if the livelihood potential of Bamboo has largely been unutilised in India.

When we place this policy-lapse in the context of the lack of employment opportunities in the rural non-farm sector in India, we realise how policies impact lives. Bamboo grows easily in most parts of India, barring the arid regions like Rajasthan and Ladakh. There are pockets with abundant Bamboo forests. The irony is that these are the pockets that are known for extreme poverty.

The Bamboo map and poverty map of India look the same. Our country has a strong tradition and legacy of skill and craft. The resource is there, so is the skill... and yet, the poor remain poor.

Bamboo is not a material that transports well because it traps air and moisture.
This challenge is also an opportunity to create avenues of employment in farflung areas, where it is otherwise difficult to create sustainable livelihoods.

This hollow cylinder could have transformed millions of lives.

However, the potential of this hollow cylinder remains locked up somewhere in the corridors of power.

Soldiers of Sarong a film by Lokendra Arambam and it has been commissioned by north East Network.

There will be another screening of documentary Assassination produced for Human Rights law Network. This documentary is related to right to Food and Supreme Court’s Verdict on right to Food.

The films shall be screened at Darwin school of Business, Campus 1 in the R G Baruah Road. The festival will be a place for debates and discussions after the movie and there will be exciting prizes for the active audiences who participate in the discussions. SMILE would like to thank Centre for Civil society, New Delhi, North East Network, Guwahati, Human Rights Law Network, Guwahati Chapter and others who have provided the movies for screening.