Smaran (Impressions) by Purandhya Sharma
There is so much to say as we live through life. Our experiences become our stories. Over a few afternoons spent with my grand aunt, I get an insight into my roots as I listen to the reminiscences of the older generation who have so much to share.
- Best Screenplay (Student Documentary), 9th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival (2020).
Click to view trailer
Did You Do It? by Aditi Bhande
A place that is neither urban nor rural, on the fringes of the capital of India. The film attempts to explore the dynamics between natural resources and human intervention in this place that is my home. Who is responsible- they, you, me- all of us?
- Best Editing (Student Documentary), 10th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival, New Delhi (2020).
- Best Documentary (Student category), 9th Bangalore Shorts Film Festival (2020).
- Best Cinematography (Student Documentary), 9th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival (2020).
- Top 2nd Short Documentary, 16 International Film Festivals organised by Jaipur International Film Festival Trust (2020).
- Special Festival Mention (Student Documentary), 9th Delhi Shorts International Film Festival (2020).
Click to view trailer
Sudhamayee by Megha Acharya
The film's narrative revolve around a woman whose life is filled with events that happen tediously often, even as she battles a chronic disease. She lives on, drawn along by the nectar of life.
- Best Director (Student Documentary), 10th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival, New Delhi (2020).
- Special Festival Mention (Student Documentary), 9th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival (2020).
- Special Festival Mention (Student Documentary), 9th Delhi Shorts International Film Festival (2020).
- Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) Award for Best Short Film (2021).
Click to view trailer
Teesri Khwaish by Purandhya Sharma, Rustam Mazumdar & Shuchi Prasad
Whether the fog settles on the tracks tonight or not, a cloud of enigma consumes New Delhi Railway Station. Whether the train arrives at platform number 5 or not, we are promised a journey. What happens to the passengers who fall victim to the menacing station, who rely partly on the bookseller and entirely upon fate to reach home safely? Will a third wish be granted? These stories are absurd and precarious in their unfolding, unimaginable yet common, and thus those at the station inevitably become puppets at the hands of God.
- Best Direction (Student category), in 8th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival (2019).
Click to view film stills
Chai Darbari by Prateek Shekhar
A search for ‘truth’ stumbles upon varied textures of conversations. Conversations carrying echoes from print, electronic, social media; redolent with the local atmosphere and the context of the city’s past. Since 1992 Ayodhya has been a crucial ground for electoral politics and debates. Unverified and politically motivated videos, circulated on an ever growing WhatsApp web, have complicated the issue a little more. These videos are one-way dialogic conversations, encoded with an ‘us versus them’ subtext. Parallel to this, all arguments around Ayodhya overlook multiple lived realities of the residents. While these realities transmute into endless conversations over chai (tea) in Ayodhya, the nature of the discourse is significantly different in the cities. ‘Chai Darbari’ is a small tapestry of a few such conversations. Chai Darbari was made as a part of 6-month filmmaking program, 'Moving Image: Open Form' (MIC) that ran in SACAC from January to June 2018.
- Best Short Documentary, International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) (2019).
Click to view film stills
Jamnapaar by Abhinava Bhattacharyya
The film lurks on the river's edge seeking to explore how the inhabitants of the Jamuna relate to its degraded presence, the fragile nostalgia of an unknowable past and the horror of its unthinkable future.
- Best Documentary (Golden Owl Award), Cut.In Students’ Film Festival, Mumbai (2017).
- Excellence in Sound Design (Silver Owl Award) Cut.In Students’ Film Festival, Mumbai (2017).
- Best Documentary, National Documentary & Short Film Festival, Thrissur (2018).
- Best Editor, National Documentary & Short Film Festival, Thrissur (2018).
- Best International Short Documentary, DFK New Wave Festival, Kolkata (2018).
- Best Cinematographer Award, DFK New Wave Festival, Kolkata (2018).
- Second Best Short Documentary, International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) (2018).
- Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) Award for Best Short Film (2019).
Click to view trailer
After Word by Mallika Visvanathan
The film is an attempt to explore the world of objects and their relationship to time, value and memory. Set in Daryaganj, the film imagines the stories that are hidden, forgotten or left behind.
- Best Documentary Award (National Competition), Filmsaaz, Aligarh Muslim University (2018).
- Special Jury Mention, Alpavirama Asian Short & Documentary Film Festival, National Institute of Design (NID), India (2018).
Click to view trailer
A Distant Song by Anuradha Bansal
Nostalgia, banalities, expectations, the old and the new – A Distant Song explores life, hope and failure weaved through the stories of individuals set on the journey of music.
- Honorable Jury Mention (Documentary section) at the 8th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival (2018).
Click to view trailer
Maine Dilli Nahi Dekha (I Am Yet To See Delhi) by Humaira Bilkis
The film is a subjective journey, exploring a new city. The filmmaker discovers the soul of the city not in its museums, mausoleums and architecture but in her relationship with its people. The process of looking at the urban space offers the filmmaker a chance to relook at her own space, identity and cultural moorings.
- Special Mention Award, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan (2015).
Click to view trailer
Saatvin Khwahish (The Seventh Wish) by Varun Trikha
Jinns/Genies are the spirits made of smokeless fire. They live longer than humans and thus, can elongate and preserve historical memory. But are they real? Rekhti poetry, written from the early 18th to late 19th century in Islamic cities of Lucknow and Delhi, explicitly talked about the desires of women (including lesbian desires). Were those desires real? The film looks at the denounced Rekhti poetry through its survivors- Jinns and desires.
- Best Director Award, 3rd National Student Film Awards (NSFA), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. Of India, Pune (2015).
Click to view trailer
Koi Dekhne Wala Hai? by Shilpi Saluja
This film explores the sense of touch and music in the lives of children in a residential school, looking at the way they connect to each other and the world around them. It invites us to listen to the gentle rhythms of their everyday life as they go about their usual routine.
- Best Film Award, 12th edition, We Care Film Festival, Delhi (2014).
- Best Editing Award, 4th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival (2015).
Click to view trailer