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This short documentary examines the unique history of the Armenian community in Calcutta, India and highlights the remarkable identity of the Diaspora in this historic city. It documents the early Armenian merchants who settled in the city as a result of the ancient Great Silk Road, the current state of the Armenian Church & School, the passion that Indian-Armenians have for the sport of Rugby, new trends of migration from Yerevan and the future of the Armenian Community in Calcutta.

The documentary follows the story of the trying times of a selfless teacher, hockey coach and sports activist Rajendra Kumar Kujur as he goes through a lot of hardship to teach hockey to tribal girls in a remote area of Odisha.

A documentary that aims to look beyond the walls of the Vrinavadan widows shelter, exploring the complicated place of widowed women in India and Hinduism as a religion.

Whist is a short documentary film on the folklores, sacrificial rituals of animals during the Hindu festival, Manasha Puja being held annually in the Indian state of Assam. People gather in large numbers to witness the bizarre yet thrilling practices of Shaman folk dance, Deodhani dance; to name a few, usually performed by individuals who are said to have been influenced by the deity.

Blue Like Me is a documentary that profiles Indian-American artist Siona Benjamin. Raised in the small Bene Israel Jewish community in Mumbai, India, Benjamin's art fuses world religions with eastern myths and western pop culture to create vibrant new worlds. Blue Like Me travels with Siona to Mumbai, revisiting the Bene Israel Jews portrayed in her recent Fulbright project. Siona Benjamin is a daughter of Israel, born of India, and a citizen of the world-and that world is blue.

An animated documentary of the village life of Warli tribe, with drawings done by indigenous artists.

A search for ‘truth’ stumbles upon varied textures of conversations. Conversations carrying echoes from print, electronic, social media; redolent with the local atmosphere and the context of the city’s past. Inspired by a few conversations, Chai Darbari provides a moment to breathe and make sense of multiple lived realities and their subsequent multiple memories.

This film gives the viewer impressions of Shantiniketan, an institute for the arts established by the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore in 1901 at Bolpur, not far from Calcutta. The school gradually came to be known as Vishva Bharati.

With the severe drought and lack of jobs, Aagaswadi village’s youth are forced to leave home for the city. Desperate for water, Bhimrao digs a well. This documentary follows the people of Aagaswadi’s struggles against the drought and its negative impact.

A young woman's story of possession and healing in rural Rajasthan

The documentary film focuses on the plight of the wetlands near Tamil Nadu’s Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, a 30-acre state bird santuary which is getting ruined by stone quarrying. People have been protesting against the stone quarrying stating it is harming the ecology and how it is affecting them and the wetlands for more than 18 years. But regardless of that, their farmlands are getting seized gradually by power and violence raising ecological fears that are deteriorating conditions as a result.

The film follows the life of Munni, an 11 year old girl, growing up in the village of Jitwarpur, in Bihar, India. Courtesy of the South Asian Area Center, University of Wisconsi, Madison. Executive Producer Joe Elder. Written and produced by Ray Owens, Ron Hess and Cheryl Graff.

Marking a first in Telugu true-crime storytelling, this powerful documentary unravels the disturbing reality of crimes against women through three missing-girl cases from Telangana, offering a sobering reflection on the violence faced by women.

The film talks about the opening of opportunities for artists through national exhibitions, state exhibitions and cultural exchanges.

The children of the Mahalle family make up just two of the 320 million students across India who have had to transition to e-learning because of the Covid pandemic. Both are excited when their new online school opens, due to the extra time and freedom they have. But problems arise with the learning platforms, and the family must unite in response.

The Battle Royale tracks Mahua Moitra’s re-election campaign in the high profile constituency of Krishnanagar as she fights for her political survival and redemption. Pitted against Moitra are the BJP’s Amrita Roy – the ‘Rajmata’ of Krishnanagar, and the CPI(M)/INC candidate, S.M. Sadi. The Battle Royale is part of Election Diaries 2024, a series of 9 documentaries produced by CeMIS (Centre for Modern Indian Studies) that reflect the anxieties, the hopes and the resilience of Indian democracy over the 2024 elections.

