In Focus

   I am enclosing some information about a film I worked on during March 2001 - February 2002. Shot in Kutch after the 2001 earthquake, it deals with Development/ Displacement, Environment, Peoples' Rights and Democracy. The film has won several international awards and has been invited to many film festivals.
It is an independent self-financed film, made without any grant, contribution or funding. I am now attempting to recover part of the costs by selling VHS copies. I am likely to use the money for my next film and to continue documenting the story of the 2 villages featured in the film . Please let me know whether you would be interested in buying one or more copies of the film [ Rs 1500 +  100 for postage for institutions/ organisations].  In case you know NGOs/ institutions/libraries and other agencies/ individuals who are likely to be interested in such a film, please help by forwarding this email to them.
Information about the film is enclosed below.
Rakesh Sharma

Aftershocks -The Rough Guide to Democracy India 66 minutes 2002

Awards : Le Prix de la Presse politique award for the best documentary film at the 16th Fribourg International film festival in Switzerland (March 2002). Bronze for best documentary feature, Big Muddy film fest (USA), April 2002, John Michaels memorial award, Big Muddy film fest (USA).

Festivals:  Indian Premiere at Mumbai International film festival on Feb 9, 2002 by MIFF and Indian Documentary Producers' Association. Other festivals include the 26th Hongkong International Film Festival (April 2002), the Calcutta Festival of Social Cinema(Feb 2002), Directors' View fest (USA), Bare Bones fest (USA) and Festival Voces Contra el Silencio ( Mexico), April 2002.Dokfest Munich (May 2002), Beeld Voor Beeld film festival, Amsterdam (June 2002), Shanghai TV/ doc festival, June 2002, Papua New Guinea international film festival, May 2002 and the Black International cinema festival in Munich/ Berlin/Dusseldorf (May-June, 2002).

Invited to :  Ecocinema 2002, Greece ( Sept 2002),  Zanzibar International film festival ( June 2002) and Docudays, Beirut (Oct 2002)

Review blurbs : in major daily newspapers
“It is an exposé…it shocks, it jolts…” – Indian Express
“The film delves into the complexities of caste…” - Hindustan Times
“Aftershocks captures brilliantly the ‘business as usual’ philosophy of our elites – Hindu
“The quake was used to harness corporate goals…Aftershocks captures the proceedings”- The Independent(UK)

SYNOPSIS 
On January 26, 2001, Kutch (Gujarat, India) was devastated by a massive earthquake. Over 20,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Bhuj, Anjar, Rapar and Bhachau, the most severely affected areas, received attention from many international relief agencies, national and international media, even personal visits from Prime Minister Vajpayee and Citizen Clinton.
This film is set in Julrai and Umarsar , two villages in Lakhpat, near the India Pakistan border, close to the Gujarat coast, and too far away from Bhuj to be in focus. Umarsar is an upper caste Durbar village, while Julrai's entire population comprises low class Rabbaris, semi-nomadic shepherds, who began to settle down into permanent villages only in the last couple of hundred years. The two villages have nothing in common except that both were almost totally destroyed during the quake and both are sitting on top of lignite reserves. The Government-controlled Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation has a monopoly over any mining activity in the region. GMDC is likely to be privatised completely over the next few years; 26% of its shares were sold to corporates, financial institutions and investors in 1997-98.

This film traces the story of GMDC's attempts to acquire the two villages. Eight weeks after the quake, on March 26, 2001, our camera accidentally bumps into the GMDC acquisition survey team in Umarasar. Over the next few months, the film moves in and out of Julrai, Umarsar and the GMDC's existing lignite mines and probes the processes of displacement and resettlement.

Did GMDC succeed in exploiting the earthquake as a God-sent opportunity to hasten the acquisition? How did the obviously vulnerable quake-affected people of Julrai and Umarsar deal with it? What was the role of the state government machinery, entrusted with the welfare of its calamity affected people? How have the existing mines and the power plant affected the lives of the people living nearby? Have the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislative taken note of this human impact before they paved the way for the new mines and the new power plant? The film is a hitchiker's journey through the labyrinthine universe of Democracy, as it exists in its lowest unit level - the Indian village.

This 68 minute film has been shot and edited entirely on Digital Video -miniDV ( Sony TRV900 and MatroxRT2500-Adobe Premiere). Languages spoken by the people include Kutchi, Gujarati, Hindi and English. The film has been subtitled in English.
 

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