New Delhi, June 13: A Kashmir University student says in the documentary In the Shade of Fallen Chinar: "Conflict is a perfect place for art."
Perhaps in an unintended way, conflict has breathed "new life" into the 16-minute documentary, directed by Shawn Sebastian and Fazil NC and released last year.
In the Shade of Fallen Chinar is one of three short films that have been denied permission by the Centre for screening at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival, which begins on Friday in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
"I do not know in how many places our films are being screened. Almost every other college and university in Kerala has done so over the past two days and we are getting calls from all over India. It is like a new life, a new power for our film, released last year. Kerala's ministers are writing about it on Facebook," Fazil told The Telegraph.
The documentary depicts how fallen Chinar trees in Kashmir University's Naseem Bagh have become the rallying point for art and music against alleged army excesses in the Valley.
The two other short films are The Unbearable Being of Lightness, on Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide, and March, March, March, on the protests against the police crackdown at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
P.N. Ramchandra, the director of The Unbearable Being of Lightness, which was filmed at Hyderabad University soon after Vemula's suicide, told this paper: "Three days back, people did not know about this film. Today, people want to see it.
"I am getting emails from film clubs and students everywhere. When I made the film, I thought I should take a stand and I had feared that something bad would happen. But with this denial, my documentary is now so popular."
Ramchandra, who won the Golden Lotus at the 2009 National Film Awards for his movie Putaani Party, has made several films for the films division of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Doordarshan.
The Centre had not objected when The Unbearable Being of Lightness was screened at the Kolkata International Film Festival in November.
In the Shade of Fallen Chinar too has been screened at several film festivals and won awards.
Documentaries, screened at film festivals, usually do not have a certificate from the Central Board of Film Censors - the process for which is expensive.
The ministry of information and broadcasting grants "exemption for the process of certification" to such films for showcasing at festivals except if they are found to "impinge on the security or integrity of the country or affect law and order or affect relations".
