India / England,
2002, 75 min
Shown in 2003
CREDITS
- dir
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Franny Armstrong
- prod
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Franny Armstrong
- cam
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Franny Armstrong
- editor
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Gregers Sal, St. John O’Rorke
- mus
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Chris Brierley
- source
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Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547. FAX: 610-370-1978. EMAIL: john@bullfrogfilms.com.
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COMMENTS
Franny Armstrong in person.
OTHER
“In India,” explains best-selling novelist and dam opponent Arundhati Roy, “everything must be done in the name of the poor.” The giant Narmada River dam project is no exception. It will divert water to cities and displace over 250,000 farmers. Villagers counter with rallies, hunger strikes or a simple refusal to leave their homes. Crafted on a shoestring budget, this intimate, urgent documentary unravels the question, “Progress for whom?” In the endangered village of Jaisindhi, action centers on the village healer, Luhariya Sonkari and his wife Bulgi—rising water will cover their house first. The camera details their ancestral forests, fertile land and children who splash in Mother Narmada. “We have not bought this from the market,” says Luhariya about their family home. The government offers only a resettlement plot with salty water or an opportunity to scratch out an existence as a city slumdweller. “They just talk and show land on paper. But we can’t cultivate on paper, can we?” says Bulgi, her few words skewering official pronouncements on The Greater Good. Clear-eyed villagers inspire as they reach out and fight for their lives.
—Kathleen Denny
FACTOID #80
Irving ’Bud’ Levin, owner of San Francisco’s Metro Theatre, founded the SFIFF in 1957. However, Levin credited the idea for creating the Festival to the Italian consul general at the time, Pierluigi Alvera, who became one of its staunchest supporters.
