JOURNEYS

What does is mean to be a part of a desperate crowd of seven million commuters to whom the sub-urbain train journey between home and work place is a nightmare. Every day, year after year. In Mumbai, a city of 15 million people, life goes on as if nothing is out of place, even as nearly 4000 people are killed every year as they fall off trains, or are run over on the rail tracks.

The film uses sound and visual juxtapositions, and an active montage to build up this surreal world. Moving between the dramatic and the reflective, the film juxtaposes this tragic situation with mainstream discourses on progress and military power. The film explores an urban dilemma crucial to many other cities and countries.

Richly detailed, poetic, and nearly non-verbal, Journeys subtly and pointedly explores universal issues of space and human relations within a very specific environment.

"The years go by. The seasons change. A ten year old plan takes off. After years, one more rail line to the far suburbs. Another ten years and the city of fifteen will have twenty million people. Trains will still roll out with flooring to support 22 passengers a square meter."

Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary (Ann Arbor International Film Festival 2004)

Innovation Award (Chicago International Documentary Film Festival 2004)

Best Short Documentary Film (Montevideo, International Film Festival Uruguay 2004)