“Water” is world’ biggest environmental issue. How it is dealt with is a touchstone to test India’s democratic credentials. Already the fight between the civil society on one side and the Government and private companies on the other is underway.
“Hunger” and food issues are a bitter representation of the perfect imbalance of our world. Farmers are trapped in the vicious circle of debt, ongoing poisoning of their land and water The farmer families are alive with hopes of better days to come, with the benediction of loan agencies. This has put their wives, daughters and sisters in precarious situations.
“Survival” manifests struggles against repression, oppression, injustice, inequity, displacement, violence, humiliation, rights’ violations.
Passivity does not exist, cannot exist and should not exist. Today we are witnesses, but in the next sequence, we will be actors, live performers… Writing the script, setting up the stage for the struggle to start… it is the first step towards the great show… because it is a show, just a show… showcasing what it means to face a situation where life struggles against death.
Quotes from the Earth, is a film festival showcasing our ecological space with visual quotations such as ‘Voices from Baliapal’, first film made in India on a people’s resistance movement and ‘Words on Water’, provide a glimpse of the Narmada movement. ‘Development flows from the barrel of the gun’ captures state repression, ‘Seeds of plenty, seeds of sorrow’, short films made by the Deccan Development Society and several other eye opening images bring home pictures of haunting and barbaric reality of “unofficial India” which would confront and compel the concerned citizens for a rethinking.
The concept of ‘Quotes from the Earth’ emerged after several brain storming sessions by a working group comprising of independent film-makers like Amar Kanwar, Krishnendu Bose, Sanjay Kak and Teteii from the IIC and the Toxics Link team, with great inputs from Gargi Sen and Ranjan De, from Magic Lantern Foundation.
‘Quotes from the Earth’ is an independent film festival on the environment, being organised by Toxics Link, an environmental NGO based in Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai, in collaboration with the India International Centre, from 21st to 24th January 2004, in IIC, New Delhi.
To know more about it, contact Aurelie,
aurelie@toxicslink.org or adelalande@myrealbox.com