Pankaj Rishi Kumar will screen and discuss film about conflict pitting villagers in South India against powerful Hindu temple
A screening of the film, “In God’s Land,” followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Pankaj Rishi Kumar will be held on November 17 in LaRose Theater at 7:00 pm. Set in India, the film recounts the mythical birth of a local village God, Sudalai Swami, and his role in the village’s unique journey to fight oppression of the large and wealthy Vanamamalai Temple. When temple officials appropriate Sudalai Swami’s land, the settlers are reduced to being tenant farmers and must make way for redevelopment after the land is sold off for a Special Economic Zone. A dispute over ‘god’s land’ begins. Using animation to recount the history of the land, the film satirizes the exploitation perpetrated by religion and class distinction and looks at land within the larger issue of development.
In God’s Land has won several awards such as the Best Eco Documentary Feature Runner up Award at the Tinai Ecofilm Festival in 2014. Pankaj Rishi Kumar graduated from the Film and Television Institute in India and began his career as the assistant editor on Sekhar Kupur’s Bandit Queen. After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he began making his own films which have been screened at festivals all over the world.
