Last weekend we had a whirlwind of exciting films, meeting some great people, and making lots (and lots and lots) of new friends. Here’s a small recap of what went down at Wandering Women: The Docu Film Festival of India in Mumbai on August 15 and 16.
This is the trailer we’d created beforehand to give folks a sneak peek at the festival:
The film festival took place on the premises of the Godrej India Culture Lab – which organised the festival along with The Ladies Finger – in Vikhroli. Considering how far away the festival was from the city’s centre, we were thrilled to see such a large audience way early in the morning, including some folks who had come from Baroda and Delhi.
We kicked off with a “YouTube party”, a selection of videos on YouTube largely made by young filmmakers overtly or covertly addressing feminist issues. (To see the full list of videos screened, check out this playlist on our YouTube channel.) And then we moved on to Nishtha Jain’s Gulabi Gang – the first of ten superb documentary films screened at the festival – about the now famous and eponymous group of activists in rural Uttar Pradesh led by Sampat Pal. Jain stayed after the film to field questions from an enthusiastic audience.
And then, after a quick lunch and amidst more films, there was a screening of journalist and filmmaker Bishakha Datta’s film Taza Khabar, followed by a discussion between Datta and journalist Karanjeet Kaur. The afternoon also featured a short discussion between Nisha Susan, writer and one of the founding editors of The Ladies Finger, and Afrah Shafiq and Deepika Sharma, the makers of the short film Dream Girls, which was screened that day. The day, which saw a packed hall and people sitting on the stairs in the aisles, ended with a lively panel discussion on feminism and documentary filmmaking in India between Bishakha Datta, academic Navaneetha Mokkil, and journalist Deepanjana Pal, who also took questions from the audience. The panel was moderated by Nisha Susan.
The next day, the morning kicked off with Madhusree Datta’s excellent film Scribbles on Akka. Before lunch, there was a panel discussion, this time about viral videos and whether they juice up or water down feminism. Writer and filmmaker Paromita Vohra, top ad executive Tista Sen and writer and stand-up comic Aditi Mittal were panelists, moderated by academic Polly Hazarika.
Each panelist played a short viral video that they then spoke about, before plunging into a fascinating discussion. Later in the day, Vohra’s great docu UnLimited Girls was screened, followed by a discussion between her and Nisha Susan. And after the last film of the day was played, Shubhangi Joshi, singer-songwriter and, as we found out, the same Shubhangi Joshi who is one of The Ladies Finger’s most kattar fans (and comments on our all stories and posts on social media!) played a short, lovely set of songs to a crowded hall. After two truly wonderful days, we were a bit boo-hoo that the festival had to come to an end.
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Hear more about the film festival from some of the filmmakers and others who attended:
Stay tuned for videos of the panel discussions and the music performance, coming soon! And here’s looking forward to organising the festival again, and in other cities!
