From close angles

Award-winning documentaries shine at the Tathya Movie Festival

Vishy of ActionAid talks to a migrant labourer while shooting his documentary

The focus was on showing the striking contrast and capture the exploitative conditions. So, as the short video Wealth Amidst Dust rolls on, Hyderabad's boom in the software and real estate fields is in focus. The next frame depicts the story of unsung heroes, the migrant labourers working in brick kilns in and around Hyderabad and contributing silently to this growth.

The next few images fill you with pain and anger as the camera captures the pathetic conditions these people migrated from Orissa live in. “Women suffer the most as the toxic gas released from kiln creates health problems and skin ailments. Deprived of privacy and proper sanitation, they are prone to infections too,” the voice over in the video narrates the proceedings as migrant women recall the horrific conditions they live in. Directed by Vishy and funded by ActionAid International, the 45-minute film was part of the award-winning documentaries showcased at the Tathya Movie Festival on March 20-21. For a small audience gathered at the mini theatre of Ravindra Bharathi, the movie festival was an attempt to look into the lives of ordinary men and women who traverse in a fairly tough path to make our lives better. The short movies featured as part of the festival included Seruppu (Footwear), 1876 An Entertainment and Hearts Suspended directed by Meghna Damani.

While Vishy's first film

Wealth Amidst Dust was screened at various national and International policy gatherings apart from Hyderabad International Film Festival 2007, his other short video

Vanishing Livelihoods: India's New Dilemma also screened at the Festival shows how booming economy excluded various segments like farmers, dalits, tribals, coastal fishing communities, positive people and women.

If

Voicing Experience by Farhatullah Beig tries to explore the lives of child artisans, Chilka Banks by Akanksha Joshi highlights the problems of people who earn their livelihoods on the bank of Chilika Lake.

Breeding Invasion by C. Vanaja and Vipul Kulkarni, Coast Under Attack by Saraswati and Whose Forest by Shriprakash were also part of the festival.