The Best International Feature Documentary Award was recently given to Farming the Revolution (D: Nishta Jain | P: Nishta Jain, Valérie Montmartin | India, Norway | 2024 | 100 min), capturing the protests of half a million of India’s farmers as they rose up on an unprecedented scale against unjust new laws.
Hot Docs Festival presented the winner with a $10,000 cash prize.
The Jury Statement said, “For its slow study on the poetics of labour organising, its regal treatment of atmosphere, and intimate embeddedness in a legendary encampment (that has recently begun again this past February due to unfulfilled promises by the reigning government), the International Feature Competition Jury awards Best International Feature Documentary to Nishtha Jain’s Farming the Revolution, co-directed by Akash Basumatari. With endurance, clarity, and purpose, Jain and Basumatari take audiences inside the full dynamic range of India’s over one-year-long farmers’ protest between 2020 and 2021. Today, as encampments spring up on university campuses around the world, including here in Toronto, the jury commends the filmmakers’ commitments to providing a grounded perspective on the communities of care that encampment produce. Farming the Revolution spotlights the power of ordinary people with an enduring cinematic sophistication and an indomitable lyrical presence.”
CREDITS
Director- Nishtha Jain, Co-Director Akash Basumatari; Producer(s) – Nishtha Jain (Raintree Films), Valérie Montmartin (Little Big Story), Co-Producer(s)- Torstein Grude (Piraya Film)Editor(s)- Giles Gardner, Nishtha Jain, Anand Gautam, Cinematography, Akash Basumatari, Music -Florencia di Concillo, Location Sound- Lohit Bhalla & Sound Design- Niraj Gera.
Source- Hot Docs.
