Ahmedabad filmmaker wins at Beijing film festival

Ahmedabad filmmaker Prachee Bajania has won the Best Documentary award for her film “Umbro” at the ReelFocus Fresh Blood short film programme, a segment of the Beijing International Film Festival. The award ceremony was held in Huairou district of the Chinese capital last week.
Shot in Bajania’s hometown of Dhrangadhra during the Covid lockdown, the film explores friendships among women, routinely dismissed and unsung, carrying in them shared stories, solidarity, conflicts and most of all routine acts of rebellion.
“I’m thrilled that my film won at the festival it was premiering at. That it won in a South Asian country is a bonus, given our common socio-cultural backgrounds and cinematic traditions,” Bajania said.
“I spent time with my mother and her friends during the lockdown. Alliances between women unfurled in safe spaces that they had discreetly created. I saw their resilience and camaraderie and felt their responses were precious material for documentation,” said Bajania. Mumbai-based cinematographer Sejal Kothari and recordist Sneha Sundar were also part of the film.
Bajania, 35, an alumna of the National Institute of Design (NID) and the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), is currently working on a feature-length documentary and teaches as guest faculty at several educational institutions.
The jury of seven members at Beijing was led by film critic Peggy Chiao and included Hong Kong director Derek Hui, actress Jiang Qinqin, scriptwriter Chen Yu and actors Yu Shi, Qu Chuxiao and Zu Feng. They picked the winners of 14 accolades from a pool of 2,764 submissions from about 100 countries.