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FARMING THE REVOLUTION
by Nishtha Jain (Director) and Akash Basumatari (Co-Director)
SYNOPSIS
Farming the Revolution takes us to the heart of the massive year-long protests against the Indian government’s then newly enacted farm laws during the COVID lockdown. Over half a million protesters gathered – men and women from all generations, religions, classes and castes – and reinvented co-existence at massive protest sites that burgeoned on the borders of Delhi. The film invites us to experience the everyday textures and indomitable spirit of this historic farmers’ movement – until, finally, victory!
DETAILS
105/55 mins
India, France, Norway
2024
Panjabi, Hindi
CREDITS
Director: Nishtha Jain
Co-Director: Akash Basumatari
DOP & Co-Director: Akash Basumatari
Producers: Nishtha Jain (Raintree Films, India), Valérie Montmartin (Little Big Story)
Co-Producer: Torstein Grude (Piraya Film)
Associate Producers: Raphaël Pelissou, Oddleiv Vik
In co-production with: ARTE France and Al Jazeera
Location Sound: Lohit Bhalla
Writers: Nishtha Jain, Deborah Matzner, Valérie Montmartin
Editor: Giles Gardner, Nishtha Jain, Anand Gautam
Music Composer: Florencia Di Concilio (Published by LDM Editions)
Sound Designer: Niraj Gera
Colourist & Graphics: Tom Chr. Lilletvedt
Supported by: Sundance Documentary Fund, IDFA Bertha Documentary Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Alter Ciné Foundation, CNC, PROCIREP, ANGOA, Sørfond, Fritt Ord, NFI, NRK, RTS, Bergesenstiftelsen, Filmkraft Rogaland
BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - NISHTHA JAIN
Nishtha Jain is a leading documentary filmmaker from India, best known for her multi-award-winning films –The Golden Thread (2022), Gulabi Gang (2012), Lakshmi and Me (2007) and City of Photos (2004). Foregrounding her subjectivity, her films tend to interrogate lived experiences at the intersections of gender, caste and class, exploring the political in the personal while uncovering the mechanisms of privilege, exploring social movements and working class lives.
Jain’s films have garnered critical acclaim and won numerous prestigious awards. She is a Chicken & Egg Award winner (2020); Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (AMPAS); Film Independent Global Media Maker Fellow (2019-20); Recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2019). Jain’s films have played at prestigious festivals like IDFA, Zurich, Viennale, Hot Docs, Busan, Slamdance, Full Frame, Chicago, RIDM, MAMI. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund, Sörfund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Alter Ciné Foundation, Asian Cinema Fund, India Foundation for the Arts, the Norwegian, Danish and Finnish Film Institutes. The films have been broadcast on POV, ARTE France, France Television, DR, NRK, YLE, Al Jazeera.
SELECT FESTIVALS
HOT DOCS 2024 - BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARD〡DOCNYC 2024〡IDFA 2024〡SHEFFIELD DOCFEST 2024〡KERALA FF 2024 - SPECIAL JURY AWARD〡DMZ IDFF 2024〡BERGEN FF 2024
PRESS
"Nishtha Jain‘s 'Farming the Revolution' — winner of the best international feature documentary prize at Hot Docs — captures the vast emotional scope of revolutionary movements... the film is remarkable in its audio-visual inquiry into protest as a cultural movement, and in its excavation of the emotional highs and lows involved in making lasting change."
- Variety
" [Farming the Revolution] pays tribute to this movement’s dogged determination."
- ScreenDaily
"Offers a rare insight beyond campaigning politics into life inside the protest camps where people from all castes and backgrounds gather with a shared purpose"
- Business Doc Europe
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