“Sardar Gurcharan Singh was the father of studio pottery in India. "Daddyji" as most called him lovingly was very close to my father. I often tagged along to visit his home studio where pottery wheels were lined up under the big neem trees in his old brick house. My father wanted me to make a film on Daddyji, who was then 95. He was afraid that Daddyji's wonderful story would be left untold. He not only introduced studio pottery in India but due to his longevity, mentored many potters. So despite not knowing anything about films, I made the documentary, Imprint in Clay with a classmate of mine, which was mostly funded by my father.”

Aruna Vasudev, Founder of Netpac, Cinemaya & Cinefan Film festival has touched the lives of many in the world of Cinema. This documentary traces her roots from her humble origins in an undivided British India, to corridors of cinematic universe. It brings together her journey as a film critic, cinema activist and an impresario, weaving a tapestry that connects the dots that make the large canvas that we know as Asian Cinema Renaissance. This film explores her dynamism painted through a narrative unfolding lives of critics, filmmakers, curators and programmers – who are hidden maestros that largely make the cinephilia culture and by large remain unsung in histories of Cinema.

Documentary on 35mm (censored but not released) made for Films Division, India.

In many ways the heart of indigenous India, mineral-rich Jharkhand is and has been at the core of India's industrial development after independence. There, the indigenous Adivasi people have borne the brunt of what is arguably India's most fundamental developmental conflict, which has pushed them to the verge of extinction as an agricultural people.

The film documents the life and art of painter Jehangir Sabavala, capturing the intricate relationship between the artist’s vision and his environment. Khopkar describes the challenges of conveying Sabavala’s creative spirit through film, emphasizing the need to engage with the subtleties of colour, light, and composition.

In a quaint village on the Indian Konkan coast, in the time of yellow grass with steps receding and prayers unanswered, a desire for oblivion forks the search for images of exile and belonging.

The work narrates the social, cultural and political history of the “housing question” in Mumbai, by bringing together cinema, state-sponsored documentary, newspapers, policy reports and archives from social movements, among other source materials. These materials are assembled, via a hand-built web editor, into a new kind of "annotated film" that links to online archival sources. Drawing in form from the video lecture-performance style honed on CAMP's rooftop cinema and studio that takes its audience on dense archival journeys, the work examines a "poor man's colony" that was set up in the 1950s and destroyed twenty-five years later to make room for an atomic research facility in Bombay.

The Ladakh Vision Group is shooting a new film: Las-Del (Karmic Connection). The film director is a Buddhist monk while local housewives, policemen and taxi drivers play heroes and villains.

The film explores the transition of an entire village from one that slaughtered thousands of Amur Falcons, the longest travelling raptors in the world, who fly from Siberia every fall to roost in Pangti, a Lotha Naga village in Nagaland, to becoming their most fervent preservationists.

The 'Century of Cinema' is an 18-part series produced by the British Film Institute to celebrate 100 years of cinema. The series includes films directed by Scorsese, Oshima, Godard, among others. Mrinal Sen directed the Indian chapter of the series.

At the wheel of a lorry, Manju travels the roads of India carrying goods to Delhi. As head of the company Manju is respectable, well dressed and regularly visits the barber. However, Manju is a woman. It is not only because of her job, traditionally reserved for men, that she is breaking taboos. A beautiful and rare documentary on the position of women India, and those who break the barriers.

The film depicts maidservants in Pune, who work ‘purdah style’ in the isolation of home. It looks at piece work home labour, with long hours and low wages, and how the women organise to fight for their rights.

The film is a journey into the sweet science of boxing being practiced by two Indian women. The film unfolds with them as they wrestle with their day to day existence of being a boxer and the conflicts that surround them. While one of the boxers, is facing hardships to become a champion, the other struggles with the limitations of her own body and need to prove that she too can box like her brother. Using cinema verité style and shot over a period of two and half years, the film articulates the boxers concerns and share experiences and ideas about their future.

