| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| mEEra | Posted
on 25-Feb-04 11:39 AM
For those who are in the NY-metro area, or those who can make it to NYC this weekend, the following film festival at Asia Society might be of interest. In particular, "The Living of Jogimara" (Mohan Mainali, 38 minutes, 2002, Nepal), featuring on Saturday, February 28th, 1:00 pm, might be of interest to Sajhaites. From what I understand, the documentary was BANNED in Nepal, more reason for it to be interesting :-) ********************************** Asia Society, Breakthrough and Syracuse University present the Second Annual SOUTH ASIA HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL Thursday, February 26 through Saturday, February 28, 2004 Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York City Features: Thursday, February 26, 6:30 pm - Gangaajal (Prakash Jha, 150 minutes, 2003, India) U.S. Premiere A searing look at the intractable issue of police corruption in India. Friday, February 27, 6:30 pm - Swaraaj, The Little Republic (Anwar Jamaal, 90 minutes, 2003, India) NY Premiere Women’s search for empowerment through the prism of gender, caste politics and access to water in Rajasthan. Saturday, February 28, 8:00 pm - Anaahat (Eternity) (Amol Palekar, 90 min, 2003, India) U.S. Premiere A provocative film depicting female desire and patriarchy. Three Documentaries on Identity and Conflict Saturday, February 28, 1:00 – 4:00 pm The Living of Jogimara (Mohan Mainali, 38 minutes, 2002, Nepal) U.S. Premiere In 2002, construction workers from Jogimara, Nepal were killed by the Nepali army for their alleged involvement with the Maoists. In cooperation with Film South Asia. Resilient Rhythms (Gopal Menon, 64 minutes, 2003, India) U.S. Premiere The continuing state of human rights violations based on caste. A Certain Liberation (Yasmine Kabir, 37 minutes, 2003, Bangladesh) NY Premiere The impact of the violence of the 1971 Bangladeshi war of liberation on Gurudasi Mondol and her strategies for survival. Three Documentaries on Child Rights Saturday, February 28, 5:00 – 7:00pm The Unseen (Pallav Das, 24 minutes, 2000, India) NY Premiere The vulnerability of street children to HIV/AIDS in urban India. Swara, A Bridge Over Troubled Water (Samar Minallah, 40 minutes, 2003, Pakistan) NY Premiere A depiction of the Pukhtun practice of giving minor girls in marriage as reparation for serious crimes. Looking for Kannan (Yasir Khan, 22 minutes, 2002, Sri Lanka) U.S. Premiere The director’s journey to see if a 15-year old LTTE member is being rehabilitated by the Sri Lankan army. Courtesy of CBC-Canada. $5 Students w/ ID $7 Member/NGO $10 Nonmember Advance registration or ticket purchase is highly recommended. A credit card is required to hold a reservation. Please call the Box Office at 212-517-ASIA, or send complete information by fax at 212-517- 8315, or email: boxo@asiasoc.org I WAS TOLD BY A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE THAT IT PROMISES TO BE VERY VERY INTERESTING SO DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY. WISH I WERE ALSO THERE :( |
| mEEra | Posted
on 25-Feb-04 03:44 PM
Don't miss this one time opportunity!!!!!!! Starts tomorrow and goes until Saturday. I am a member of the Amnesty International and have attended their meetings and yes we can help in our own ways. We can all help by attending the Film Festival. Look at it this way, the money that you spend in eating burgers, if you spend by going to the festival, you will firstly have fun and your contribution will HELP millions around the world. |
| Poonte | Posted
on 01-Mar-04 08:29 AM
So, I saw it. The Living of Jogimara was about the hardships faced by the families 20 young men from Jogimara who had been contracted as laborers to build an airport in Kalikot district -- a government project -- and were later killed my the Army, alleging them of being Maoists! Just two days after they had started their work, the Maoists happened to attack the Kalikot district HQ, killing several security personnel (both army and police), along with the Chairman and his wife. The army, acting in retalliation, quardoned off a large section of the district, which included the airport construction area, accused EVERYONE within that area of either being Maoists or their supporters, and arrested few of them, while mercilessly killed everyone else. The 17 of the 20 construction workers from Jogimara were rounded up and summarily executed, their bodies made never to be found! Three of them survived, only because they sensed trouble right in the beginning and escaped when the army initiated their operation by firing at the workers from helicopters. Those three survivors have taken part in extensive interviews in the documentary, along with the familes of the men who were killed. What is worse for the families of those who were killed is that the bodies of their loved ones -- fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands -- were never returned to them. Hence, some of the families had been forced to perform the last rites of their loved ones by "cremating" KUSH, symboliznig a body of the dead, while some other familes are