Reelin @ Jagriti – Our Metropolis

Our Metropolis

A film by Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao

India, 2014, 87 min (25 fps, ProRes) or 90 min (24 fps, DCP)

www.ourmetropolis.in (includes a trailer)

Log Line

The promise of a global city is being used to bulldoze Bangalore, India’s I.T. capital, at the expense of the people who live in it.  To whose advantage?
Short Synopsis

Bangalore is being refashioned as a ‘world-class’ metropolis. Livelihoods and homes make way for flyovers, glitzy malls and a shiny Metro. Threatened with violent transformation of their city, residents confront the authorities.  Beneath the State’s ideal of a ‘global city’ lurks the intent to clear a pasture for big business.
Director’s Statement

The global city erases everything in its path.  As we move from metro to mall, there is nothing to remind us of those who lived and worked where we now stand.  This film is our attempt to let these stories live on.

 

Honors and Festivals

Selected for DocWok (Magic Lantern Movies and DOK Leipzig), 2012-13

Supported by Asian Network of Documentary (Busan, South Korea), 2013

Premiered at Busan International Film Festival, Oct 2014

Screened at Dubai International Film Festival, Dec 2014

Screened at Tromso International Film Festival, Jan 2015

Screenings in India

Bangalore: Doc@Everest, Everest Theatre,18 Dec 2014

Mumbai: FD Zone, Films Division Auditorium, 11 April 2015

Delhi: FD Zone, India Habitat Centre, 27 April 2015

 

Directors’ Profiles

 

Gautam Sonti’s earlier series of short films, Coding Culture, is a critical examination of the experience of globalisation within the microcosm of a hi-tech workplace in Bangalore. Our Metropolis, his first feature-length documentary film, extends this theme to the entire city.

 

Usha Rao is a cultural anthropologist with an interest in the anthropology of cities. She has been studying the transformation of Bangalore over the past decade. In particular, she is interested in understanding the effects of of the ‘global city’ discourse on the lives of people and the cityscape.

 

Main Credits

 

Direction / Camera

Gautam Sonti

 

Direction / Location Sound

Usha Rao

 

Editing, Visual Effects, Sound Design

Abhro Banerjee

 

Original Music

Anant Menon

Snehal Pinto

 

Publicity

Arjuna Shankar

 

Additional Sound

Sudesh Kumar

Girish

Shekhar

 

Equipment

Vinit Videos

Sound Track recorded at Jigtunes Studio

Produced by

Gautam Sonti

Usha Rao