Jindal School of Journalism and Communication (JSJC) hosted the Kos Minar International Documentary Film Festival at JGU from March 21 to 23.
The festival, named after the Kos Minar — a medieval distance marker built along the Grand Trunk Road, one of Asia's longest and oldest major roads connecting several medieval empires — showcased new experiments with the documentary film form by young and emerging filmmakers. It brought together some of the finest contemporary documentary films from near and afar and also facilitated stimulating interactions between filmmakers, film lovers, and students.
On March 21, the festival opened by commemorating legendary filmmaker, Kumar Shahani, who passed away on February 24, 2024. One of Shahani's last public appearances was at the commencement of JSJC's B.A. (Hons) Film and New Media Programme. In honour of Shahani, the keynote address, ‘Remembering Kumar’ was delivered by noted film scholar, Ashish Rajadhyaksha.
The opening film on Day 1 was Payal Kapadia's A Night of Knowing Nothing, an arresting portrait of the youth of India, their anxieties, desires, and dreams of justice, which had been awarded the Best Documentary Film at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. This was followed by the screening of Prachee Bajania's Umbro, a short and intimate film on a circle of Gujarati women, especially mothers, stealing time from their daily routines for friendships and leisure. Next was Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta's Flickering Lights, a tale of patience and hope, wherein a remote village near the Indo-Burmese border waits for 7 years, for electricity.
Day 2 opened with two recent Sundance film festival winners: Sarvnik Kaur's Against the Tide and Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing's Midwives. Both films highlighted marginalised communities (fishermen from Mumbai and midwives from Myanmar, respectively) grappling with larger global forces transforming their traditional means of livelihood. Later, Sreemoyee Singh's And, Towards Happy Alleys, portrayed a personal, musical journey through the streets of Iran. During the Q&A session, Sreemoyee Singh shared her experiences as a young research scholar and filmmaker, and how her fascination with Iranian cinema, poetry, and music inspired her to learn Persian and set out on a journey to Iran, to meet the nation's finest filmmakers and document the stories of Iranian women and their quest to live with dignity, often using music to bond with strangers.
Day 3 began with Haobam Paban Kumar's Phum Shang, and Raja Shabir Khan's Shepherds of Paradise, two compelling films on marginalised communities from Kashmir and Manipur, their incredible relationship to land and water, even as forces of nature and changing laws push them to the brink of extinction. Apart from the Q&A session, with both filmmakers, students were presented with a special opportunity to interact with them in a separate technical session.
The festival also included three short experimental films by Berlin-based Palestinian filmmaker, Basma Al Sharif, and a selection of films around climate change and ethics, presented by Alt Eff (All Living Things Environmental Film Festival). Event partner and global streaming platform MUBI also conducted special film quizzes for students, with their exclusive merchandise as prizes.