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BEST ENVIRONMENT FILM - National Film Awards, India | BEST FILM ON ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION - CMS VATAVARAN Film festival, India | SPECIAL MENTION - Ma Planet(e) Film Festival, Metz, France
Aboriginal Community Food System & Women Farmers • Kondh Aboriginal Community from India • Environment Conservation vs Commercialization • Songs as Vessels of Culture • Co-Existence & Respect for NatureDate of Completion: 2014 | Run Time: 45 minutes | Language: Kui (oral language of the Kondh aboriginals) with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Directors: Kavita Bahl & Nandan Saxena | Producers: Kavita Bahl & Nandan Saxena | Cinematography: Nandan Saxena, Kavita Bahl & Sanjay Malakar | Edit & Sound Design: Nandan Saxena
A woman who sings more than she talks, Timoli, is a loving mother, a caring wife and a natural leader to her village. Happy in their small hamlet at the foothills of the verdant Niyamgiri forest in Odisha, her life is turned topsy turvy when her forest is being viewed as a ‘resource’ to promoting monocultures of teak. DONGAR DEI PARIBI NAHIN (I CANNOT GIVE YOU MY FOREST) is an intimate poetic window into the lives of the Kondh aboriginal community who eschew the duality of Man and Nature. Over generations of co-existence, they have internalized the Forest – pacing the rhythms of their lives with the cycle of the seasons. The Forest is a metaphor for their identity and their sovereignty. Against the foil of the usurpation of the commons, their philosophy gives a counterpoint to the dominant discourse of monopolization of the resources by the corporations. Filmed in Raigada district in Odisha - DONGAR DEI PARIBI NAHIN (I CANNOT GIVE YOU MY FOREST) is a modern day rendition of the David and Goliath story, played out in an Orwellian setting. It asks pointed important questions of its viewers, yet it rejects the dialectic of the traditional news documentary, and blurs the thin line between documentary and narrative cinema. The narrative is theirs; the meta-narrative is also theirs. There is no voice-over.
AWARDS
Best Environment Film | National Film Awards, India
Best Film on Environment Conservation | CMS VATAVARAN Film Festival
Special Mention | Ma Planet(e) Film Festival, Metz, France