A Paradigm Shift, curated by Khushboo Ranka of India Docs, Film screenings | 11AM onwards, 16 August

About

Film 1: An Insignificant Man
Director: Khushboo Ranka
Duration: 96 mins
About the Film: A non-fiction drama chronicling the most outrageous political debut in the largest democracy in the world, "An Insignificant Man" follows Arvind Kejriwal and his
insurgent party as they look to shake up Indian politics while struggling to keep their own
idealism alive.

About the Director: Screenwriter, director, and producer Khushboo Ranka is best known for co-writing the story of the Internationally acclaimed movie ‘Ship of Theseus’. She has produced, directed and co- written short films like Continuum and Right to Pray. Her movie ‘An Insignificant Man’ was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and has been played at over 80 Internationa Film Festivals.

Film 2: About Love
Director: Archana Phadke
Duration: 91 mins
About the Film: Three generations of the Phadke family live and work together in South
Mumbai. As they prepare for a family wedding, director Archana Atul Phadke, who is not in any hurry to marry, observes the shifting, often very funny household dynamics.

About the Director: Archana’s debut documentary About Love premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and won the New Talent Award. It has played at over 20 international film festivals and is one of the most watched Indian Documentaries on Mubi. She has Produced and Edited, the National Award winning feature documentary Placebo which premiered at IDFA in 2014, where it won the jury nomination for Best Film in First Appearance Category.

Film 3: Cities of Sleep
Director: Shaunak Sen
Duration: 77 mins
About the Film: ‘Cities of Sleep’ takes us into a heady world of insurgent sleeper’s
communities as well as the infamous ‘sleep mafia’ in Delhi where just securing a safe
sleeping spot often becomes a question of life and death for a large number of people. The film looks at not only the tremendous social and political pressure that sleep exerts on the homeless in the city but is also a philosophical exploration of sleep at large.

About the Director: Shaunak is a filmmaker and writer based in Delhi. His film All That
Breathes (2022) was the first Indian film to win the Grand Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival, 2022, and is an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2022. His previous film 'Cities of Sleep' (2016), was shown at various major international film festivals and won several awards.

Film 4: Placebo
Director: Abhay Kumar
Duration: 96 mins
About the Film: In one of the toughest undergrad schools in the world, a film maker infiltrates a complex mindscape of ambition and restless youth. In the hallways of excellence, something sinister is at work- and those who inhabit them must fight these monsters within.

About The Director:
Abhay is a curious mind exploring concepts of time, memory, nostalgia and the need to tell stories- through the medium of film and teaching. He made his feature-length directional debut with Placebo. His collaboration with Archana Phadke has produced multiple critically acclaimed films.

Film 5: A Rifle and A Bag
Director: Arya Rothe, Isabella Rinaldi and Cristina Hanes
Duration: 89 min
About The Film: Somi and her husband met and fell in love while fighting alongside the
Naxalites, a communist guerrilla group that has been fighting since the '60s for the rights of the tribal communities of India. After a decade of armed struggle, the couple deserted the movement and surrendered to the police. Ever since, they have been striving to forge a new identity, educate their two children, and eventually reconcile their violent past with the fervent desire to integrate into the hostile Indian society.

About The Director: Arya is an independent filmmaker and a producer based in Pune, India. In 2016 she co- founded NoCut Film Collective with her classmates from Romania and Italy. The first production of NoCut Film is the feature length creative documentary "A Rifle and a Bag" directed and produced by the three co-founders. It had its premiere in 2020 at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) where the film won Special Mention of the Jury in the Bright Future competition section. Since then the film has travelled in more than 40 festivals all across the world. Recently it won the best documentary film award at Tirana International Film Festival and Festival Film Dokumenter, Indonesia.

THE FILM SCREENINGS WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH THE
FILMMAKERS