Kalanadi is a short video documentary on sand sifting engaged in by the local population on the river by the same name, near Kumarikata, the last little town about ten kilometres from the Assam-Bhutan border. This river torrents down from the hills in Bhutan, especially between June and August. At other times, the riverbed is exposed to the sun, edged by grassland and farms in narrow strips, on either side. This is the site where the local population work the days, sifting sand, carting it out to the town market, or where the trucks fill loads for far off markets. Besides sand, pebbles and boulders are sorted and made a commodity of. The annual floods replenish the sought after resources on the riverbed year after year, most of which is removed in a similar thriving natural manner over the rest of the months. The precincts of the river have a chequered history. The Nepali herdsmen grazed their cattle there and the British raised jute nearby, subsequently leaving the business in the hands of a local entrepreneur, from whom in turn, the government procured the land for veterinary administration, before the refugees settled in. In a nutshell, this short film explores the work cultures/ecology of a microcosm of society living on the edges.
Duration: 6 min

A collaborative documentary by:

Editor: Rumjhum Banerjee
Assistant Editor: Prabir Giri
Grading & Sound Layout: O. Jacob
Creative Consultant: Anna Pesonen
Concept & Camera: Joppan George
 

Among the team involved in the making of this short film, Rumjhum Banerjee and Joppan George graduated in Film Studies from the Dept. of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, where Anna Pesonen is currently in her last semester. O. Jacob is pursuing independent film making in Bengaluru. Prabir Giri is the in-house editor at Post Production Studio, Kolkata.


See video here.