Making their Voices Count, Pg19

Key Highlights:

• Ravi Raj Murmu, a Santhal filmmaker, won the Best Debut Film of a Director award at the 72nd National Film Awards for his Santhali short film Angen.
• Angen is the first Santhali film and only the second fiction film in an Adivasi language to receive a National Film Award.
• Shristy Marandi received a Special Jury Mention at Samvaad 2025 for her documentary Palimpsest, which documents the Dasai festival.
• Pioneering Oraon filmmaker Biju Toppo has won three National Film Awards for his documentaries, focusing on Adivasi lives and struggles.

Detailed Insights:

• Angen (2024), meaning "invisible," is a 12-minute film adapted from a Santhali folktale, metaphorically depicting the vanishing of natural and spiritual spaces due to urbanisation.
• Palimpsest (2025) explores the Dasai festival, a Santhal tradition, serving as a visual archive and fostering inter-generational learning.
• Biju Toppo co-founded Akhra, a Ranchi-based production house, in 1996 to document Adivasi lives and struggles.
• His award-winning documentaries include Iron is Hot (2007), Ek Ropa Dhan (2010), and Naachi se Baanchi (2017).
• Toppo's early work, like Shahhed Jo Anjaan Rahe (1996), addressed events such as the 1985 massacre of tribals and the Netarhat Andolan and Jharkhand Andolan.
• Adivasi filmmakers use cinema to counter misrepresentation, preserve cultural histories, and create digital archives of oral traditions.
• The concept of "Jal, Jangal, Jameen" (water, forest, land) is central to the Adivasi resistance movements documented by these filmmakers.

Key Concepts Involved:

• National Film Awards: Prestigious awards recognizing excellence in Indian cinema, administered by the Directorate of Film Festivals.
• Adivasi: Indigenous tribal communities of India, often facing issues of displacement, cultural erosion, and misrepresentation.
• Oral Narratives: Stories, histories, and traditions passed down verbally through generations, crucial for cultural preservation in many communities.
• Digital Archives: Electronic repositories for storing and preserving cultural, historical, or scientific data, ensuring accessibility and longevity.