Documentaries are indeed a wonderful source of knowledge and creativity! But they can now also benefit to raise awareness about controversial issues and to engage society. The aged, tired, and tedious tale is no longer relevant. The idea is to use personal narratives to make a documentary that are both informative and entertaining.
This engages the audience in a way. Filmmakers are using documentaries as vehicles for social change by being direct and challenging the current quo in society. As well as questioning government policies. Among other things.
Who doesn’t love the movies and insightful stories? Further, most of us are always on a quest to find new and exciting things to watch. Which will also inspire the wise us! So here are some top-class qualitative documentaries that revolve around the Indian Social causes-
Children Of The Pyre
Children of the Pyre explores the lives of seven children who work in India’s busiest cremation yard- Manikarnika, Varanasi, under severe conditions to make a living off the dead. To make ends meet, they collect, seize, or steal discarded shrouds and sell them for a pittance.
The naive kids weave through the pyres and fight through disdain in this country of the dead. Drawing strength from their foes and learning from the harsh realities. Consequently, the documentary delivers a glimpse into the human reality of Varanasi’s ghats, as it explores the lives of these youngsters who are exploited beyond the limits of one’s morality. Rajesh S. Jala directed the film.
Powerless
As with most people, turning on a light switch is a meaningless everyday ritual. But the filmmakers claim that the characters in the film see it as a form of class warfare. That threatens to escalate into a national struggle.
Powerless won a number of awards. Including the Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship 2013, the 63rd Berlinale Forum, and the Tribeca International Film Festival. Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar directed the documentary.
Katiyabaaz (powerless) discusses the city of Kanpur’s concerns with power outages and electrical shortages. The tale evolves as the film presents events during a summer. When the city is plagued by a power outage and becomes entangled in a war.
Hundreds of people risk their lives to steal electricity in a city with 15-hour power outages. The battle lines have been drawn for a struggle over power! With the first female chief of the electricity company vowing to eradicate all unlawful connections.
The Revolutionary Optimists
At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, he received the Hilton Worldwide LightStay Sustainability Award. Nicole Newham and Maren Grainger-Monsen are the directors. The Revolutionary Optimists immerses us in the lives of two 11-year-olds without access to safe drinking water, a girl forced to work in a brick kiln. Consequently, an adolescent dancer is on the verge of marrying a child to escape her terrible home.
Amlan Ganguly, a lawyer turned change agent, draws strength and vision from these frail lives to construct an improbable movement. Thus, Ganguly and four youngsters from Kolkata’s worst slums take an intimate journey through adolescence in this film. They work together to overcome apparently insurmountable hurdles in order to construct a brighter future for themselves and their community, defying the concept that marginalisation is a given.
Seeds Of Plenty, Seeds Of Sorrow
What impact has the Green Revolution had on Third-World countries’ social structures and ecologies? Hence, the documentary tries to demonstrate the negative aspects of a supposedly successful growth approach.
It reveals the Green Revolution’s darker, more troubling side. In India, it has aided in the formation of a new serf class, and the early years’ impressive crop yields have faded in the wake of pesticide poisoning and short-lived miracle wheat strains. Manjira Datta is the director. Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Sorrow is a documentary on India’s much-touted Green Revolution.
The much-heralded Green Revolution is credited for ensuring that countries such as India are no longer plagued by starvation and famine. As a result, the director of this film poses provocative questions in desperate need of strategic responses. Who has reaped the most benefits from the biotech package? What about the impoverished peasant? And about the large farmer? What exactly is a global corporation?
Mindscapes Of Love and Longing
This documentary, directed by Arun Chadha, explores the femininity of persons with disabilities and how it is tainted by misconceptions, biases, and myths. The documentary follows these people as they struggle to assert their sexual rights as people with various physical limitations while negotiating widely held biological, medical, social, and cultural beliefs. The themes of identity crises and self-respect of these people are able to come to light.
The documentary aims to deconstruct the disability and sexuality argument. Hence, by looking into the lives of those who have been facing problematic situations by it and giving them a platform to express their thoughts and choices as they come to grips with their physical identities.
Parting Words from Podium
The content one goes on to consume, with no second thoughts, contribute to shaping one’s thoughts and viewpoints. Therefore, in such cases, consumption of the right kind of content becomes mandatory. Podium keeps bringing for kids and parents, the choicest recommendations from time to time. Head towards the Podium Blog to know more!
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