Movies: Anand Patwardhan

"Made in the aftermath of Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, Ribbons gives new meaning to an old film song by Kishore Kumar – a kind of “Imagine” composed before the days of John Lennon. With guest appearances by well-known movie stars like Naseeru...

"Narmada Diary" introduces the Narmada Bachao Andolan (the Save the Narmada Movement), which has spearheaded the agitation against the Sardar Sarovar Dam. As government resettlement programs prove inadequate, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has emerged as...

Dalits, in the Indian caste system, belong to the lowest social sphere and are therefore subject to regular discrimination and violation of their basic human rights. Also referred as “untouchables,” this group was vindicated by B. R. Ambedkar, a Dali...

Film made during the repressive days of the Emergency in India documents the 1974-75 uprising of the people of Bihar in Eastern India....

The film explores the campaign waged by the Hindu right-wing organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad to build a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, as well as the communal violence that it triggered. A couple of months after Ram ke Naam...

A message from the economically displaced children of a slum colony in Mumbai who are educating themselves in the face of government apathy....

Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan looks to history and psychology as he delves into the possible reasons behind the demolition of the Babri Mosque....

A broad-ranging examination of Indian society, where secular rationalists are hunted down as they attempt to stem the rising tide of religious and nationalist fundamentalism....

About the communal clashes between Sikh and Hindu fundamentalists during the Khalistan Movement and the subsequent endeavors of secular parties with Marxist associations in reinstating peace in the state....

A documentary on the socio-economic injustice meted out to the slum-dwellers in Bombay, and an attempt to understand the factors responsible for it....

Esteemed documentarian Anand Patwardhan directs a portrait of his parents, whose families were intertwined with Gandhi and India’s independence movement. His view on history extolls unity between Hindus and Muslims, a value that needs reasserting in ...

"We Are Not Your Monkeys is a music video that reworks the epic Ramayana story to critique the caste and gender oppression implicit in it. Sung by Sambhaji Bhagat and composed by Sambhaji, the late Daya Pawar and Anand Patwardhan, the music video opp...

Documentary about the nuclear sabre-rattling that has been going on between India and Pakistan. Comprised mostly of interviews with average folks on the street, the movie superbly demonstrates the gulf between the people's will and the greed of those...

On April 6, 1980, the Canadian Farmworkers Union came into existence. This film documents the conditions among Chinese and East Indian immigrant workers in British Columbia that provoked the formation of the union, and the response of growers and lab...

Gérard Courant's "Filmed Diary" of December 14, 2011, produced in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Between December 7 and 15, 2011, Gérard Courant was invited by the Dubai International Film Festival, in the United Arab Emirates. It was an opportunity f...

Fishing in the Sea of Greed documents the response of one fishing community in India to the “rape and run” industries that have begun to dominate their livelihood and decimate their environment. Under the leadership of the National Fishworkers Forum ...

"Textile mills were once the backbone of Bombay’s economy and provided the city its working class culture. Today, foreign investment and rising real-estate prices have made selling mill lands more profitable than running mills. Mill ‘sickness’ is no...

An early Patwardhan documentary completed in 1978, Prisoners of Conscience focuses on the state of emergency imposed by Indira Ghandi from June 1975 through March 1977. During this time over 100,000 people were arrested without charge and imprisoned ...

"Global censorship of the war on Iraq has stifled the outrage that may have otherwise curtailed the ongoing atrocity of occupation. Not only have the real causes of war been hidden but also its effects. Most people see a sanitized and falsified versi...