Borderlands
Samarth Mahajan
India. 2021. 67 min

SAMARTH MAHAJAN

Samarth Mahajan is a non-fiction filmmaker based in Mumbai. ‘The Unreserved’, his national award-winning debut feature documentary on passengers of general compartments in Indian Railways, premiered at Film Southasia 2017 and received broadcast & theatrical releases in India. ‘Kazwa’, his short documentary on sustainable rural tourism through fireflies, won awards at multiple international film festivals.

DIRECTORS, NOTE

The global debate around borders is at a critical stage. As masses consume state sponsored news and listen to otherizing narratives from popular leaders, it is important to bring out perspectives rooted in ground reality. Amplifying such narratives can enable us to acknowledge the humanity latent in us and inhibit the pace at which we are moving into a more fragmented future.
Growing up near the India-Pakistan border, my own lived experience affirms that our relationships with our neighbours are defined by the powers that be, and not people who experience the after-effects of these relationships. India’s diverse borderlands provide an ideal ground to explore how everyday people deal with the consequences of borders.

The film is an ode to human resilience, which refuses to buckle down. It explores the themes of migration, cross-border kinship, livelihoods, conflict & fluid identities through the axes of gender, class, ability, nationality, & sexuality. In a world where ‘Us vs Them’ precedes the understanding of Us and Them, the film intends to make one notice similarities over differences.

FILMOGRAPHY

Borderlands / 2021 / Documentary / 67 min,
The Unreserved / 2017 / Documentary / 60 min,
Kazwa / 2016 / Documentary / 9 minutes

POSTER

CONTACT

samarth@borderlandsfilm.org

Testimony of Ana
Sachin Dheeraj
India. 2020. 24 min

Anaben Pawar is an elderly tribal woman accused of witchcraft in rural India. Through Ana,s story, we delve into a deep-rooted culture of patriarchy and examine one of the most monstrous attacks on women,s bodies in modern India: the witch hunt.

SACHIN DHEERAJ

Sachin is an engineer turned filmmaker from India. He is currently studying and practicing film at The University of Texas at Austin as part of their MFA program in Film & Media Production. His short documentary “The Bubbleman” premiered at SXSW Denius Longhorn Showcase in 2019 and has played at many festivals, including in the 22nd Annual Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, 2020 Edition of Cinequest Festival & the 13th Annual Lone Star Film Festival in the USA.

He also attended the Summer Filmmaking Initiation workshop at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Artsin Prague(FAMU), the Czech Republic. He strives to tell stories that demand an urgent conversation and seeks to engage with people, places, and communities that are slowly disappearing. Through cinema, he aims to affirm their existence by preserving their lives and memories.

He is a recipient of the prestigious President’s Award for Global Learning for his upcoming UNTITLED VR THESIS FILM. He is also a recipient of the Austin Film Society Grant & a nominee of the Kodak Cinematography Grant for his pre-thesis film, TESTIMONY OF ANA.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

Ten years back, during my undergraduate studies in Gujarat, I first came across the term “Witch-Hunting.” I read that “a mob killed an old woman forfeasting on people’ssouls” in a local newspaper. I was probably too young at that time to conceive what I read. However, that story etched itself at the back of my mind. Three years ago, I again came across an article about “Witch-Hunting.” But this time, I wanted to do something about it. Especially after all the filmmaking resources that I knew I had at my disposal.

So I decided to go to Gujarat again to do some fieldwork. I met with some journalists and social justice lawyers who got me in touch with Ana, one of the only few survivors of “Witch-Hunt” attacks in rural Gujarat. When they briefed me about what the villagers did to her, I was shocked and couldn’t stop thinking about it. There were a few news articles that covered her story in 2017. I still was on the fence about whether I should make a film about her or not. Questions like “Who am Ito tell herstory?” and “Why am Ientitled to makethisfilm?” kept bothering me.

But once I met her in person, I was struck by how fearless and strong her voice is. I felt those news articles weren’t enough. I felt people needed to hear her voice. Those questions started to fade away, and there was a sense of urgency that crept up on me, and just a single question emerged, “IfI don’t tell herstory, then who will?” She was hesitant to tell her story first, so I had to show up every day at her house until I gained her trust. Slowly she agreed to have a conversation with me. I had to only work with her memories because the incident happened in 2017.

So I decided to reconstruct them through a lyrical assemblage. My goal in reconstructing these memories is to present to people the evidence of what happened to Ana and revive among generations to come to the memory of her resistance that today is in danger of being erased. Preserving this memory is essential. My project aims to make Ana’s story be heard without any hesitation or fear. I hope that this one story will speak on behalf of a lot of unheard and oppressed voices.

