24 October,2021 07:47 AM IST | Mumbai | Nidhi Lodaya
Their first documentary, Born Out of Protest, was shot on the border of Haryana, where the kisan andolan is ongoing. Pics Courtesy/Naveen Macro
Pagdandi films is the brainchild of Naveen Macro and Sanskriti Talwar. They used to work as photojournalist and reporter respectively at The New Indian Express in Delhi, until they quit to work as independent journalists. After nearly a year-and-a-half of going solo, Talwar approached Macro to shoot a video story on the ASHA workers' strike in Delhi last year. The mutual desire to continue with ground reporting on issues around marginal groups and rural India cemented the partnership. They hope their films, two made so far and available to watch for free on YouTube, help bridge the divide between ultra urban India and the country's hinterland.
The name, Pagdandi, refers to a narrow uneven path made by villagers to reach their farm which would wash out every year due to the weather, and be made again. The name holds a personal connect for Macro because, "most of my extended family are farmers from Rajasthan and I have spent a lot of time as a kid in the village."
Talwar is passionate about covering gender. After working in print, she realised that, "the quantity started to matter rather than the quality and the Hindu Muslim angle got on my nerves".
Their first documentary, Born Out of Protest, was shot over 30 days on the border of Haryana, where farmers have been camping to protest contentious agrarian bills. While Macro was covering the protest from day one, Talwar says she visited the site when she realised that the mainstream media wasn't going beyond, "showing women cooking". When she spoke to the women farmers, she stumbled on Karti Dharti, the women-led newsletter these women had helped bring out to highlight the issues women specifically have faced in the context of the protest." Trolley Times was another bi-weekly that had picked up readers among protesters and was being produced by a group of volunteers who lived on the protest site and had no connection or training in media.
As independent journalists, the Pagdandi pair was welcomed by the farmers but the biggest hurdle has been amassing resources and getting an audience. Their separate freelancing careers fuel the functioning of Pagdandi films as they both use what they earn to travel and produce films. And despite the struggle, the
two of them agree, "if you have a story, just tell it."
For Macro, who has covered several protests in his career, the kisan andolan has been unique "in terms of size and something I was experiencing for the first time. It also made me very aware of the importance of independent journalists and the impact they can have in a situation such as this." The editorial teams of Karti Dharti and Trolley Times say much of the mainstream media has covered the protest via agenda, demonising the farmers. An alternate voice was wanting, as was the need to keep those on the site abreast with the goings on in their community.
As alternative storytellers, Macro says he, like the editors, can look at the novel side of conflict without worrying about whose toes he is stepping on. "Like the farmers, the police has also been at the site from the start; in winter and rain. They are in a way suffering too, and were not as prepared as the protesters. Dehumanising a side has happened across the board."
Talwar feels that not being affiliated with a corporate media house means they can tell a story from all sides, and sensitively. "If someone feels deeply about issues, they should do what we do. Because in my opinion, mainstream media is not what people of my generation will be turning to in the future."
Their second film, In Search of Grass, takes up climate change and tells of how the residents of a 27 family village in Spiti, has almost run out of grass.
Up next is a long-form story on the widows of Dalit farm labourers in Punjab who struggle with authorities and money lenders.
