It's no coincidence that filmmakers use the documentary medium to uncover noisome social ills. Out of all the genres of cinema, documentaries shoulder the burden to highlight dilemmas and enable change. Resisting Coastal Invasion, the new movie by veteran Indian director KP Sasi and Visual Search Productions swims smoothly within this current.
The determination of Burma's Buddhist monks to bring about change non-violently in their country has awakened a civilian population long held in fear by the governing military. The monks are marching behind large banners saying "Love and Kindness must win over everything." Demonstrations have been growing in city after city as the monks have taken the leadership of protests which began in early September against the sudden rise in fuel, food, and transportation costs.
Since 9/11, the Indian and U.S. Navies and Special Forces have conducted a number of joint exercises in the Indian Ocean and in the hills of India's Northeast. U.S. State Department official Christian Rocca said (in 2002), "Military-to-military cooperation is now producing tangible progress towards [the] objective [of] strategic, diplomatic and political cooperation as well as sound economic ties." The Indo-U.S. Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (2007) is the capstone of this new strategic alliance, driven by geopolitical and military concerns.
Gabriela Krista Dalena sits on a painter's stool, narrating a harrowing incident from a night in April 2003. A ray of late morning sunlight comes through the parted doors of the verandah across her. It illuminates the corners of oil paintings hanging on the room's high walls and the delicate features of terracotta sculptures sitting on the tops of wooden cabinet and tables and lining the wooden floor. Dalena, an independent filmmaker, recalls how 20 men, armed and masked, abducted five of her colleagues, including her ex-boyfriend, a cameraman. Woman in Black
Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, South India: Kumar takes a small plaster elephant from the rows displayed on the glass cabinet of his shop. He starts drawing lines on the floor with its foot. 'The government wants to turn this place into a second Taj Mahal. Straight roads everywhere so you can see the monuments.' We've been talking about the recent wholesale destruction of most of the street trees.
The Venerable Maha Ghosananda, a learned Cambodian monk, died in early March 2007 near the temple where he was living in Leverett, Massachusetts. Maha Ghosananda, who had a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies from India, was a key person in the revival of the Buddhist Sangha in Cambodia after the Pol Pot years (1975-1979). In 1992, Maha Ghosananda revived the tradition of the Dhammayietra - a country-wide pilgrimage as a symbol of peace and reconciliation among a still-divided population.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019