Bilal
Director: Sourav Sarangi
88 min/Bengali & Hindi/2008/India
7 pm, 9 April, 2010
CFD (Centre for Film and Drama)
5 Floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore
For directions, click on the link ‘Venue’ or call 22356263
No tickets or entrance fee. All are welcome.
This month’s screening is dedicated to the memory of activist filmmaker Saratchandran (Sarat Babu)
Synopsis:
The story begins inside an 8 x 10 feet partitioned room in central Kolkata. Almost nothing is visible inside. In fact, Bilal’s parents don’t need any light to see things around; they are blind. Bilal is just three years old and he has an infant brother. Both can see. So together they live as if in a game of seeing and not seeing. Though of a very tender age, Bilal is fully aware of the physical handicap of his parents. He knows how to communicate with them through sounds and touch. He is never jobless or tired, be it guiding his blind parents through the traffic or teasing his brother, as all elder brothers do! Whenever Bilal is in the mood for mischief, his parents become strict and he jumps into the world outside as adventurous escapades. Bilal tastes life on street… it’s hard. But he never gives up. Very unusually for our times, Bilal’s upbringing and care seems to have become a collective responsibility of all the neighbors. The film tells this curious story by observing the little boy over a year and capturing rare moments of sharing love, fun, cruelty and hope… the wonder world of Bilal. More on www.bilal.in
Director’s Note:
I met Bilal in a hospital bed through my wife when he was just eight months
old; he fell and had severe brain injury. I stood in silence and looked at the boy struggling for life, the blind mother held him tight. Bilal looked at me for a very long time… and finally smiled. He touched his mother gently and that’s how she knew that I was there! I felt the magic of the touch and saw the eyes, those beautiful eyes of Bilal… ushering love and hope in moments when darkness rules…This film is a rough assembly of my moments with Bilal.
Awards:
Golden Award Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, ’09
Best Documentary (Horizons) DOKFEST, Munich, Germany, ’09
Best Documentary ZIFF, Zanzibar ’09
Best Documentary IDSFFK, Trivandrum, India, ’09
Best Documentary We Care Film Festival, India, ’09
Silver Ace Las Vegas International Film Festival, ’09
Jury Special Award Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás, Cuba ’09
Silver Palm Mexico International Film Festival,’09
Best Feature-Length Documentary, DOCUDAYS Beirut, Lebanon, ’09
Audience Award, Auburn Intl. Film Festival, Australia, ’09
Award for Excellence, YIDFF, Yamagata, Japan ’09
Community Cinema Award, YIDFF, Yamagata, Japan, ’09
Best Long Documentary, El Ojo Cojo, Madrid, Spain, ’09
Jury Special Award, Global Film Festival, India, ’09
