Directed by Mumbai based filmmaker Shekhar
Hattangadi the film is slated to be screened in the four day festival to be organised from Sept 17-20, 2015 at Siri
Fort Auditorium in New Delhi
The Woodpecker International Film Festival
and Forum will screen Shekhar Hattangadi’s documentary ‘Santhara’ as part of
its upcoming third edition from September 17-20, 2015 at Siri Fort Auditorium.
With silent protests erupting in different parts of the country after Rajasthan
High Court judgment, this screening is aimed towards educating general people
about the traditional Jain tradition of Santhara to ensure they have a more
informed understanding of the issue.
According to Narender Yadav, Founder Director of the Festival, “The
objective behind Woodpecker Film Festival and Forum is to promote meaningful
discussions and rational debates in the public forum on issues related to
development, culture and society. Recently, there have seen scores of silent
protests by the Jain community, over the judgment given by Rajasthan High Court declaring the practice
of Santhara — voluntary fasting unto death — illegal and an offence punishable
under the Indian Penal Code. This has once again put the debate of interpreting
traditional religious traditions through the tenets of modern law, into the
public domain.”
Titled as ‘Santhara’ - this 25 minutes
documentary, addresses a pivotal and central question—what happens when a
traditional religious practice violates modern law—as it looks at the tensions
that arise over ‘religious suicides’ where a religious tradition endorses the
self-extinguishment of human life in a legal system that treats suicide as a
criminal offence.
About the
Filmmaker
Directed by Mumbai based
journalist-photographer and filmmaker Shekhar Hattangadi, this films has
already won awards at several film festivals.
An alumnus of Film and Television Institute
of India (FTII), Shekhar is a writer-journalist-lawyer and film maker. Aiming
to make documentaries on the controversial religious practices and other
significant issues in present time, he has
collaborated
with ace director Kundan Shah and made a two hours long feature film, ‘Teen Behenein’ (Three Sisters) on the horrific
dowry deaths in the country. However, Santhara is Shekhar’s maiden effort at
documentary film-making. He has a bachelor’s degree from St.Xavier’s College,
Bombay and a dual-master’s degree in International Politics and Journalism from
Ohio University, USA.
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