ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund
2010 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund
LIST Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir!
| Category | PIFF Supporters Fund |
|---|---|
| Project | Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! |
| Director | Shashwati TALUKDAR & P. Kerim FRIEDMAN |
| Country | India, USA, Taiwan |
| Director's Profile |
Shashwati Talukdar, Director/Producer, began working in film and television as an assistant editor for a TV show by Michael Moore (1999). Since then she has worked on projects for HBO, BBC, Lifetime, Sundance and Cablevision. In 2001, she produced a documentary on Mahasweta Devi, an eminent writer and activist, who is revered by the Chhara community. Her films have screened at venues including the Margaret Mead Festival, Berlin and the Whitney Biennial. She has been supported by entities including the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and IFP Project Involve Fellowship. P. Kerim Friedman, Director/Producer/Cameraman, has earned a PhD and taught in ethnographic film and photography since 1993. Currently, he is assistant professor of Indigenous Studies at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. He divides his time between Taiwan and India. Please Don′t Beat Me, Sir! is his second documentary and first feature. |
- Synopsis
- Please Don′t Beat Me, Sir! leads us into the lives of Budhan Theatre, a group of young Chhara tribes who are considered as ‘born criminals’. Using Theatre as a weapon, these young people fight against a corrupt police system and against criminal identity internalized by their elders. Above all, this documentary is about the power of art. We see theater used as a form of non-violent protest against police brutality. We also see theater being used to challenge traditional gender roles within the community. And we see the role of theater in giving the young actors an alternative vision of their future.
- Director’s Note / Intention
- The first time we saw Budhan Theatre performance was in the fall of 1999 at a conference on Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs). Raw intensity of their performance betrayed the suffering of their communities from today’s police and society. So moved were we by this performance that we were determined to do what we could to help when we heard that Budhan Theatre′s director and playwright, Dakxin, had been false in 2003. Fortunately, Dakxin was released, but our time with the dedicated young actors of Budhan Theater had convinced us that there was a bigger story to be told, one which we have been working on ever since.
- Festivals
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2011 Busan International Film Festival - Wide Angle_Documentary Competition
2011 The Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival - Jean Rouch Award for Collaborative Filmmaking
2011 International Film Festival of Kerala - Mahindra Creative Award for Social Change at Trigger Pitch
2011 Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival
2012 Zanzibar International Film Festival - Special Mention
2012 OzAsia International Film Festival, Adelaide, Australia
- Still Cut
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