A new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Glassell School of Art, Anand Patwardhan: Ways of Struggle, surveys four decades of filmmaking by one of today's most socially committed documentary filmmakers. Since the 1970s, Patwardhan has been making portraits of Indian movements for social justice.
In this monumental documentary, veteran Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan explores how India’s political climate has moved dramatically away from the nonviolent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Organized in chapters that move from the past to the present, Reason unflinchingly chronicles the rise of right-wing extremism and recent instances of violence, yet concludes with a message of cautious optimism. The screening includes a 15-minute intermission.
In this monumental documentary, veteran Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan explores how India’s political climate has moved dramatically away from the nonviolent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Organized in chapters that move from the past to the present, Reason unflinchingly chronicles the rise of right-wing extremism and recent instances of violence, yet concludes with a message of cautious optimism.
This remarkable documentary chronicles the late 20th century into the 21st, as experienced by a woman who might be the original news junkie. Marion Stokes (1929–2012) became known as a passionate activist, articulately espousing her leftist views on local television in Philadelphia.
Recorder pulls you into her secret life, revealing that she spent decades obsessively recording TV programs around the clock. From the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis to the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, Stokes captured revolutions, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials on 70,000 VHS tapes. A second marriage brought wealth, but she ultimately became a recluse who saw her life’s work to be protecting the truth by archiving everything on TV.
Ghosts of Sugar Land examines the radicalization of a young American Muslim. Through interviews with his friends, the documentary tells the story of “Mark,” who converted to Islam before college and became radicalized shortly thereafter. A number of years ago, through Facebook posts, “Mark” stated that he crossed over from Turkey to the “Islamic State.” His friends from Sugar Land, Texas—all masked to protect their identities—hypothesize about what may have happened that led their friend to join ISIS. Ghosts of Sugar Land won the Nonfiction Jury Award for Short Film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
