Begin 2024 with these four Indian documentaries that turn a thoughtful lens on the environment and the indigenous people who strive to safeguard it. |
"CLIMATE ACTION can't wait," declared a mission statement for the recently concluded COP 28, i.e. the United Nations Climate Change Conference for 2023. "The beginning of the end (of the fossil fuel era)," was another quotable quote that emerged from the proceedings. Still, as critical reports around COP 28 indicate, there is a gap between such assertions and actual action. Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere. In this series, we're looking at four Indian films that turned a thought-provoking lens on the environment and its custodians — the indigenous people whose lives are deeply intertwined with that of the natural world. These films were screened at the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALTEFF), which wrapped up just a few days before COP 28 and offered, in a sense, a more encouraging view on the way ahead for climate action. For a new year, what could be more fitting than a new way of engaging with timeless concerns? Before we begin, a PSA: |
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| For Aarey's Tribals, The Forest Is Both Home & Deity |
OVI BORHADE, no more than seven or eight years old, is among the younger generation of Warli tribals living in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony. She entertains herself by making faces in the dust, playing with butterflies and goats, climbing trees or swinging on hanging roots with her friends, and — protesting. Her grandmother, Pramila Bhoir, is often referred to as the ‘tigress of Aarey’, and her grandfather is Prakash Bhoir, who collaborated with the artist collective Swadesi on the song The Warli Revolt, which has over 1.6 million views on YouTube. Watch the best Indian and international documentaries on Docubay, with an OTTplay Premium "Totally Sorted" subscription, for less than Rs 250 per month. This family has been at the forefront of the 2019 protests against the proposed metro shed in the area. It’s the story of these sentries of the forest that Miriam Chandy Menacherry lays out in her 2022 documentary The Leopard’s Tribe. When the family isn’t fighting to protect the beloved trees, they’re gathering with other members of the community to challenge a notice asking them to prove they are tribals, else their houses will be treated as illegal slums and they will have to relocate, away from the forest, under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority scheme. In Ovi’s world, protests are as much a part of life as playing with friends and spending time in the forest. — AARUSHI AGRAWAL |
Sheep Sustained Their Tribe. But The Next Gen Has No Time For Herding |
DHARMA is the inherent nature of one’s reality. It’s eternal and a way for one to understand their duty, purpose and true calling in life. For the kurubas, a community in the Deccan region, dharma is shepherding. Since prehistoric times, they’ve been herding sheep, guided by a story that’s part of their oral culture. The legend, narrated in director Ankit Pogula’s 2023 documentary Herd Walk, goes like this: Muddigonda Muddavva had six sons, five of whom were farmers. The sixth, Padamgonda, wasn’t very productive, until his brothers told him to do something with his life. He started ploughing the fields, and hit upon an anthill, from which several sheep sprung out, whom he was unknowingly killing. At that moment, the clouds parted and a voice spoke from the sky: ‘Don’t hurt them. Protect the sheep and they in turn will take care of you.’ After that, Padamgonda started walking the sheep. — A.A. |
MORISIKA: THE STORY OF THE BOATMAN |
A Bend In The River: Life On The Brahmaputra's Banks Is Shaped By Currents Of Change |
MORISIKA: The Story of the Boatman, directed by Vandana Menon and Debashish Nandi, tells the stories of the people living near the Brahmaputra river, of the cultures and traditions formed and lost to time on the river’s banks, the myths and legends surrounding it and the realities of what it means to live alongside its swiftly moving length. Through making the river a character and giving it a voice, the film is presented in the form of a conversation between the Brahmaputra and a boatman, who discuss not just the lives that played out for and around the river, but also the politics and choices it influenced. The film also records the myriad ways in which the river and the surrounding cultures live on in people’s memories. Ultimately, life around this river, which equally provides and destroys, is always a capsule of culture and tradition, its stories ever poised to be lost to the ultimate wave — time. — A.A. |
The Land Is Dying. Pravin Selvam Hopes To Help Resuscitate It |
PARCHED, cracked, desolate. Like a slow wave, the dead land is progressing rapidly forward, threatening the green and lively land in front of it. It started with one quarry and now there are over a hundred quarries in the area around the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. Several farmers are selling their lands and moving to urban areas, and the land is being mined and quarried, with the local people and wildlife left behind to deal with the consequences of this. In a drone shot in Pravin Selvam’s documentary Changing Landscape, this contrast in lands becomes shockingly apparent. The land is dying. And it’s being called development. “Two thirds of the land has been taken up by quarrying,” says Selvam. Stone quarrying was first established by the government to make highways and for road development, but it wasn’t long before private projects also started. Today, with the spot discovered, illegal quarrying is rampant in the area, slowly but irrevocably eating into the wetland. — A.A. |
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| In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an
hour on this. |
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