India is a land of numerous tribes and yet, their voices are hardly ever heard. Attempting to address this issue, the Nomad Film Festival was held on the 4th of September at the India Islamic Cultural Center in New Delhi. The concept behind this festival, the first of its kind in India, was organized by the National Alliance Group for De-notified and Nomadic Tribe (NAG–DNT), and aimed to increase awareness, improve understanding, and facilitate cultural dialogue through short films and documentaries.
A total of seven movies were showcased; each presenting the social, economic and cultural life of tribes sensitively and leaving one-dimensional clichés about them behind. For instance, Abhishek Indrekar, Kusha Batunge and Karan Pawar, aspiring filmmakers from the Chhara community, collaborated to make ‘The Widow Home’ which tells the story of a Chhara woman who loses her husband to alcoholism and takes up the responsibility of looking after her family. Also featured was Sriram Dalton’s ‘The Lost Behrupiya’, an award winning silent film which documents the lives of the Behrupiya tribe who are renowned for performing street plays.
Ahmedabad-based filmmaker Dakxin Bajrange, whose film ‘Survival’ (spotlighting the issues faced by the snake charmer community due to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960) was also screened, in an interview stated, “ the festival is important because earlier Bollywood filmmakers romanticised these tribes, overshadowing the actual concerns.”
The Nomad Film Festival 2016 was not just a gathering of people watching films, it was a statement to the importance of tribal communities in India and a corrective to society’s perception of the lives of denotified tribes; as such, it should be applauded as a much-needed step in the right direction.
For more information on films showcased in the festival and next year’s events, browse the site, or follow the event on Facebook.
Featured image source: Hindustan Times
Written by Nikhil Srinivas
