Anand Patwardhan

Anand Patwardhan is an Indian documentary filmmaker, known for his activism through social action documentaries on topics such as corruption, slums dwellers, nuclear arms race, citizen activism and communalism.. Notable films include Ram ke Nam (In the Name of God) (1992), Pitr, Putr aur Dharmayuddha (Father, Son and Holy War) (1995) and Jang aur Aman (War and Peace) (2002) , which have won national and International awards. Anand Patwardhan was born in 1950, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
He completed a B.A. in English literature at Bombay University in 1970, a B.A. in Sociology at Brandeis University in 1972, and an M.A. in Communication studies at McGill University in 1982. Virtually all his films faced censorship by the Indian authorities but were finally cleared after legal action. His film ‘Bombay Our City’ was shown on TV after a four year court case, while, 'Father Son and the Holy war' (1995), was adjudged in 2004 as one of 50 most memorable international documentaries of all time by DOX, Europe's leading Documentary film magazine; though it was shown on India’s National Network, Doordarshan only in the year 2006, 11 years after its making, and that too after a prolonged court battle which lasted 8 years and ended with the nation’s Supreme Court ordering the state-owned media to telecast the film without any cuts.
His next film, 'War and Peace' made in 2002, brought him in the news once again, when the CBFC India (Central Board for Film Certification, or the Censor Board), refused to certify the film without making 21 cuts.  As always, Patwardhan took the government to court, hence it was banned for over a year. However, after a court battle, Anand won the right to screen his film without a single cut. As with his previous films, Patwardhan also successfully fought to force a reluctant national broadcaster, Doordarshan, to show this film on their national network. It was commercially released in multiplexes in 2005.

Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan has described himself as “a non-serious human being forced by circumstance to make serious films.” Active for three decades in the fight for social justice, both in India and abroad, Patwardhan makes documentaries out of passionate political commitment. His films advocate for change with sincerity and conviction, but not without wry humor and an eye for the absurd.

Patwardhan has a distinctive filmic “voice” in a literal sense: in his films we often hear him speak, as narrator or thoughtful questioner. He often does his own camerawork, providing a feeling of directness, a personal eye. His films have found acclaim at festivals worldwide, but he has often been forced to fight Indian censors for the right to show them in his native country. The problems he addresses—economic inequality, environmental devastation, the challenges faced by secular and democratic movements in an era of fundamentalism and nationalism—are dangerous and crucial, and clearly as relevant here as they are on the subcontinent.

Patwardhan presents his films in person on four of the six evenings in this series and delivers a lecture on October 21 as part of the ongoing project Documentary Voices, which brings international documentary filmmakers to the Bay Area as resident artists at the Pacific Film Archive. This is a special opportunity to encounter an engaging speaker and an inspiring example of activism against the odds.

Notes by Juliet Clark

Click titles to view full film notes

THU OCT 7 2004
7:30 A Time to Rise
An eloquent document of Indian farmworkers' activism in Canada. With In Memory of Friends, a thoughtful study of the uses of history, religious intolerance, and Bhagat Singh's legacy.

THU OCT 14 2004
7:30 A Narmada Diary
Combining politics, ethnography, and environmentalism, this film documents the devastation wrought by India's Sardar Sarovar dam project, as well as the courage of indigenous people who vow to drown rather than be moved. With Fishing: In the Sea of Greed, a powerful indictment of factory fishing and other “rape and run” industries.

THU OCT 21 2004
7:00 In the Name of God
Lecture by Anand Patwardhan. Patwardhan discusses film and activism following the screening of his fascinating work about the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Hindu fundamentalists. “Hard-hitting, provocative...lucid, courageous.”—Variety. With short We Are Not Your Monkeys.

FRI OCT 22 2004
7:30 Father, Son and Holy War
Anand Patwardhan in Person. “Patwardhan's impressive, passionate documentary explores in great detail the roots of sectarian violence in India today, and suggests that religious fanaticism is not the only problem; the cult of machismo is...just as deadly.”—Variety

SAT OCT 23 2004
7:00 War and Peace
Anand Patwardhan in Person. Patwardhan's monumental, often darkly funny film illuminates the perils of nuclear nationalism in South Asia and around the world. This “solemn, stirring perspective on the competitive chauvinism between India and Pakistan...has a riveting intelligence all its own and earns its epic title.”—NY Times. “A tour de force.”—UK Guardian
[view video clip]

SUN OCT 24 20045:30 Bombay: Our City
Anand Patwardhan in Person. A heartbreaking, politically incisive glimpse into the lives of Bombay's slumdwellers. “Patwardhan gives us this story simply and clearly, with restrained passion, and it becomes, finally, appalling and moving.”—LA Times.