Session 54 summary
It has been around 20 years since he began his journey as a filmmaker and he has learned the value of communication for; tribal community, underrepresented community, the minorities and all the sections in the society who lack their voices. Their stories are mostly missing from the mainstream media and of course when talking about Adivasi communities they are really absent from the media or misrepresented and often think that tribal means primitive. This has been the attitude of media towards them, tribals don’t find themselves in mainstream media or see someone from their community in national media. Of course now, the present/coming generation have come up quite a bit in regional media, mostly in the technical side of it. But when talking about the opinions of the Adivasi community about themselves, they don’t have a way to express themselves. So back in 2002, Deepak along with a group of friends and teachers started doing documentary films with the ambition to support people’s movement through documented filmmaking. They produced very good film about naxalism and tribal point of view- the film was called ‘The Hunt’ which was done for PSBT and that film won the Silver Conch in Mumbai film festival. In fact Human Right Film Festivals is the best place which explains human rights perspective of the left wing extremism or naxalism in Central India. Deepak and his team also documented all those cases which came up in media regarding shootouts in deep jungles of Netrahat area and so many parts of Jharkhand which is forested and tribal communities live in the forest and are dependent on it. Behind the wiping out of naxalism and the paramilitary operations held for that, Deepak and his team saw a lot of human rights violation across these hamlets- the Adivasi hamlets; some people ran away, some got killed, some people’s home were searched and their grains were spoiled. There are cases of it across Bastar in Chhattisgarh existing till now of women getting raped, people accused for foul case of Maoism, etc. 5 years ago around 6000-7000Adivasi people are in the jail but the charges have not been framed yet and they are not presented in front of the law. It was a grave situation at that time when naxalism was at its peak and Deepak’s team documented these stories where innocent people were killed in the name of naxalism or ambushed. Behind the Kalinga Nagar incident in Odisha and also in Kachipuri in Jharkhand, where people were shot when they were protesting against acquiring of their community land by companies. To support this movement Deepak’steam made film for PSBT Prasad Bharti and immediately this film became popular and a decrease in conflict between security forces and casualties was soon seen. They realized that indeed films makes a difference. Deepak says that Adivasis actually have a lot of stories but they don’t have the medium to express it.
When talking about Adivasi history, people think of adivasis as labourers who were took to tea gardens in the northeast were other tribal brothers and sisters lived. They populated the area in Assam and North Bengal as a help in the tea gardens and till now they have not got the status of Schedule tribe in those areas. Deepak made a film on it called ‘Kora Rajee’ with BijuToppo, it is a very nostalgic documentary film where Dr. Ram Dayal Munda was the narrator. All these films are available in the public domain. Of course media does create a difference, the tribals are very backward in thinking that media can act as the power of community and they exercise it very little rather than its full potential. The people should come up, they should make more films, they should express themselves more about the stories of tribal issues- the histories and everything, including all the issues like; social issues of the absence of people towards government facilities. For this Deepak thinks that media can comes across as a tool for advocacy.
Back in 2010, the team felt that one or two people who are making documentary films was not enough because there is very little time and they should train people from the communities, tribals from Gram Sabha, women from the backward section of society, etc.- they should know how to film. In the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, they started campaigns with video volunteers in Indian states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. They started a huge network where tribals were represented; their stories, their entitlements whether they are getting public provisions or not, etc. All these short films were done by the community correspondents who were trained by them and a huge amount of new works came up. These guys were trained to document short stories of the community through androids which they could publish it in the internet. In Jharkhand there is a place where a lot of mining is done which causes a huge problem of displacement, migration and access to the provisions by the government for them which is one of the major issues the tribals face there. The people who were trained in documentation came up with so many issues of the migration and trafficking, and with the network of community journalists they rescued 20-21 such cases of trafficking from the metropolitan cities which was documented which helped these people to get justice from the court of law.
