Tu Zinda Hai / To Be Alive! (1995) - a film by Shabnam Virmani

This film was made a very long time ago and yet somehow seems timeless and very dear to me. In the year 1995 I would find myself frequently boarding the train from Ahmedabad (where I lived then) to a small village called Tilda in Madhya Pradesh to meet with the women activists of Ekta Parishad. Remarkable women who were challenging the authority of various patriarchs - the abusive husband, the liquor don, the village landlord, the government - and facing the backlash with both courage and vulnerability. Over one year, together, we crafted this film to express their lives and work and how it was transforming their view of themselves as women. The worlds of social activism and spirituality had not come together for me back then, and yet today, looking back, the shared impulses between the two are striking. Both demand a sharp interrogation, of ourselves and the world. Both question conventions handed down to us by society/patriarchy/religion, and fiercely insist on the creation of an authentic self/world based on direct experience. Both are moved by suffering and seek a way to free not only ourselves but all beings from inner/outer oppressions. There are divergences too, but that discussion is perhaps for another time and another place... If any of you courageous, beautiful women featured in this film - Birohin, Gyanta, Shraddha, Kanta, Rashmi - happen to see this film here again, do please connect with me. Send an email at [email protected] and we shall speak once again, of the two and a half decades that went between now and our last moment of connection. Love. Shabnam 50 min, Hindi with English subtitles Awarded Best Film, International Video Festival (IVFEST), Trivandrum, 1995 Produced by Drishti Media, Arts & Human Rights Collective, Ahmedabad Year of Production: 1995