India's forgotten people

The Incomplete

“Can you describe yourself?” “Odenwald-Gay... or Gollum... or Klaus! 60 years old... gay... slave!” A documentary portrait of Klaus Johannes Wolf, who decided to live as a slave. Chained to his bed, he talks about his decision to be a slave, his parents and what it means to be naked. Finally he leaves everything behind to go to a slave camp, to put the finishing touches on his slave’s life and become the perfect servant.

The Last Days of the Raj

Lord Louis Mountbatten arrives in India in March 1947 as Britain's Last Viceroy. He is committed to transfer administrative and authoritative power to an independent and sovereign India. Six months later India indeed was set free, but it had also been partitioned and overwhelmed by an orgy of sectarian violence involving Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

The Karma Killings

"The Karma Killings," is a modern-day crime thriller mixed in with Indian mythology and class warfare. The documentary delves into India's most infamous serial killings and its impact on a nation. Told through the people directly involved, the film unravels the complexities of the case and goes beyond the sensational headlines to present a suspenseful and scary mystery. And has a huge twist - one of the killers maybe innocent?

Top Gear: India Special

The gang embarks on a trade mission to India. Equipped with three old British cars and a range of uniquely British products, they set off on an epic road trip across one of the world's most fascinating and challenging countries.

One Ticket Please

A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.

Growing Native Great Lakes: Turtle Island

The Great Lakes and connecting waterways have remained the center of traditional and contemporary economies for centuries. Meet the Ojibwe and a tribe that was relocated to this region—the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin who care for these lands. Natural resources are the Tribes’ main economy, including the famous Red Lake walleye and wild rice lakes.

The Sacred Food

A short documentary about the Ojibwe Native Americans of Northern Minnesota and the wild rice (Manoomin) they consider a sacred gift from the Creator. The film tells the Creation and Migration stories that are central to the tribe's oral history and belief system while showing the traditional process of hand-harvesting and parching the wild rice. Biotech companies are currently researching ways to genetically modify the rice and the community is fighting to keep it wild.

Fascinating India

"Fascinating India" spreads an impressive panorama of India’s historical and contemporary world. The film presents the most important cities, royal residences and temple precincts. It follows the trail of different religious denominations, which have influenced India up to the present day. Simon Busch and Alexander Sass travelled for months through the north of the Indian subcontinent to discover what is hidden under India’s exotic and enigmatic surface, and to show what is rarely revealed to foreigners. The film deals with daily life in India. In Varanasi, people burn their dead to ashes. At the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious gathering of the world, 35 million pilgrims bathe in holy River Ganges. This is the first time India is presented in such an alluring and engaging fashion on screen.

Indian Durbar

Technicolor scenes from an Indian Durbar, held for the Maharaja of Alwar in Rajasthan.

Ancient India

This Traveltalk series short visits a few locations where the centuries-old traditions of ancient India are kept alive in contemporary times.

Father Lenin

An evocative and unsettling journey through christian and also deeply communist Kerala. Amidst red flags and altar boys, between the sea and the jungle, mixing the language of reportage and that of fable, the unedited docufilm tells the touching, profound, at times funny stories of a group of priests and nuns in the days leading up to Easter.

Tiger

Journey alongside a young tigress raising her cubs in the fabled forests of India.

Information for/from Outsiders: Chronicles from Kashmir

Chronicles from Kashmir seeks to create a sense of “balance”: between differently positioned voices that emerge when speaking about Kashmir; between differently placed narratives on the “victim”/“perpetrator” spectrum. While there is an inevitable streak of political commentary that runs throughout the work – a political current that cannot be escaped when talking about Kashmir – Chronicles from Kashmir does not espouse any one political ideology. We see ourselves as being artists and educators, using aesthetics and pedagogy to engage audiences with diverse perspectives from/about the Valley.

India's Wild Beauty

India - unique in its diversity and breathtakingly beautiful. The subcontinent is characterized by scenic, cultural and ethnic diversity. After China, India is the second most populous country in the world. Despite growing space needs, there are efforts to preserve the wilderness through nature reserves and protected areas. So India still provides habitat for rare species such as the Bengal tiger or the Indian elephant. The 5-part series "India's wild beauty" leads to the most spectacular and beautiful regions and their inhabitants. The complete series in five parts: 1 The Thar Desert 2 In the jungle, the Ghats 3 Life on the holy river 4 The Himalayas 5 In the land of Naga

Guru, A Hijra Family

Set in a small town in the region of Tamil Nadu, in southern India, the film follows the days and works of a hijra family. Silky, Mahima, Trisha, Durga, Kuyili, Priyanka, Vasundhara and Yamuna, under the firm protection of their guru Lakshmi Ma, deliver snippets of their marginal but sovereign existence. From a millenia-old sacred tradition to getting by every second, "Guru" composes with them a poem of intertwined voices in which the world is a tough playground, where the third gender is primarily the resistance force of a life shared.