FILM CLUB in Anakapalle?!?!?!
I just returned to Mumbai after my “INDIA darshan ” as I was filming 6 documentaries for AID INDIA (Association for india’s development -an NGO) along with our very own K K (Kavita Krishna). I must thank her for offering me this opportunity and choosing me over many other volunteers (including her sis) … she was being professional she says !!!
Anyway now I am just gonna throw light on one small part of our trip in this article, but let me first give you an over view of what we were assigned to do-
Kavita proposed the idea of documenting on film the works and the projects of AID-INDIA to Kiran a volunteer of AID-USA (Kavita has been an AID volunteer since 2001) and she was given the green signal!!!
So we were given projects to cover in various parts of India (Chennai, Krishnagiri, Thiruvanamalai, Anakapalle, Srikakulam, Tholapi, Orissa, Kakinad, Hyderabad, Udaipur,Bhim, Bhopal etc ) Involving Education, hygiene, Land reforms, social issues (anganwadi), alternative technology, training centres, RTI awareness, NREGA etc etc
ANAKAPALLE
ANAKAPALLE a small town in AP was our first stop in that state. I just knew that we were supposed to film something on “land reforms” but I wasn’t sure what the actual work was until I reached there and interacted with Ajay garu an APVVU activist (AP Agri workers union). He is also a part of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) and was recently also a part of fact finding committee that visited Nandigram.
To make it simple = the “waste lands” declared by government have to be allotted for the poor (tribals) … but because of the holes and greedy hands in the system … lot of such lands were sold to rich landlords or even just taken up by them (or basically went unaccountable) … so people like Ajay fight for the rights of the poor to get back their land (I have put it in simple words .. but its serious work going on there) lot of death threats n heavy bribery involved… so we were with Ajay for 2 days documenting his work … we walked up hills to visit and film a few tribal villages !!! One of the tribal groups even named their village after him “Ajaypuram”.
Now what struck us both was his knowledge of world movies in spite of him being from such a small town. He stated as a passing comment that he used snippets from movies in workshops to inspire the tribals and other villagers. In one such case he said that he had shown a scene from James Clavell’s “to sir with love” starring Sydney Poitier!!!
That’s when we enquired about his interest in films… and how he used them to inspire people… Ajay is basically a very creative person … he writes inspirational songs (which has a dominant “communist” rhythm to it) for villagers and tribes!!! And he watches a lot of films and reads a lot and even writes (hoping to adapt few of his works into movies)
As our discussions went deep into films he slowly expressed his desire to start a “FILM CLUB” in Anakapalle for the villagers and the people there!!! He also said that he had a “small” collection of his own. That very evening I discovered that the word “small” was so deceiving in that context.
He hopes to increase his collection through DVD donations of films (esp foreign) !!!
I sincerely feel that we must help him set up his FILM CLUB!!! So if anyone is willing to send him some movies (docus / fiction/ nething) please write to me at “geoantoney(at)gmail(dot)com” with the names of the movies you would like to donate so that I can cross verify with him and check the need for the same.
Tags: Documentary
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Medium thats amazing trip!! Like to know more stories in detail. Hope to catch up with KKK.
In anakapalli??? Holy Shite… I love that town, been there in my childhood… thanks for the post medium…
KKK, come back yaar… missing u here..
Great idea. What format does he want the movies in? Tape, DVD, film? If it’s DVD, what is the region code? For people who are not in India, are there reliable vendors we can use via the Web? I sent some books to Cambodia, but used Amazon, so the shipping was as much as the books.
Also, can you talk a bit about what he finds inspiring? For example, would a movie like Thirteen, which is a well-made independent movie that shows the dark side of American teen life, be interesting to them? Or is he more interested in uplifting thoughts?
@Manjeet
yeah man .. truely an amazing trip !!!
so u shifted from our very own navi mumbai ??
@ Ravptor
u love that town ?!?!? … well one thing abt andhra i dint like much were the places there … but the praja were too warm and good … loved them… they too loved me ;)
@Evelyn Tu
He said DVD’s … i will call him and ask for specific preferences of movies !!! (will post the list in the comments soon if there is any)
If sending it to such places is a problem .. u can send it to me in Mumbai … so i will send the same along with the set of DVD’s i am planning to send him!!!
Yeah my friend…I visit on weekends mostly..lets meet sometime!
Medium, if you don’t end up posting it here, please e-mail me when you know the answer about the types of movies he’s looking for.
Will post it here Evelyn Tu
and will mail you too … for sure !!!!
Not able to get in touch with Ajay garu ryt now … will post soon !!!