Jaw-dropping pomp and pageantry at the 1911 Delhi Durbar

"Narmada Diary" introduces the Narmada Bachao Andolan (the Save the Narmada Movement), which has spearheaded the agitation against the Sardar Sarovar Dam. As government resettlement programs prove inadequate, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has emerged as one of the most dynamic struggles in India today. With non-violent protests and a determination to drown rather than to leave their homes and land, the people of the Narmada valley have become symbols of a global struggle against unjust development.

This short documentary features poet N Rengarajan, a migrant worker from Pudukkottai, India who sustains a practice of poetry as a way of life while working in the construction sector in Singapore. The film, structured around three of his poems, seeks to visually mirror the rhythm and tone of his writing. Together, verse and visuals strive to draw attention to the poet's acute illuminations of the realities of migrant life.

On a not so fine day a random guy gets surveilled and gets two unexpected guests.

'Rasan Piya' is a documentary on the life of renowned Khayal vocalist and poet, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan. His story is that of an extraordinary musician, poet and teacher; of someone who has not only preserved but also added much to an ancient Indian art form; of a brave man who overcame his physical limitations to create beautiful music and inspire a whole generation of musicians and music lovers. The film explores the various influences that have shaped his life and music. His life also offers a commentary on the change that art in India has witnessed with the decline of the riyasats (kingdoms) and the patronage they offered. Lastly, the film attempts to draw one towards our ancient 'guru shishya parampara', as preserved and practised by one its most revered exponents.

Film made during the repressive days of the Emergency in India documents the 1974-75 uprising of the people of Bihar in Eastern India.

An observational short film that that depicts the various creative techniques and its intricacies that the artisans have formed through their craft of working with wool in the Deccan and Kullu Valley region of India.

An old man counting his last days of life. Death is indeed constant and absolute. Still, in my documentary, I want to show not only this but also represent my grandpa's death as a spiritual transformation beyond all mundane and exhausted living as if it is a transcendence of nature toward the journey of eternal salvation.

Military occasions around India and Pakistan, featuring the Khyber Pass, Srinagar, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

Insides and Outsides is a documentary film project, which captures a timeline from the end of 2019, when the CAA/NRC protests were at their peak, till 2022 when the pandemic had upturned everyone's personal life. In an increasingly hostile environment of escalating violence, Arbab explores what it is like being a Muslim in India. The film ebbs and flows between looking outside, where a constant stream of hate erupts, and inside, where Arbab's parents renegotiate their place in the country with changing times.

Educational documentary filmed in b/w on 16mm.

Caring for dead bodies is the sign of our emergence from the order of nature into culture. And when we look into our society, all religions and faiths have different types of cremation and funeral processes. But do we show the same dignity towards orphan corpses? In this documentary, we introduce Vinu, a corpse taker from Aluva, Kerala who helps the state machinery for the burial of such orphan corpses. Through him we see the challenges and the conditions of our public cemetery.

'The Ascent of Mt. Meru' is a documentary film which shows the journey of Indian mountaineers who made the World's first ascent on Meru South peak from its West face in the Himalayas in 2023.

Grand buildings and missionary work come together in the 1947 Indian tour of construction magnate John W. Laing.

Tucked away in the North-Eastern Himalayas, Sikkim with an area of 7300 sq. km has traditionally been looked upon as abode of spiritual tranquillity. Hinduism is the religion of the vast majority of its inhabitants. Lepen has and Bhutias professing Buddhism form the next dominant group. A protectorate of India, since 1890, this special relationship continued after independence. The Sikkim ruler, known by convention as the Maharaja was permitted to call himself the Chogyal in 1965. The Indian Parliament passed the 38th Constitution amendment bill on April 23rd, 1975 which declared Sikkim as the 22nd state of Indian Union. This film narrates the political history of Sikkim right from 1890.

Follow a group of four-legged competitors and their humans as they prepare for a nationwide tournament and chase the pawsibility of becoming top dog.

