When the world was shutting down in early 2020 and the pandemic halting life as we know it, journalists Manon Verchot and Sanshey Biswas decided to focus on the winged creatures outside the window of their Gurugram apartment. “A pair of shikras (a species of raptor) had a nest in a tree right next to our apartment boundary, and we got to spend hours over a couple of months watching them go from egg, to fluff balls to flying the nest,” says Manon, who has covered these fascinating finds in his award winning documentary, Neighbird, that will be screened at the upcoming 2022 edition of the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF).
Through making this documentary, says Manon, they “began to understand what biodiversity means in a way we hadn’t before”. “We often assume that cities are concrete jungles with very little wildlife. But there’s actually a whole world of birds, insects, reptiles and mammals living in close proximity to humans. It was fascinating to observe the resilience of so many species in a heavily populated region like NCR,” adds the director.
Manon Verchot | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Conversations for the climate
Boasting a line-up of 55 films with 33 India premieres including Ek Tha Gaon, All That Breathes, Tortoise Under The Earth, this year’s festival comprises “stories about the environment, and our critical relationship with the ecosystem and how we preserve and live in sync with it,” says festival director and co-founder, Kunal Khanna. The broad themes include forests and oceans, conservation, activism, capitalism, urbanisation, indigenious wisdom, food politics, climate change, among others. “We are bringing inspiring stories that provide a unique insight into people and places around the globe. We are creating a space for interactions about climate change and the many facets of the environmental emergency we are faced with,” says Kunal, whose top picks include The Roar of the Marañon, Planktonium, among others.
This year, he adds, the virtual edition of the festival is free for all with a ‘pay-as-you-feel’ model. “The climate emergency is affecting all of us, irrespective of one’s socio-economic background, and it requires all of us to take action as a collective species. For this reason we have done away with the financial barrier, and if you can afford it, you may choose to pay an appropriate amount to support the festival.”
A still from Ek Tha Gaon | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Ghost villages and bees
Based in her father’s village in the foothills of the Himalayas, director Srishti Lakhera’s Ek Tha Gaon tells the story of an abandoned ‘ghost’ village, and the two women Srishti befriends — Leela Devi and Golu, a 19-year-old. “Leela Devi, 80, was a farmer and with people leaving, farming stopped and left her with a fading identity. Even with her pain of loss and longing, she still kept her spirit alive and in the film you can see her feistiness and sense of humour,” says Srishti who learnt a “new perspective of self-image from her”. Leela, she says, does not own a mirror and did not care how she looked in front of the camera either. “When she says someone is sundar (beautiful), she is always referring to how that person’s behaviour is. Living in a highly stimulated world of technology, I am often detached from my surroundings. But both Leela and Golu, the two women who grew up with silences between the sounds of barking deer, crickets, and chirping birds pay detailed attention to their worlds and live in the moment,” says Srishti who is now working on a documentary film set in the Himalayan grasslands.
As for Rajani Mani’s Colonies in Conflict — that delves into the state of wild bees in India’s fast-developing landscape — she says the intention behind the film was to understand what was happening to the creatures, and also share the world of wild pollinators that live in urban spaces. “I found the giant Asian honey bee, or rockbees, to be fascinating creatures. As a storyteller, I want the spectator to understand how human interference is playing out in the insect world, starting with my own neighbourhood, and the impact it would have on the local eco-system and the world at large,” she says of the film shot primarily in Bengaluru and Coorg.
A poster of ‘Spirit of the Forest’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The animated sacred grove
From bees on to plants, Spirit of the Forest by Kolkata-based Ghost Animation is a fascinating entry in ALT EFF’s animated shorts segment. Directed by Nandini Rao, Nirupa Rao, and Kalp Sanghvi, the film follows the story of a little girl who stumbles upon a sacred grove. Hailing from a family of botanists, sisters Nandini and Nirupa grew up around the Western Ghats, and they say the primary objective of this project was to make an educational film rooted in science. In an earlier interview, the duo highlighted how ‘the flora and fauna featured in the film are all accurate to the habitat, and the themes of this ecological fairy tale are derived from contemporary scientific research’.
Nandini explains how the team visited the swamps along with locals, ecologists and sound artists, and Nirupa (a botanical illustrator) sketched out species with the help of botanist Navendu Page. “It was fascinating to note that these patches of forest have been preserved by centuries-old indigenous practices and left them unaffected by human hands since the formation of the Indian subcontinent at the breakup of Gondwanaland. Our vision was to capture the fragile essence of this interconnected web of nature and culture through a tale of magic, fantasy and the human imagination,” says Nandini, adding that making it accessible for children was a challenge. “They can often be the toughest critics — if a story is boring or vague, or doesn’t resonate with them emotionally, they will tell you. The objective while writing the script was to create distinct, relatable characters and weave scientific facts into a journey that audiences both young and old could emotionally identify with.”
BOX: After two years of being a purely virtual film festival, the 2022 edition of the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) will be a hybrid event. The virtual festival and in-person screenings will be held at venues in Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Bengaluru, Delhi, Ooty, and Panchgani.
All Living Things Environmental Film Festival 2022 will be held from November 17- 27. Register on alteff.in/
