Rakesh Sharma is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker, best known for his award-winning film Final Solution, which documented the Gujarat carnage, its tragic aftermath and its long-term impacts.
Rakesh began his film/ TV career as Assistant Director on Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj/ Discovery of India. His broadcast industry experience includes the set up/ launch of 3 satellite TV channels (Channel [V], Star Plus India, Vijay TV - Tamil), several programming consultancy assignments and large-scale productions. He returned to independent documentary film-making in 2001-2 with Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy. The film was screened at over 100 international film festivals and got the Best documentary award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and at Jeevika (India) and won 8 other awards (including the Robert Flaherty prize).
His most well-known work Final Solution, probing politics of hate, has been screened at over 120 filmfests. Upon its completion, the film was banned by the Indian Censor Board for a few months in 2004; widespread protests led to the film being cleared by the censors without a single cut! Ironically, the President of India presented this film a National Film Award in 2006, specifically citing “its powerful, hard-hitting documentation with a brutally honest approach lending incisive insights”.
Both films had the honor of being rejected by the government-run Mumbai International film festival (MIFF) in 2002 and 2004 respectively.
Final Solution had its India Premiere at Vikalp 2004, the filmmakers’ parallel filmfest protesting State censorship at Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). A week later, at its International Premiere at Berlin International Film Festival, Final Solution made history by becoming the first-ever documentary to win the Best Debut Feature award. The film went on to win over a dozen other awards.
For over 2 decades, Rakesh has focussed his work on politics of hate and filmed extensively in Gujarat, Maharashtra and elsewhere. After long years of autoimmune-related medical sabbaticals, Rakesh is now resuming postproduction and completion of his semi-finished, long-delayed films.
FINAL SOLUTION
Awards:
Special Jury award, National Film Awards, India
Wolfgang Staudte award, Berlinale
Special Jury Award (Netpac), Berlin International film festival
Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Documentary, HongKong International film festival
Montgolfiere d’Or (Best Documentary) & Le Prix Fip/Pil’ du Public, Festival des 3 Continents at Nantes (France)
Best Documentary, Apsara Awards (Indian Film industry awards)
Best Film, Freedom of Expression awards by Index on Censorship (UK)
Silver Dhow, Zanzibar International film festival
Human Rights Award, Docupolis (Barcelona)
Special Jury Award, Mar Del Plata Independent film festival (Argentina)
Special Jury Awards, Karafest (Karachi), Worldfest (Houston) and Film South Asia (Kathmandu)
Special Jury Mentions, Munich Dokfest and Bangkok International filmfest
Nominee, Best Foreign Film, Grierson Awards (UK)
Synopsis
Pre-2002, not many had heard of Narendra Modi, erstwhile RSS Pracharak on deputation to BJP, before he was suddenly chosen to replace the increasingly unpopular Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, a year before the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. Within months of taking over, Modi was in national limelight as the new hardline Hindutva icon, especially after his landslide poll victory.
#FinalSolution traces the origins of his ascent to power in the aftermath of #2002GujaratRiots that deeply polarised the electorate. The film follows CM Modi during his Gaurav Yatra and on the poll campaign trail while interweaving stories and accounts from survivors of the carnage as well as families of S-6 (Sabarmati Express) victims.
The film also documents ground-level realities after the elections to find deepening fault lines – ghettoisation, segregation in schools, formal calls for economic boycott and continuing dehumanisation of the Muslim minority in the state.
After graduating from the FTII' 1992, with a specialisation in Film Editing, Pankaj was assistant editor on Sekhar Kapur's ‘Bandit Queen’. After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he made his first film Kumar Talkies. Subsequently, Pankaj has become a one-man crew producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films. His films have been screened at film festivals all over the world. He has won grants from Hubert Bals, IFA, Jan Vrijman, AND (Korea), Banff, Majlis, Sarai and Pad.ma. Pankaj was awarded an Asia Society fellowship at Harvard Asia Centre (2003). He is an alumnus of Asian Film Academy (Pusan) and Berlin Talents (2016). Pankaj also curates and teaches.
Jabeen Merchant is a film editor trained at the Film and Television Institute of India, with a wide experience in the mainstream industry as well as the independent filmmaking community. Her work has travelled to festivals all over the world and been broadcast in India, the USA, Japan and Europe.
A few of her well known documentary films are: ‘We Have Not Come Here to Die’ and ‘Invoking Justice’ directed by Deepa Dhanraj, ‘The Last Adieu’ by Shabnam Sukhdev, ‘Till We Meet Again’ by Rahul Roy, ‘Unlimited Girls’ and ‘Q2P’ by Paromita Vohra and ‘Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories’ by Surabhi Sharma.
Jabeen is also known for a range of fiction feature films including, among others, the critically acclaimed ‘Shoebox’, ‘The Sweet Requiem’ and ‘Manorama Six Feet Under’; as well as commercially successful films such as ‘Laapataa Ladies’ and ‘NH10’.
Apart from editing films, she teaches, works as a script/edit consultant; and occasionally writes on cinema.
Urmi Juvekar worked in a television production house to make non-fiction programmes while writing her first feature film, Darmiyaan, followed by Shararat. Since then she has written several films including Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye and I AM- both winners of The National Award for Best films and the story of Rules Pyaar ka Superhit Formula. She has also made documentaries like ‘Shillong Chamber Choir and the little home school’ which was shown in IDFA, Amsterdam. After working as a creative producer with the critically acclaimed and commercially successful film, Love, Sex aur Dhokha, she wrote Shanghai, and Detective Byomkesh Bakshi. From 2011 to 2017 Urmi worked with NFDC as a consultant for Film Bazaar, where she led the Co-production Market and Script Labs, following which she was the Head of Development and Production at NFDC. She created Leila, a show on Netflix. Urmi worked as a script consultant with Hot Star and Sony for their web series segment. Urmi attended Binger Film Lab, Amsterdam.
Pushpendra Singh is an award winning filmmaker whose latest film, 'The Shepherdess and the seven songs' which premiered in the Encounters Competition at Berlin International Film Festival won the Best Director at Hong Kong Film Festival and the NETPAC Award at Jeonju Film Festival. The film was also rated as the Best Film of the year 2020 by the U.S Magazine, 'The Week' and got a theatrical release in New York at Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA). It was screened by several film festivals including Toronto, NDNF, Montreal, Seattle etc. His creative documentary, 'Pearl of the desert' received Golden Hejnal at Krakow Film Festival. He has also received the Asian Cinema Fund from Busan Film Festival twice for his films, 'Ashwatthama' and 'Pearl of the desert'. His debut feature, Lajwanti (The Honour Keeper) also premiered at Berlin International Film Festival in 2014. Pushpendra is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, and has also taught there. He is a visiting faculty at many film schools including FTII Pune, SRFTII Kolkata and Whistling Woods International, Mumbai.
Krishand is a filmmaker and an academic. His second film, Aavasavyuham (2022), won multiple awards, including the FIPRESCI and NETPAC at IFFK, Kerala State Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film, and the National Award for Best Environmental Film. His third Purushapretham (2023) also received critical acclaim on Sony Liv and Asianet TV. He directed the web series Utsaha Ithihasam (zee5 ), winning Best Comedy Drama at Seoul Webfest 2018, and his debut feature, Vrithakrithyilulla Chathuram (2019), won the Kerala State Award for Best Background Music ( the film was in the international competition at IFFK ) . An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Krishand currently works on Sambhava Vivaranam - Naalara Sangham and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at IIT Bombay.
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