Women’s Day Film Festival, Madurai
15 March, 10 am to 5 pm
IDEAS Centre, Vaazhaithoppu
Curated by Amudhan RP
Jointly organised by
MARUPAKKAM 30 & IDEAS Centre
Proposed Schedule (yet to get the approval from the filmmakers)
10 am to 1 pm
Kanchana
Dir: Sriram Kanchana Thangaraj; 17:08 min; Short fiction; India
Synopsis: Following ancient customs, a 10 year old girl is banished to a basic hut outside the village for menstruating. There she goes through a trauma of isolation, pain and feels ostracised.
The Daily Bread (Girrda)
Dir: Anil Kumar Anand; 19:59 min; Short fiction; India
In a Kashmir village, Mainmuna (30) and her husband Ziya run a bakery, struggling to survive. Mocked for his torn pheran, Ziya asks Mainmuna for a new one after securing a bread order for her friend’s engagement. She sews one herself, but it turns out shorter. At the event, men tease Ziya, causing them to leave angrily. Later, Mainmuna faces a crisis when her ex-husband, Wazeer (40), presumed dead for 3 years, returns, demanding money or her return, threatening her life with Ziya (25).
A Good Wife
Dir: Anuradha Bansal; 1:30:00 min; Documentary; India
A Good Wife’ is a deeply personal exploration of womanhood, marriage, and freedom within an Indian Marwari Hindu community. As the filmmaker navigates questioning the establishment of marriage in her own setup, she confronts the rigid ideals of a ‘virtuous wife’ imposed by family and tradition. Through intimate filmmaking, she challenges these expectations, exposing contradictions and seeking personal liberation. This film is her attempt to reclaim agency, question inherited beliefs, and spark dialogue on autonomy and
identity.
The First Film
Dir: Piyush Thakur; 19:59 min; Short Fiction; India
In a small town of 1960's India, where cinema is forbidden for women, a 14-year-old embarks on a quest to watch her first film.
Making Space
Dir : Nikita Parikh; 14 min; Doc; India
Alsana lives in a small, chaotic neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, cut off from the rest of the city by an 85 acre landfill on one side and a highway on the other. A room of one’s own is hard to come by, but Alsana has a corner where only her rules apply. It takes on different forms - each an expression of her inner life, at odds with the world. Meanwhile, Alsana’s drawings show signs of the society seeping in, as she grapples with her identity and conflicts closer to home.
2 pm
Bitter Honey
Dir: Julia Andreevna Makarova; 26:32 min; Documentary; Russian Federation
After their father passes away, the Skuratov sisters try to preserve the family business - the bee apiary. But it is not so easy to let go of the experience of loss after the recent passing of a loved one.
Monologue
Dir: Danae MOSSMAN; 13:25 min; Short fiction; New Zealand
Mary has been ejected from her affluent marriage and stripped of her role as mother.
Home alone on New Year’s Eve in the elegant apartment to which she has been exiled,
her mind whirs, the psychic rubble of her privileged life threatens to overwhelm her.
Tomorrow she will meet with her husband to discuss the terms of their unfolding divorce
and the custody of their son – a battle that he is destined to win. Freely adapted from
Simone de Beauvoir's novella Monologue (1968)
Olga Michi : An Artistic Odyssey
Dir: Vladimir Sumashedov; 27:40 min; Documentary; Russian Federation
The documentary film tells the incredible and eventful creative journey of photographer and artist Olga Michi, as well as about the art group she founded, "GrOM." Olga Michi has traveled to the most remote corners of the world, constantly testing her limits: she lived with African tribes, searched for lost cities in the South American jungle, photographed great white sharks, and swam in a river teeming with crocodiles. However, at some point, she felt constrained by the framework of reportage photography; she wanted not just to reflect the world around her, but to create her own. Welcome to the world of Olga Michi!
Metacíclica
Dir: Lydia Zimmermann; 17:56 min; Documentary; Spain
METACYCLICAL is a neologism for six actresses who are beyond the rules. Despite their experience, no one offers them leading roles.
Amad's Dream
Dir: Aashish Kiphayet; 9:30 min; Documentary; United States
Amad Mahbub is a Bangladeshi woman who left Bangladesh to escape social oppression and pursue education in neuroscience in the United States. The documentary tells the story of her resilience and transformation, as well as her connection to Henna and Kathak dance, spirituality, and activism. Through henna art, she navigates her Bangladeshi identity and resists women's oppression.
Like a Novel (Roman Gibi)
Dir: TAYFUN BELET; 1:02:38 min; Documentary; Turkey
Starting their life of love and struggle in Thessaloniki, Sabiha and Zekeriya Sertel were two journalists who fought for freedom during Turkey’s turbulent times. After Sabiha’s death, her family kept her existence a secret. Her niece, Nur Deriş, discovers Sabiha’s story through the book Like a Novel. Like a Novel is a poignant journey tracing a silenced generation and a denied era.
4.30 pm : Closing remarks
