ALT EFF 2024: Two Karnataka films take centre stage at the festival Premium

The festival in Bengaluru is happening at various locations, including ATREE in Jakkur, Bangalore Creative Circus in Yeshwantpur, Courtyard Koota in Kengeri, and Medai the Stage in Koramangala. The festival will also take place in various cities across Karnataka including Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Mandya, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Chitradurga, Davangere, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru. 

The All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) 2024, a platform dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues, is set to take place from November 22 to December 8 across India. Launched in 2020, the festival promotes environmental awareness through films, showcasing over 50 national and international works focused on climate change.

The festival in Bengaluru is happening at various locations, including ATREE in Jakkur, Bangalore Creative Circus in Yeshwantpur, Courtyard Koota in Kengeri, and Medai the Stage in Koramangala. The festival will also take place in various cities across Karnataka including Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Mandya, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Chitradurga, Davangere, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru. 

Speaking to The Hindu, Anaka Kaundinya, programming director at ALT EFF, said that the festival has a mix of films that are very informative. “These films can really change consumer habits and choices, and give you an idea of tangible solutions toward climate crisis. This year we have got very cratively told films from some well established filmmakers.”

The festival will this time feature two films that are very relevant to Karnataka, a feature film called A Flaming Forest and a short film called Gopi. A Flaming Forest is based on the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve in Karnataka that is home to the Soliga adivasis. “The film talks about why custodians of the land should take care of the forest,” explains Anaka.  

Directed by Salman Javeed, Satya Ambasta, Vivek Sangwan, according to the description of the film, it traverses the rich tapestry of the BRT forest and the intricate relationships that the Soligas hold with it. It traces the effects of exclusionary conservation policy, which has led to large scale evictions and denial of rights for Soligas since 1974. “Soliga resistance to these changes has stretched across five decades. Their articulations challenge dominant approaches of a conservation model that relies on forced evictions, and emphasises their customary and legal rights to the forest. The film is a culmination of a two-decade long collaboration between researchers and filmmakers.”

Gopi, a short film directed by Bengaluru-based film and ad maker Nishanth Gurumurthy, is based on the life of a middle-aged storyteller who identifies herself with the Siddi community. The film elaboarates on how she lives many lives through her stories, as she reflects and contemplates the idea of her identity, emerging from ancestral displacement. She believes that her stories emotionally appeal to her audience. It also fuels her ambition to get her stories self-published. Gopi’s journey as a tribal woman in India threads her connection with nature and its elements in many ways. But as nature is relatively unpredictable, it ultimately becomes a source that forces Gopi to confront the reality of her life.  

Nishanth says that the film started out as a research for his feature film when he was visiting a forest area an hour away from Gokarna. “Gopi was my guide in the forest area. We started talking, and I decided to research about her life. She is a single mother, a story teller, she being part of the honey hunting culture in her community, herc personality felt like she was the queen bee of her community. She is a woman who leads from the front and the bread winner of her family.”