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Heart-wrencher depicts pernicious patriarchy

Screenshot from A Testimony of Ana

 

Supplied Content (Edited)
Auckland, June 13, 2021

‘Testimony of Ana,’ a heart-wrenching story of an elderly woman who was accused of being a witch in India, was received at the World Premiere, the Oscar-qualifying Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and at the European Premiere of Krakow Film Festival, also an Oscar-qualifying event held recently.

‘Testimony of Ana,’ is a film by Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda about an Adivasi elderly woman who was accused of witchcraft by her neighbours in rural India.

Faith and Perseverance

She uses faith and perseverance to survive several monstrous attacks. Living in an area beset by widespread logging, her refusal to be driven off the land sets up a conflict deeply rooted in patriarchy and capitalism waged on women’s bodies—the witch-hunt.

Sachin is a recipient of the prestigious President’s Award for Global Learning for his upcoming Untitled Thesis Film and the Austin Film Society Grant for his pre-thesis film Testimony of Ana. He strives to tell stories that demand an urgent conversation and seeks to engage with people, places, and communities that are slowly disappearing.

In an interview published by drm.am on June 10, 2021, Sachin explained issues that inspired him to produce ‘Testimony of Ana.’

He said that he came across the term, ‘Witch-Hunting’ ten years ago when he was doing his undergraduate studies.

Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda (Photo Courtesy: drm.am)

 

Source of inspiration

“I read that ‘a mob killed an old woman for feasting on people’s souls’ in a local newspaper. I was probably too young at that time to conceive what I read. However, that story etched itself at the back of my mind. Almost seven years later, I again came across an article about ‘Witch-Hunting.’ But this time, I wanted to do something about it. Especially after all the filmmaking resources that I knew I had at my disposal. So I decided to go to Gujarat again to do some fieldwork. There I met with some journalists and social justice lawyers who got me in touch with Ana, one of the only few survivors of ‘Witch-Hunt’ attacks in rural Gujarat. When they briefed me about what the villagers did to Ana, I was shocked and could not stop thinking about it. There were a few news articles that covered her story in 2017.

“I still was on the fence about whether I should make a film about her or not. Questions like ‘Who am I to tell her story?’ and ‘Why am I entitled to make this film?’ kept bothering me. But once I met her in person, I was struck by how fearless and strong her voice is. I felt that those news articles were not enough. I felt that people needed to hear her voice. Those questions started to fade away, and there was a sense of urgency that crept up on me, and just a single question emerged (If I don’t tell her story, then who will?),” Sachin said.

The power of art and technology

Producer Janani Vijayanathan believes that art and technology have the power to change lives and that cinema in both fiction & non-fiction forms can raise questions, unlike any other medium. Her work as a producer has been shown at various prestigious film festivals worldwide, including Hot Docs, SXSW, and Krakow. She aspires to combine her software skills with cinematic experiences to produce meaningful work in alternate mediums such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

Cinematographer Rohin Raveendran Nair’s short film Little Hands screened at many prestigious film festivals in India and abroad, including Curtas Vila Do Conde, Dharamshala International Film Festival. His other short Paijana was the winner of the international one-minute film festival, Filminute, in 2016 (the jury was headed by Hsiao-Hsien Hou).

Rohin worked as the Second Unit Director and Cinematographer on both seasons of India’s first Netflix Originals, Sacred Games, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. 

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