Last week, I found myself on the nomination jury of the Vatavaran 2005 festival of environmental films, that is scheduled to be held in late November in New Delhi. Viewing the films were a mix of film professionals, environmentalists, writers on the environment, print journalists, educators. See http://www.cmsvatavaran.org/vatavaran2005/
One good thing about this task (watching 40 films spread over three days) was that there were so many useful green ideas coming up from across the length and breadth of South Asia. It was fascinating to learn of the problems that people are facing in diverse parts of India (tourism in the icy desert of Ladakh, floods in eastern India as 'development' has come to mean the embankments of rivers and their disruption by roads and railways like what's happening on a smaller scale in Goa, innovative solutions to tackle problems and so on). One of the films was how people at Kovalam in Kerala (the tourist centre) are tackling their waste woes, with a zero-waste approach picked up from Australia and New Zealand. At the end of the film, one was still not sure whether this can be replicated across a large area, or is just one of those NGO-oriented pilot projects types which look great at the micro-scale but simply refuse to scale up. Rain-water harvesting was the theme of other films -- something which is surely of relevance to Goa. There were films on the jatropa tree -- which Miguel Braganza has been writing about -- and how it is being used by farmers as a substitute to diesel in their tractors and water-pumps. Priests in Pilar are promoting it in Goa too. Unfortunately, the spread of the documentary (and film) culture has been rather unequal across India. The big cities (Delhi, Mumbai) are of course ahead and have the equipment and skills at their service. States like Kerala and West Bengal also have long-standing traditions in film-making... for reasons which I've not been able to quite comprehend. As far as I know, there was not a single film dealing with Goa coming up for this competition. Actually, there are 2-3 films which could have qualified to take part, since this fest included all films made between 2000 and 2005. One was the film on mining, about Rivona, made by a young student in the 24x7 competition at the last IFFI. Another was that very interesting story of Goa's changing coastline done by NIO scientist Padmanabh V Sathe (already described on the web in quite some detail). It was perhaps my own fault for not drawing their attention to this festival. Meanwhile, Alito Siqueira and team (which involves Cecil Pinto and Isabela Santa Rita Vaz, among others) have been working on their 'visual knowledge' project. I do hope this and other ventures throw up some useful Goa-linked film projects that builds further green awareness about issues in a state which we often take for granted. Do anyone know of any other films related that Goa that are currently available? Can someone take the lead and build a 'film archive' for Goa? After all, Goa should be more than a (costly) backdrop for IFFI, and a place which can better tap its talent and skills in other forms of the media too. --FN PS: If you'd like to join a network discussing Indian documentary film, check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/docuwallahs2 PPS: While looking at one of the films from Kerala, my ex-journo colleague Max Martin nudged me and drew my attention to a genre of film focussing on the 'lost Kerala' and how great the state once was. "That's quite a trend in the thinking of Malayalees," he said. It reminded me of us Goans, who keep lamenting about the state of affairs and how 'Golden Goa' is getting destroyed by the day. In some ways this is true; but the past wasn't all sugar and spice. And can't we also look at the positive options growing and build our human resources to make sure we have a better future? Nice to learn that we're not alone in our obsession. Is Goastalgia directly linked with the high level of emigration we have, as is the case with Kerala? PPPS: Vatavaran also visits different parts of India as a 'travelling festival'. It would be nice to have something done in Goa too.