Science Film Festival, Madurai
28 Sep, LENS Media Centre
10 am to 5 pm
Curated by Amudhan RP
Jointly organised by LENS Media Centre & MARUPAKKAM
Schedule
10 am to 1 pm
Hanna
Dir: Vinu Janardanan; 17:07 min; Documentary; India
Synopsis: Amid her work away from home, Hanna, a lactating working mother and staff member of
Ernakulam General Hospital, Kerala, India discovers solace in alleviating her pain by donating her
breast milk. This is the story of her transformation from considering sharing her baby's milk to
wholeheartedly embracing it. With unwavering support from her family and the hospital staff, who
makes the journey easier. Hanna's little one also becomes a symbol of sharing through her mother's
act. In a scenario like an infant loses its life every minute, and early breastfeeding stands as a
crucial preventive measure against infant mortality, Hanna's story transcends her personal
journey, becoming a narrative larger than herself.
I'm Afraid it's Not Good to Say
Dir: ZHU YUAN KUN; 13:00 min; Documentary; China
Synopsis: In a cacophony of lively phone messages and news clippings, a 15-year-old boy juggles
academic pressures and new romance, while celebrating low expectations and homemade film.The
dialogues in the film were all taken from an old cell phone that the director had forgotten about for
12 years. I plugged in my phone and turned it on. Welcome aboard the Time Travel Machine and
step into the middle school era of the generation born in 1995 of mainland China.
My Dad is a Lightning Researcher
Dir: Iryna Shostak; 18:00 min; Documentary; Ukraine
Synopsis: My Dad is a Lightning Researcher is a documentary film reflection. A daughter attempts
to decipher and memorize the "universe of her dad", a lightning researcher, whom, as it turned out
after his death, she never fully got to know. Neither him nor his lasting legacy. This is her attempt
to think about how long our memory lasts about the people who meant something to us, who did
something and created something next to us. The film attempts to fix the fleeing clues of memory
in time to keep it longer. And, of course, it is her attempt to remember everythingor at least
something he was for her.
Under The Scorching Sun
Dir: Prathap Ramamurthy, Jagannath Radhakrishnan; 17:08 min; Documentary; United States
Synopsis: A short documentary that shows the toil of everyday workers in Chennai, India, under
extreme heat.
Dream to Cure Water
Dir: Ciril Jazbec; 21:54 min; Documentary; Slovenia
Synopsis: Two remote mountain communities in Peru that depend on the water try to fight back
against the effects of climate change through innovative adaptation, combining ancestral tradition
with state-of-the-art science.
I Told You So
Dir: Malak AlSayyad; 26:21 min; Documentary; Egypt
Synopsis: After years of debilitating period pain and unexplained symptoms, Malak finally gets a
diagnosis: she has endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects 1 in every 10 women
and people who menstruate worldwide. Despite being so prevalent, the disease has no known
cause, no cure, and is not taken seriously, even by her own mother.
2 pm to 6 pm
Meteorite Hunter
Dir: Natalia Anisimova; 01:01:00; Russian Federation; Documentary; Non Competition
Meteorites are the oldest unchanging substance, that a person living on Earth can hold in
his hands. Almost all meteorites are the same age as the Solar System. They are about 4,6 billion
years old. More ancient particles, pre-solar matter, can often be found in some meteorites.
However, there are also younger meteorites, primarily dislodged from Mars, where the processes of
rock formation ended not so long ago by astronomical standards.
Seed Stories
Dir: Chitrangada Choudhury; 42:00; India; Documentary; Competition
In a village in the Niyamgiri mountains of the Eastern Ghats in Odisha, eastern India, a heroic
effort is underway: barefoot ecologist Dr. Debal Deb and his 3 member-team are conserving over
one thousand endangered heirloom varieties of rice, the world’s largest project of its kind.
Odisha’s Eastern Ghats region is one of the world’s surviving biodiversity hotspots, with farmers
and shifting cultivators, particularly from Adivasi (Indigenous) communities like the Kondhs
possessing the knowledge of growing multiple crops with their own heirloom seeds, evolved over
centuries. At the same time, the village and the wider region is irreversibly changing with the
coming of genetically modified Bt and herbicide-tolerant cotton seeds and associated
agrochemicals.
‘Seed Stories’ takes a worm’s eye view of how the swift expansion of a chemical-intensive cotton
monoculture is reshaping a geography and a people steeped in agro-ecological knowledge, and
altering their attitudes towards farming, food and ecology. It invites audiences to reflect on the
question, ‘What is sustainability?
My Radio My Life
Dir: Bidit Roy, Makarand Waikar; 01:08:00; India; Documentary; Competition
Set in the 21st century, the film revisits the golden era of radio in India, when it was the dominant,
popular, and only source of entertainment, news, and knowledge. Being a medium that is heard
across national borders, the radio has been instrumental in expanding horizons and enriching the
lives of generations. Besides giving companionship to individuals, the radio brought families
together and inspired people to make life choices.
God Vulture and Human - A hero's dichotomy
Dir: Rishiraj Agarwal; 49:27; India; Documentary; Competition
The film explores the subject of organ donation through the lens of transplant coordinators,
highlighting their role in the process of organ donation, retrieval and transplantation. Through the
lives of 4 transplant coordinators, the film deals with the intensities of life and death, and an
attempt to humanise the coordinators.
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