BASTAR VIBES : Mirroring Contemporary Tribal Living

"Bastar Vibes" , our short film is based on our road trip to a core tribal area in Chhattisgarh, India known as Bastar. Unfortunately for past 10 years it is suffering the left wing extremism . The culture , nature and rich tradition have been overshadowed by the violence. I made this journey and the film as well with my colleague Anthony Gardia. We work for a non profit and our work took us to this wonderful place. Its about 400 Kms from the state capital. I realized that the simple tribal people are still holding the flair of hope high in spirit. This region is not 'paused long back in time line' as many think nor its all so violent and disturbed as many believe, it is just an equation with life. We caught up with India's largest waterfall , met ethnic nomadic tribal man, a tribal woman who knows youtube(!) , saw the music and listened to the dance, all that happened at an interior village on a market day, called haat locally. No lesser than a festival , we came across people who presented with an uncommon hospitality. Art of film making , for us , is a channel to link people with people, far apart in different situations but sharing the chord of humanity. Learning it in Mexico and capturing the Day of Dead will help us expand our technical and cultural vision. Mexico and India share a lot similarity in food,culture and people. This scholarship will get us to explore the technique and art of capturing the elements of life through films.