1000 Days And A Dream - An Indian Documentary: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR 1000 DAYS AND A...

The IIM graduates will not like it, but everytime that you drink Coca-Cola, someone somewhere is going without water. If you want to know about things you do not want to know about, don't miss this series.

The Documentary Circle of the Hyderabad Film Club, in association with Magic Lantern Foundation, Delhi, and ECOMOVE International, Germany, is organizing a 3-day mini-festival of films on the politics of environment, called Point Of View. The films will be screened at the Prasad's Preview Theatre everyday, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, between 16th and 18th February.

Environment is a political issue, whether we like it or not. Today's conflicts are more about the control of natural resources than anything else. We see these conflicts in our day-to-day life, whether it is for control of land and water, or a question of who pollutes and who pays, they are all about people's problems, and thus influence the politics of our day. It is happening around us, but we do not realize it. And when there is a realization, there is a lack of perspective. The perspective doesn't happen because, more often than not, environmental film festivals talk about non-controversial issues.

Point Of View is a sincere effort to look beyond the obvious, to give a platform for the alternative voices and untold stories. Most of these films have enjoyed wide viewership and appreciation elsewhere in India and abroad. The films straddle a wide spectrum of subjects, from India becoming a dump yard for the wastes created by European consumerism to the effects of depleted Uranium on American soldiers; from fishermen's woes in Tamil Nadu to a lone woman's fight against a toxic dump in South Africa; from the World Bank's environmental politics to locals' anger against tourism in Goa, from the horror stories of genetic engineering in Canada to the scams behind flood control in Bihar.

Today, the first day, 1000 Days And A Dream, an Indian documentary by P Baburaj and C Saratchandran about the anti-Coca-Cola struggle and the people behind it, will be screened. The Coca-Cola Company was allowed to set shop in Plachimada of Kerala. The local population expected to find new opportunities with the setting up of the bottling plant of The Coca-Cola Company. Little did they realise that only few months down the line, they will be forced to wage a battle against the biggest giant of the First World.

1000 Days And A Dream documents the struggles of the people of Plachimada in their fight against the Water Thief, Coca-Cola; a struggle for their lives, lives dependent on precious water sucked out by the Company's tubewells, drying out the entire area. 1000 Days And A Dream is the story about ordinary people, many of them adivasis and day wage workers, who despite all odds and no political support, have been fighting a mighty company, and have rattled it around the world, setting a precedent for future peaceful movements.

The screenings are free for all. For further details, please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243.