still waiting, denying to believe their loved ones are dead and still hoping for a miracle that somehow they will return soon, with the promised earnings from the construction work, to buy food and grains, and to pay off their debts. The entire village of Jogimara was left without young men after the incident -- almost all of them had signed up to work as laborers. One family in particular lost two sons. Their wives, unable to bear the grief and not knowing how to survive without further income, left the house and went to their maitis taking their children with them. A family that used to consist of 12 members was now down to two -- two elderly parents of the dead sons, left alone to fend for themselves. The whole village finds itself in a state of awe, not knowing how to deal with the sudden absence of the men -- the work that were traditionally reserved for men, such as HALO JOTNE, KHET KHANNE, off season ma bahira gayera PAISA KAMAUNE, are now being left undone, leaving the entire village in a further quagmire, as if losing the men was not enough suffering already. The cries of those interviewed -- moms, dads, sisters, wives -- were genuinely touching and I found myself struggling hard to hold back my own tears. Produced by Dhurba Basnet and narrated in English by Deepak Thapa (both men played the same roles in the production of another excellent documentary depicting Maoist crisis in Nepal, "The Killing Terraces" [Raktamaya Pahad]) is highly recommended for those interested in learnign more about the negative effects (boht direct and indirect) the war is having in our country. |
| Poonte | Posted
on 01-Mar-04 09:04 AM
As I wrote the above, I sensed that some of you must be asking the usual question whenever the issues of gross human rights violations is surfaced: WHAT ABOUT THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY THE MAOISTS? The Living of Jogimara is dedicated to depicting the tremendous effect of ONE incident that has tremendously affect ONE village, and is the producers have an unquesionable job of doing what they were set to do when they decided to produce this documentary. I did, however, told a friend who works at the Asia Society that they should have perhaps included another film in the festival that depicted human rights violations committed by the Maoists in order to seem more balanced. The problem, as he explained, was that such films have not been produced yet! So, so much as the organizers wanted to be balanced, they could not find ANY films (of quality, of course!) that depucted the human rights violations by the Maoists. Nevertheless, we must also be aware that one evil does not justify the other -- no matter how gruesome some of the jungalee Maoists' acts may be, they, in my opinion, in no fathomable fashion, justify the merciless killings of the innocents by the army. BOTH the army AND the Maoists should be held responsible for their sometimes unthinkable acts, and I personally would stand to be extremely critical of EVERY act of human rights violations, regardless of who commits it, SEPARATELY. To even THINK of justifying the gruesome acts of one side by pointing to the equally unthinkable acts of the other would only do grave injustice to the familes of the victims, for whom their loved ones are now dead, and now it does not matter who killed them, Maoists or the army. They lost, they grieved, and only they can fathom the diffculty of having to cope with the new reality -- and only they know that meaningless justifications provided by juxtaposing criminalities of either side is not going to alleviate the tremendous grief that they have had to endure. It has also been my personal postition that the government, being a well-established institution that is supposed to represent the people, should, and does, bear the greater burden of respecting human rights of the people. Maoists, being the rebels, represents perhaps only a small faction of our society, and they are NOT answerable to the Nepali people at large. If one tries to justify unjustifiable killings by the security forces on the basis of the similar acts of barbarism by the Maoists, then s/he is only belittlling the importance of the very government that s/he is trying to defend to the level of the so-called terrorists who have no responsibilites what so ever to who ever. Once again, I am NOT saying that the barbaric acts of violence by the Maoists can ever be justified on ANY grounds; however, the greater onus of setting an example by doing the utmost to respect human rights obviously falls on the government. |
| Poonte | Posted
on 01-Mar-04 09:15 AM
Fallouts of postng without editing... "The Living of Jogimara is dedicated to depicting the tremendous effect of ONE incident that has tremendously affect ONE village, and is the producers have an unquesionable job of doing what they were set to do when they decided to produce this documentary."" Should be read as: The Living of Jogimara is dedicated to depicting the tremendous effects of ONE incident on ONE village, and the producers have done an unquesionable job of doing... Please correct few other grammatical/spelling errors as you read them! |