We realized that the important thing was not the film itself but that which the film provoked. —Fernando Solanas ("Cinema as Gun")
The purpose of nearly all films/ documentaries is to communicate. People want to communicate to an outside world with hidden portrayals and interpretations of society. There will be no solution but a simplistic view of this world through the eyes of cinema. What good is cinema if it trails behind literature? Just as in literature, as the taste has moved from fiction to nonfiction, this happens in the film as well. There is a need for an individual to engage with harder issues such as poverty, gender discrimination, sex trade, class struggle, prostitution, environmental damage, terrorism, ethnic and religious riots. We unknowingly or knowingly form opinions on them very fast. But such complex issues require the further probe to see the complete picture. A film or documentary is a naive effort to increase our knowledge base before making any judgment.
I am enlisting films and documentaries that show bewitching, haunting, anxious, and even comic portraits of our society's underground life. On one side the cinema displays the natural beauty of the society along with representing the related customs and cultures, the other side the hidden taboos and exploitative practices. What one wants to communicate and what one hopes to reach are two different sides of the same coin. I hope you will have a rational and emotional response to the section of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed experiences presented through a simple, straight-to-heart edition of cinema.
1- Movies on Business - Rocket Singh Salesman of Year, Trishul, Guru & Chak De India, Pursuit of Happiness, It’s a Wonderful Life, Thank You for Smoking, The Hudsucker Proxy, Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Barbarians at the Gate, The Social Network, The Insider, The Godfather, Wall Street, 12 Angry Men, Up in the Air, Modern Times, Norma Rae, A Christmas Carol, Syriana.
2- Movies on Development - Manthan, Swades, Peepli Live, Well Done Abba, Do Bigha Zamin, Mother India, Aghaat, Gaabhricha Paus, Goshta Choti Dongraevadhi, Jhing Chik Jhing, Kanchivaram, Bawandar.
3- Good Documentaries - There's No Tomorrow; The Yes Men Fix the World; Inside Job; A Small Act; Smartest Guys in the Room; The Corporation; Food, Inc.; An Inconvenient Truth; India Untouched; Jai Bhim Comrade; Kiran Bedi: Yes Madam, Sir; Ram ke Nam; Pitr, Putr aur Dharmayuddha, Born Into Brothels; The Day My God Died; The Story of India; Final Solution; Love in India; The Slow Poisoning of India; A Narmada Diary; Satyamev Jayate(TV Series).
One may suffer from PDDD (Post Documentary Dullness Disorder). I hope you feel the films and documentaries because you will not enjoy them. These films have more roles other than eroticism and social duty. We are just given a tour of reality through them. Saying in the words of John Grierson- In the documentary, we deal with the actual, and in one sense with the real. But the really real, if I may use that phrase, is something deeper than that. The only reality which counts in the end is the interpretation that is profound.
Remember, all our lives, we have been asked to believe that "quality matters, not quantity". Yes, there is the absence of critical documentaries on the current phase of Indian society that reflect a big lapse in our higher education. Watch the films and grasp the reality of development either for people or fair market, one bite at a time - every film will tell something, you don't know ;)
The purpose of nearly all films/ documentaries is to communicate. People want to communicate to an outside world with hidden portrayals and interpretations of society. There will be no solution but a simplistic view of this world through the eyes of cinema. What good is cinema if it trails behind literature? Just as in literature, as the taste has moved from fiction to nonfiction, this happens in the film as well. There is a need for an individual to engage with harder issues such as poverty, gender discrimination, sex trade, class struggle, prostitution, environmental damage, terrorism, ethnic and religious riots. We unknowingly or knowingly form opinions on them very fast. But such complex issues require the further probe to see the complete picture. A film or documentary is a naive effort to increase our knowledge base before making any judgment.
I am enlisting films and documentaries that show bewitching, haunting, anxious, and even comic portraits of our society's underground life. On one side the cinema displays the natural beauty of the society along with representing the related customs and cultures, the other side the hidden taboos and exploitative practices. What one wants to communicate and what one hopes to reach are two different sides of the same coin. I hope you will have a rational and emotional response to the section of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed experiences presented through a simple, straight-to-heart edition of cinema.
1- Movies on Business - Rocket Singh Salesman of Year, Trishul, Guru & Chak De India, Pursuit of Happiness, It’s a Wonderful Life, Thank You for Smoking, The Hudsucker Proxy, Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Barbarians at the Gate, The Social Network, The Insider, The Godfather, Wall Street, 12 Angry Men, Up in the Air, Modern Times, Norma Rae, A Christmas Carol, Syriana.
2- Movies on Development - Manthan, Swades, Peepli Live, Well Done Abba, Do Bigha Zamin, Mother India, Aghaat, Gaabhricha Paus, Goshta Choti Dongraevadhi, Jhing Chik Jhing, Kanchivaram, Bawandar.
3- Good Documentaries - There's No Tomorrow; The Yes Men Fix the World; Inside Job; A Small Act; Smartest Guys in the Room; The Corporation; Food, Inc.; An Inconvenient Truth; India Untouched; Jai Bhim Comrade; Kiran Bedi: Yes Madam, Sir; Ram ke Nam; Pitr, Putr aur Dharmayuddha, Born Into Brothels; The Day My God Died; The Story of India; Final Solution; Love in India; The Slow Poisoning of India; A Narmada Diary; Satyamev Jayate(TV Series).
One may suffer from PDDD (Post Documentary Dullness Disorder). I hope you feel the films and documentaries because you will not enjoy them. These films have more roles other than eroticism and social duty. We are just given a tour of reality through them. Saying in the words of John Grierson- In the documentary, we deal with the actual, and in one sense with the real. But the really real, if I may use that phrase, is something deeper than that. The only reality which counts in the end is the interpretation that is profound.
Remember, all our lives, we have been asked to believe that "quality matters, not quantity". Yes, there is the absence of critical documentaries on the current phase of Indian society that reflect a big lapse in our higher education. Watch the films and grasp the reality of development either for people or fair market, one bite at a time - every film will tell something, you don't know ;)
