Filmmaking Programmes 2013

Our filmmaking programmes and workshops for the year 2013 have been launched.
Registrations open on 20th April 2012.

FOR BASIC INFO: click here.


TO REQUEST AN INFOBOOK 2013: please email your full name, complete contact details incl mobile phone number, and a couple of lines about what you do, to:
impulsemail AT gmail DOTcom


READ TESTIMONIALS HERE
ABOUT OUR FILMS, HERE

Starving to live, not die

When the Supreme Court has recognised the right to go on hunger strike, why is Irom Sharmila’s protest against impunity of the armed forces a criminal act?

reposted from The Hindu.
Read the rest here:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/starving-to-live-not-die/article4562373.ece?homepage=true

Workshop Film Wins Three Awards

Our workshop production, All That Glitters won three awards at the student film competition at NSIT, Delhi University. Made by the batch of 2012, All That Gliiters won the awards for Best Direction, Best Film, and Best Actress. A big shout out to the whole team, the actors and everyone who supported this film.

Workshop Film showing at SIGNS Kerala

Our workshop film, Best Foot Forward will be screening at the SIGNS film festival 2013, in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala. Signs is a pioneering film festival for short fiction and documentaries and its an honour for our student film to be screened there. Congratulations to the team, the actors and everyone who supported them!

IROM SHARMILA: Interview by Kavita Joshi

UPDATE: This article was published in 2006. Irom Sharmila's hunger fast against the AFSPA has now continued over ten years.  

IROM's IRON IN THE SOUL
Young, stoic and dogged, Irom Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death since November, 2000. She wants the repressive Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act repealed. The Act gives draconian powers to the security forces and has repeatedly been used with brazen brutality in the Northeast. For five years, she has been imprisoned and force-fed by the State for her ‘crime’. Filmmaker Kavita Joshi spoke to her in the hospital room in Imphal, her prison

An eye: piercing, intent. A nose, covered by a swatch of medical tape, as a yellow tube forces its way in. Lips, stretched tight as if in pain. A woman sits against a bare wall, huddled under a blanket, tightly hugging herself. This is my first impression of Irom Sharmila as I walk to her hospital bed. She is incarcerated at the security ward of JN Hospital in Imphal, Manipur, in custody of the Central Jail, Sajiwa. It takes her immense effort to speak, but she tries her best. “How can I explain? This is not a punishment. It is my bounden duty at my best level.”

Irom Sharmila has not eaten for over five years now. For this, she has been locked up in jail by the government under very dubious charges and is being forcibly nose fed. Since November 2000, Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death, demanding the removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA).

Read the rest of the article and interview on Tehelka here

FIND ALL ARTICLES ON IROM SHARMILA POSTED ON THIS BLOG, HERE

Support Irom Sharmila, Show Your Solidarity

This post is for those young people who watch Tales from the Margins and ask what they can do to support Irom Sharmila:

In November 2011, Irom Sharmila Chanu’s epic fast demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) will complete 11 years.

In these 11 years, the government has done everything in its power to isolate Irom Sharmila. It has kept her under arrest by claiming that her fast is an attempt to commit suicide, and therefore punishable by law. Though she is an under-trial and therefore entitled to visitors as per law, under the guise of her own security the authorities make this process very difficult. Special permission has to be sought from the state to meet Sharmila, and it comes after a wait of many days, if at all. Activists, eminent citizens and people close to her are often not given permission to meet her. All this, in an attempt to break her indomitable spirit.

When I had met Sharmila for the first time, she'd told me that one thing she missed was people - human contact. Show Irom Sharmila your solidarity - write to her. Let her know that you stand with her in this struggle for justice. Each letter is also a sign to the government that people across this country are against AFSPA. Send your letters, cards and messages of solidarity to:
      Irom Sharmila Chanu
      c/o Security Ward
      Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital
      Porompat, Imphal – 795001
      Manipur

Or you can also send your messages by email to:
writetosharmila@gmail.com
or writetosharmila@hotmail.com

A compilation of the emails is periodically printed and delivered to Sharmila as a book, by the Pan Manipur group.


NOTE: There is a more that each of us can do to support Sharmila and the campaign against AFSPA.  Watch this space, we will be updating this with more info. You can also watch My Body My Weapon, a short film on Irom Sharmila and the AFSPA available on this blog. The film is free to view, share on FB and embed on your webpages.