DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018- A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES

 

Is it Too Much to Ask (India)

(30 min; 2017; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Leena Manimekalai

 

Is it Too Much to Ask follows the journey of two friends, Smile and Glady, looking for a rental apartment in Chennai and the obstacles and social stigma they encounter in the process for being single and for being transgender women. A delicate documentary that treats a sensitive subject with lightness while exposing society’s prejudices

 

At 18:40 

32 Souls (Myanmar)

(25 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Sai Naw Kham

 

A quietly poetic work on the rhythms of daily life, of mortality, and the persistence of memory in Myanmar

 

At 19:15 

Fireflies in the Abyss (India)

(88 min; 2015; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy

 

In the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India, boys and men descend into the abyss of the 'rat-holes' to scratch coal out of hard rock, with nothing more than a pickaxe and a head-torch. One of them is Suraj, an 11-year old boy. Born in the mines to Nepali immigrants, Suraj cherishes the hope of getting out of the coal-pit someday. But despite the hardships and pain of separation, we see pride, generosity and sacrifice