Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A LOVELY EVENING WITH FILMMAKER SUMA JOSSON (6th Apr 2010, 1540 Hrs)

Sometimes it is a boon to be busy with various things in life and sometimes it is so hectic that you feel how time flies so quickly. I have been running around to complete various formalities that one is required to do in such a mission. I really didn’t have any time to even google to know more about Suma Josson. It was a boon in many ways. She had called me on Sunday evening and we agreed to meet on Monday evening at her place.

The beautiful meeting lasted for more than an hour and a half, where in I gained all the possible knowledge about Vidarbha farmers from the beautiful lady. She has spent years in Vidarbha while making her documentary film I WANT MY FATHER BACK, an insight that every Indian should watch to realise how the Western Countries are hell bent to kill (in fact, create GENOCIDE) all our farmers with their policies to implement forcefully their GM crops and poisonousness pesticides and chemical fertilizers with the help of our beautiful government.

We shared and discussed our vision to better the lives of farmers in India towards a better future. Not even once she mentioned about her great achievements in filmmaking and journalistic or poet-writer fields. It is only today, when I googled I came to know how lovely and great Suma is with her work to make well-documented documentaries and social relevant films in her career. She gave me important contacts and people who would be supportive about the movement to stop farmers’ suicide in Vidarbha region. Little did I know that one day I will be spending time with such a lovely lady with the heart of the gold… the experience and education that she imparted to me yesterday will live for many-many years within me to spread her vision for the betterment of farmers’ lives of our nation.  She also gave me two of her documentaries – I WANT MY FATHER BACK and BEFORE THE LAST TREE FALLS along with the Marathi version of the first one.

Her generous contribution and blessings indeed is a boon for me and her strong support has given me a new strength… The documentaries will soon be uploaded for everyone to see to know more about our government policies and the reality, once it is split in 7 part series of 10-minutes each. A little important information about Suma is given below:

AWARD WINNING FILMMAKER SUMA JOSSON

Suma Josson was born in Kerala, graduated in English Literature from the College of St. Teresa, Minnesota, USA. She started her career in journalism but later switched to the visual medium. BOMBAY’S BLOOD YATRA on Bombay Riots won acclaim in the nation and abroad. She is one among the five women filmmakers commissioned to make a documentary TRADING IMAGES on the subject ‘Women Spaces’ in German International co-production.  She won three State Awards for her first feature film in Malayalam JANMADHINAM (1998) starring Nandita Das & Sureka Shikri, which was screened at various International Film Festivals including 1999 Berlin Film Festivals, followed by second feature film SAREE in 1999.

Her other documentaries are:

47 SECONDS & AFTER: LATUR, OSMANABAD
AKBAR PADAMSEE & THE LAST IMAGE
WASTE (on Gerd Rohling, a German Installation artists & rag picker)
ONE MORE DAY TO LIVE (on V P Singh, as a painter)
GUJARAT: A LABORATORY OF HINDU RASTRA, FASCISM (2003)
I WANT MY FATHER BACK
BEFORE THE LAST TREE FALLS

Suma is also a well-known poet and fiction writer and has published in various Indian and International magazines. The three books that she has written:

POEMS & PLAYS
A HARVEST OF LIGHT (collection of plays)
CIRCUMFERENCES (a novel, Penguin)

2 comments:

  1. Already one hindi movie - " Summer 2007" is made on this theme. Good movie.

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  2. Never heard of Summer 2007... who directed it?

    ReplyDelete