POSTER

CONTACT

msd1729@gmail.com

Pedro Hernández Santos, founder and producer at Aquí y Allí Films, an independent production company founded in 2010, begins his cinematographic career betting on auteur cinema with international potential, paying special attention to new talents.

With his first production, “Here And There” (2011), he won, together with Antonio Méndez Esparza, the Grand Prix de la Semaine de la Critic at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014 he won the Golden and Silver Shell at San Sebastian Film Festival for “Magical Girl” and in 2016 he was appointed as the Spanish representative in Producers on the Move (European Film Promotion).

“Life & Nothing More” (2017) was awarded with the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and was the first spanish producer who won this award.

Recently, he has produced two debuts: ”Boi” (2019) by Jorge M. Fontana, which was acquired by Netflix worldwide and “The Queen of the Lizards” (2020) from the promising filmmakers Burnin’ Percebes. His first documentary film, “Courtroom 3H” (2020), competed in San Sebastián International Film Festival.

This 2021, he prepares “Mantícora” (Carlos Vermut), “Madrid is it” (Antonio Méndez Esparza) and will premiere “Counting Sheep”, José Corral Llorente’s debut film, starring Eneko Sagardoy, Natalia de Molina and Juan Grandinetti.

He is currently developing Pau Teixidor, Sonia Méndez, Jorge M. Fontana and Burnin ’Percebes next projects.

Daniel´16
Dimitris Koutsiabasakos
Greece. 2020. 100 min

Daniel, a German teenager, is sent to Greece, in a juvenile offender community, to serve his sentence. There, in an abandoned village of Evros river area, near the border with Turkey, he experiences unprecedented emotions and has to solve difficult dilemmas… His final decision will surprise everyone.

DIMITRIS KOUTSIABASAKOS

Dimitris Koutsiabasakos studied Movie and TV Direction at the Gerasimov Institute of cinematography, in Moscow, Russia (V.G.I.K.). He directed documentaries, serials, short and feature films for television and feature films. His works have been recognized with numerous national and international awards.
Ηe has been teaching Film Acting Technique in Drama Schools, among them the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece. Ηe was a lecturer in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean and film director in the Hellenic Brodcasting Corporation, ERT S.A.
In 2018 he was elected to the position of associate professor of Film Directing at the School of Film Studies in the Art Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

FILMOGRAPHY

2020: Daniel ’16, Fiction
2020: The weavers, documentary
2019: Heracles, Acheloos and Mesochora, documentary
2017: “Yannis Kastritsis-The man and his shadow”, documentary
2016: “Silent Witness” – documentary
2014: “Becoming an actor” – documentary
2013: “The Grocer” – documentary
2006: “The Guardian’s Son” – fiction
1998: “Hill 33”, fiction

DIRECTOR´S NOTE

The controling idea of Daniel ’16 is that “taking care of someone can heal you from never having been taken care of”.
That what’s happens to Daniel, the young protagonist of the movie. We watch the difficult and painful path to his redemption, which despite the adversity, he brings it to an end with courage and boldness.
His journey defies languages, nationality and borders. It is a trial that is personal and at the same time universal.

POSTER

CONTACT

info@viewmasterfilms.gr

Cru Raw
David Oesch
Switzerland. 2020. 10 min

Full of hope, diligence and hunger for more, Jeanne, a young chef from a good family, starts her job in a Michelin star restaurant. To rise up in the brutal pecking order, she has to impress her merciless Chef de Cuisine which results in a war of differences in- and outside of the kitchen.

DAVID OESCH

Born 1992 in Thun, Switzerland- he started working in 2012 as a freelance journalist and photographer for local newspapers and continued to do so also for television. Since 2015 he studies filmmaking at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2019, he released three successful short films and won the Student Visionary Award at Tribeca Film Festival in 2020.
He is now writing his first feature LÜGNER! with co-author Remo Rickenbacher. A genre film about lies as an infectious disease.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

We watch in awe as chefs of the highest caliber compete against each other on shows such as Netflix’s Chef’s Table. Cooking is a form of art based on excess. But what happens behind the scenes? Chefs are pushed to their extremes in a pressure cooker of an environment. Where the warmth of heat lamps cast bright lights on the food and shadows fall on the tired faces.

POSTER

CONTACT

threehillsfilms@gmail.com