This documentary delves into the lives of two people who have faced a gender identity disorder (GID), where the person’s sense of being male or female isn’t definite. These individuals have a strong desire to assume the physical characteristics and gender role of the opposite sex or also a person who has undergone a hormone treatment and surgery to attain the physical characteristics of the opposite sex is what is known to be called a “transsexual”. ‘I’dentity exposes two lives of different socio-economic strata in society as we try to string together their lives via them. It’s an attempt to understand this psycho-physiological turmoil that a transsexual goes through, be it approvals or ousting. The films aim is to explore the various choices these two individuals have in hand to deal with this condition and their life long struggle to “fit in” within the confines of a civilized society.

A modest tradition of making clay images existed in Bengal in pre-British times. These craftsmen originally “Potters” by caste became the core settlers of Kumartuli, which means “Potters Quarter”. “Documentation of Clay Image Makers of Kumartuli”s an attempt to understand their plight and Kumartuli’s contribution to one of the biggest festivals in the world.

This amateur film gives us a fair idea of the opulent life enjoyed by members of the British government in India.

Lucknow is a famous historical city in India. It is the capital of the northern Indian state of Utter Pradesh. This city is known for its unique culture and diversity of people.

A filmmaker's quest to resolve an internal dilemma surrounding the split-up of chores around the house, through conversations with his mother.

A disheveled pigeon on a windowsill reminds Ramona of a painful memory of her past that she thought she had successfully suppressed. Having resurfaced, she has no choice but to confront them in this dark night of the soul. “Gołębie” can be described as a happy accident. The film came together on two different occasions on two different days, begging to be made. It is an exercise in crafting a narrative out of completely non-diegetic sound and the sheer manipulative power of cinema as a medium.

Set in Tamilnadu, India, ‘Our Family’ brings together excerpts from Nirvanam, a one person performance, by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and a family of three generations of trans-gendered female subjects, Aasha, Seetha and Dhana, who are bound together by ties of adoption. They all belong to the trans-gendered community called Aravanis (aka Hijras, in some parts of India). The film juxtaposes the ‘normality’ of their existence with the dark and powerful narrative by Pritham- ‘Nirvanam’; Nirvanam (Liberation) refers to the act of liberating oneself from the male body and transforming oneself to a female. This narrative bears witness to the tumultuous journey towards a reinvented selfhood, a journey fraught with violence, exploitation, affection and courage. The pains, pleasures and dilemmas of becoming the ‘other’ is the motif of the film. Weaving together performance, life histories and everyday life, it problematises the divides between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

A Berlinale award nominated short feature.

The Film explores the memories of people from Mangoan. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, then 29 years old, had just returned to India from Columbia University in the United States, where he had earned his M.A. and PhD. He started discussions and gatherings with the Dalit community in support of social rights. The first public gathering presided by Babasaheb took place at the Mangaon Conference on March 21, 1920 along with Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj.

And We play On, Pramod Purswane's National Film Award-winning film on how hockey player Vivek Singh's battled cancer does not interest many.

In a world ruled by patriarchy, one girl from India’s hinterlands finds the courage to challenge gender norms to achieve her dream of becoming a drone pilot. In rural Uttar Pradesh, where caste and patriarchy often dictate a girl’s future, Babita’s life seemed destined for early marriage and domestic duty. Born into a Dalit family and forced to shoulder responsibilities after her mother’s death, she gave up dreams of college to care for her home. A turning point came when with the support of a women's self help group, she began training to be a drone pilot to help with farming. As her district’s first certified female drone pilot, Babita transforms skepticism into pride, inspiring young women to delay early marriage and pursue financial independence.

This documentary brings forth the nuances of the movement against the exploitation of sugarcane harvesting workers in South Gujarat. The film sheds light on the conditions that worked to generate a momentum among the sugarcane harvesters to demand their rights and entitlements from various stakeholders. Resulting which the sugar cooperative factories responded to the workers and raised the wages - a small victory in the larger struggle of the harvesters for their rights and entitlements. Watch this film to know how all migrant workers and contractors joined hands to demand their rights. This film is commissioned by CLRA (Centre for Labour Research and Action) with support from RLS South Asia.