Invitation

Goddesses' is being screened on the 26th February as a part of the three day third edition of Persistence Resistance'10.


The festival schedule is available at: http://www.magiclanternfoundation.org/Events/pr2010/pr10_schedule.html

Dates of the festival: 25th, 26th , 27th February 2010

Venue: India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003

All welcome. Entry Free
 
A Note about the film
 
Kanavuppattarai Presents

Goddesses
A documentary by Leena Manimekalai

Notes from the lives of three extra ordinary women –
a funeral singer; a fisherwoman; a graveyard worker

Synopsis

Here is the story of three ordinary women who live extra ordinary lives surviving darkest of times and gone against society's norms to live and work according to the rules they have set for themselves.

Lakshmi, a professional 'funeral singer': She visits death houses with a troop of drummers and for a measly pay, she wails and laments and shares the grief of the other mourners. The throb of the drums and her ankle
bells resonate in the house long after she has left.

Krishnaveni, the ‘grave-digger’: Dead unknown earn her the daily meal.Veni accepts unclaimed bodies from the local Police and gives them a decent burial or cremation, digging and maintaining the graves herself.

Sethuraku, the ‘fisherwoman’: What is normally considered as taboo for women is confidently done by this lady. She goes out to sea, every morning with a few fellow fisherwomen to collect fish and prawns, singing to welcome the day.

Written and Directed by Leena Manimekalai

Producer C Jerrold Cinematography Sunny Joseph

Non Linear Edit P Thangaraj Sound Santhaana Nambi

*Running Time 42 Minutes * Color *2007 *English Subtitles
© kanavuppattarai www.kanavuppattarai.com

Awards

Golden Conch, Best Documentary, Mumbai International Film Festival 2008,

Citation

The young filmmaker, Leena Manimekalai, is faced with three old material goddesses who for different reasons find themselves naturally emancipated from Tamil tradition and orthodoxy. Leena creates for Goddesses a trusting filming arena that was never manipulative so that the three women opened up and revealed their total strength and power bordering on the archetype. They emerged free, master of the very tradition that had earlier kept them shackled.http://www.miffindia.in/AwardsInternational.aspx

Nominated for Horizon Award, Munich International Film festival, 2008,

IAWRT International Documentary Film Competition, Women Building Peace, Nairobi, Kenya 2007,

Jury Award, John Abraham National Awards for Cinema Of Resistance, SIGNS 2007, Trivandrum, Kerala.

Best Documentary, National Competition, One Billion Eyes Documentary Film Festival 2008

Official Selection, International Competition, Tri Continental Film Festival, South Africa 2008

Official Selection, International Factual Competition, Roma Fiction Film Festival, Rome, 2008

Official Selection, National Competition, International Video Film Festival of Kerala, 2008

Nomination, Asia Pacific Awards, Brisbane, Australia, 2008

Official Selection, Birds Eye View Film Festival, London, March 2009

Official Selection, Belgrade Documentary Film Festival, May 2009