Synopsis for the Film
Film: Waters of Despair
Country: India
Director: Srijan
Duration: 31 min 30 sec
Category: Considering Climate
The year 2007 witnessed one of the worst floods in the contemporary history of Bihar. The embankments around the river Kamalabalan crumbled and in a spate of a few hours, lives, livelihoods, hopes and aspirations were washed away leaving the villages in a quagmire of debts, diseases and migration. Director Srijan and his team wade through the angry waters to document this unprecedented disaster only to discover the waters ran murkier than they seemed. What they find is a vortex of deceit- of glaring indifference of the authorities, relief measures crippled by inhuman greed and corruption, private contractors cashing in on the lucrative business of ‘flood prevention’ and an inherent inbuilt mechanism of exclusion and marginalization of the landless and Dalits. In the wake of a great tragedy, an absurd theatre of horror and shame is played out in the heartland of one of the biggest democracies in the world.
Distinctions
Cinemela 2008
More Details
Srijan was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. His father Prof. Dr. Nand Kishore Nandan is an eminent poet of Hindi. He comes from an academic and literary family. He has studied Social Work from University of Delhi. He works as a trainer and researcher with Praxis - Institute for Participatory Practices, New Delhi. He has learnt animation and film making from IIT Delhi. Waters of Despair is his debut Documentary Film.
