TALES FROM THE MARGINS
Documentary | 24 min | 2006 | INDIA
Manipuri and English, with English Subtitles
Twelve women disrobe on the streets of Manipur, in protest… For over six years a young woman has been on a fast-to-death demanding justice; she is kept under arrest by the government and is forcibly nose-fed for this “crime”. Why are the women of Manipur using their bodies as their last weapon?
Manipur is a state in the North-East region of India. For decades, it has been torn by insurgency and armed separatist movements. The Indian government has attempted to crush the insurgency through its military might; shielded by a law that allows anyone in the military to shoot, arrest or even kill – on suspicion alone.
Yet, little is heard about Manipur and its simmering troubles across the nation’s landscape. This is a place that mainland India has marginalised; that the world has forgotten.
The film travels to this forgotten, strife-torn corner of India to document the grim human rights situation in the region; and to bring to light, the extraordinary protests of Manipuri women as they fight for justice for their people.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS:
Silver Remi at WorldFest Houston 2007
Special Jury Award, Festival Medias Nord Sud 2007 Geneva
Premiered at the World Social Forum India 2006.
Other film festivals include: DOK Leipzig 2007 (coming up); L’Alternativa Barcelona 2007; DOK.Fest Munich 2007; Film South Asia 2007, Kathmandu; Mad Cat San Francisco 2007; Open Frame 2007 Delhi; Festival Dei Popoli, Florence 2006; the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival 2007 in Delhi and other cities.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS:
…Take Kavita Joshi’s painstaking film, Tales from the Margins, shot through months of hard rigour in dangerous and difficult terrain, without funds or patronage, often with her own savings… the film celebrates the amazing resilience of Manipuri women, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, against a faceless, cold-blooded state machinery….
… What mainstream India turns blind and deaf to, the camera enters that reality stealthily, taking risks, pushing the threshold… while the beautiful Manipuri landscape and its simple people wait for a dawn which must one day arrive, inside the lens of the camera and outside.
- Amit Sengupta in Civil Society
…Scene after scene, the film weaves together varied narratives of lives torn by violence; and by the denial of justice to people. …
… Through a rare interview with Sharmila as she lies in custody in hospital, this film draws us into her world. It reveals to us, her resilience and unshakeable strength, even as she lies unjustly imprisoned… Sharmila’s soft voice juxtaposed with poignant visuals of her ravaged land remain in the viewer’s mind long after the film is over.
- Platform Magazine
Tales from the Margins depicts a land where the presence of military gunmen on city streets is an everyday occurrence, a land where, in the wake of AFSPA, countless families lie broken. But amid the loss and desperation, Joshi unveils some powerful figures. Among them: Irom Sharmila Chanu who has been on a fast-unto-death since the grisly events of November 2, 2000… In a poignant narrative, Joshi’s film lays bare the deep sense of anguish, rage and resolve of Manipur’s women…
- Combat Law
PERSONAL STATEMENT BY THE DIRECTOR:
In 2004, trouble erupted yet again in Manipur with the custodial killing and alleged rape of a young woman – Manorama. Such incidents were hardly new in Manipur, they keep happening. As usual, nothing made it to India’s mainstream and the media. It took twelve women to strip in public and protest naked for the mainstream Indian media to sit up and take notice; for the rest of the country to acknowledge that something is gravely wrong in Manipur. The news briefly hit the headlines. Soon, Manipur sank back into its marginalised oblivion.
But the naked protest by the elderly women activists of Manipur was in some senses, a “last straw”. Mass protests broke out immediately, and a tide of public anger, pain and grief threatened to engulf the region. Young men were setting themselves on fire. School children were pouring out into the streets. Doctors, lawyers, government officials – men and women – were all holding marches…. Rallies with several thousands of people…. Roadblocks, sit-ins, general strikes… all this went on for months on end. For people who live in less troubled regions, it is impossible to even begin to imagine the extent of anger and anguish there.
If the people’s protests defied imagination, so did the viciousness with which these protests were being crushed by the government and security forces. People were being publicly beaten and humiliated; young men were rounded up and tortured; hundreds of protesting women would be carted into trucks and dropped off miles away from anywhere… And the twelve women who protested naked found that dubious charges had been framed against them.
When I heard of the troubles in 2004 from Manipuris I know, it was very disquieting. However, to my mind, what was just as troubling – if not more so – was how most of India simply ignored all this. The mass protests in Manipur, the public anger and its repression hardly made it to the mainstream news media, except as token coverage; if that. It was as if Manipur did not exist.
The situation in Manipur is very urgent, and I believe that it is only by the act of ‘seeing’ that one can comprehend its urgency. Tales from the Margins is an effort in that direction.
MAIN CREDITS:
DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER: Kavita Joshi
CAMERA: Sunayana Singh
SOUND: Asheesh Pandya
EDITING: Mahadeb Shi
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Impulse
MADE WITH THE HELP OF: IAWRT and NRK Norway
AS ALSO: NIPCO Manipur; Ima L Gyaneshwari Devi; K Sunil; Jai Chandiram
