Indigenous voices amplified in 'Landing Together' film series
CEESP News -- Dr. Purabi Bose, Filmmaker, Deputy Chair of CEESP Theme on Governance, Equity and Rights
It is rare thatthe voices of the voiceless get anyrecognition. Landing Together's new four short indie documentary films capturethe stories ofreal life protagonists – tribal, Indigenous Peoples and pastoralist communities – storiesabout their forests and traditional land.
Each film ofabout 20 minutescovers issues related tooil palm plantation, mining, gender, and community forest management. The uniqueness of the films liesin diversity - linguistic, ethnicity, landscapes and culture - of India's some104 million tribal population.
Photo: Purabi Bose
Photo: Purabi Bose
Filmscompleted a collection of four short independent documentary films and one feature length documentary film in July of 2018that focuseson the issues of land and forest rights of Indigenous Peoples in India.
What makes these films unique is the way the stories are given a voice by the real life protagonists. The films are the first of theirkind in the country because they aremultilingual and coverthe entire 'tribal-belt' of mainland and Northeast India.
The tribal belt of India - from Gujarat to Odisha and the entire Northeast India - is rich in mineral resources and diverse landscapes such as grasslands in semi-arid western India to tropical biodiversity rich northeast forest in themountains. Diversity is also found in the spoken 12 languages, mix of ethnicities and religous groups, but one aspect that connects India's ~ 400 diverse adivasis and pastoralists communities is their 'way of living' with nature. The Landing Together films is first of its kind to document real life protagonists in their own languages from diverse landscapes.
Each of the four short documentary films highlight issues related to extractiveresource practices(such asbauxite and coal mining), plantations that replace traditional indigenous techniques of farming due to demand for palm oil, gender disparity in land tenure and forest rights, and howcollective forest governance is preferred bytribal communities.
For the director and producer, Purabi Bose, the Landing Together films is like 'pass the story' giving voices to the voiceless from all over tribal India.
Please find further details about the process and filmmaking approach at the website
You are welcome to watch the four trailers via Vimeo
multilingual film about indigenous women and their land and forest rights across 10 tribal districts of India. Link:
about palm oil and shifting cultivation in Mizoram Link:
is about extractive resource industries mining for coal and bauxite in traditional indigenous territories of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states of Central India. Link:
s aboutlegal claim fortribal community forest rights covers all over tribal India.Link:
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