DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018- A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES
Is it Too Much to Ask (India)
(30 min; 2017; dvd; English subtitles)
Director: Leena Manimekalai
Is it Too Much to Ask follows the journey of two friends, Smile and Glady, looking for a rental apartment in Chennai and the obstacles and social stigma they encounter in the process for being single and for being transgender women. A delicate documentary that treats a sensitive subject with lightness while exposing society’s prejudices
At 18:40
32 Souls (Myanmar)
(25 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)
Director: Sai Naw Kham
A quietly poetic work on the rhythms of daily life, of mortality, and the persistence of memory in Myanmar
At 19:15
Fireflies in the Abyss (India)
(88 min; 2015; dvd; English & with subtitles)
Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy
In the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India, boys and men descend into the abyss of the 'rat-holes' to scratch coal out of hard rock, with nothing more than a pickaxe and a head-torch. One of them is Suraj, an 11-year old boy. Born in the mines to Nepali immigrants, Suraj cherishes the hope of getting out of the coal-pit someday. But despite the hardships and pain of separation, we see pride, generosity and sacrifice