When talking about misrepresented people in present times, in America the coloured people have #blacklivesmatter and how the black community dealt with this discrimination. So, there was a media revolution where, if a policeman is harassing black people, they would pull out their cameras and start documenting and if one person stops, the other would continue. This decreased the aggression of police towards black people and media contributed a lot in this. When talking about power of media, all these can help with the issues of tribal communities’ normal life. Effective documentation would obviously supplement to people in reacting to government schemes. All the stories, the grimness around public delivery system, the denial of rights has still not improved in the tribal communities across India whether it be Northeast or Central India. The team faces attacks from all sides when they talk about political situations, the condition of identity and recognition of people’s religion along with all the other issues which come into media. But they always look forward to train more people to do journalism which would be beneficial for the community.
Around 2020-2021, Deepak made a film on Mica mining. The film is about birhor communities living in Kodarma (Koderma). Kodarma (Koderma) and Giridihis very rich in mica. Deepak did an investigative film on mica mining and people who are directly into the business of mining and what are the life conditions of tribals in between. He found out that due to lack of policies around mica it is illegal to mine mica in Kodarma (Koderma)but still since mica is the base of cosmetics and cars it is carried out. He documented the communities who are mining mica in all these situations, most of the mines are rat hole mines in deep forests where even children are employed in the business of mining, not really employed but they accompany their parents to the mines, maybe just for food. There is no access to health and the situation of around One Million people who are associated with this mica mining business, due to lack of policies, are in very hard times. Many times mine collapses happen and due to illegal mining, families don’t get it reported to the police and mourn in public. So, it is a very heavy situation around these places. The team dealt with the stories of child labour and the situation of the birhor tribe who are dependent on forest produce which is dwindling. They do not have any other option than to mine mica, and even the little bit of provisions which are entitled to them is not accessible to them. The team did a very comprehensive and detailed film on mica and that film won Deepak and his team Japan Prize, which is for the best educational media across the globe and there are many categories in it. Deepak won this award for Sustainable Development Goals Category and what his film represented motivated people. Infact, Deepak says that it is motivating to fulfil sustainable development goals and how the people who use mica by spending so much money should care about the people who are on the other end of the whole business and they are the tribal people.
Deepak says that he would continue doing films on all the issues. Yes, community journalism is a things and investigative journalism is also a thing. In Central India he is the only investigative journalist who represents the tribal person’s point of view in his videos. He is yet to come across another fellow tribal who is doing such stories. Always, everywhere, whether it is development sector, whether it is filmmaking, documentation or anything, one can see Adivasi issues floating everywhere but very often tribal people are not a part of it and the tribals who are doing these things are not given the space. There are many issues and due to the easy access to social media and internet people have started doing their bit for the community. Many people are doing the entertainment productions- tribal language, sound and videos, something wonderful which the world hasn’t seen. But there are still so many things which the tribal people do but the world does not know about, these should be expressed and even the future generation of tribals would learn those.
About the Speaker
Deepak Bara
Documentary Filmmaker, Social Activist
& Development consultant
Ranchi, Jharkhand
Deepak Bara is a documentary filmmaker from Ranchi, Jharkhand in India. His documentary ‘The Ugly Side of Beauty’ bagged the Sustainable Development Goals prize at the 2021 Japan Prize. His professional career started in 2002 as a Video Editor and since then he has found himself in the role of Documentary Film Editor, Audio-Video lab Technician, Teacher, Video Producer, Camera Person, Director, Translator, News Media Editor, Community News Media Network Coordinator and Trainer. He has fully dedicated himself into the Art of Audio Visual Media production with Community as the major stakeholder in the whole process. The world has advanced considerably in technology and he strongly believes that communities must have the power of information and its access for their inclusion in the path of social development as a broader goal. He graduated in Fine Arts discipline with Diploma in Film and Video Editing. In Jharkhand, he has been part of 52 documentary films since 2002 and edited many award winning films based on indigenous population of Jharkhand with various thematic such as Art & Culture, History, Displacement, Development programs, Constitutional Rights, Women, LWE, Forest Rights, Education, Social Movements, Migration & Trafficking, Sports, Literature, Human Rights etc.
