"Tomorrow We Disappear"
SÃO LUIZ TEATRO MUNICIPAL - Teatro-Estúdio Mário Viegas
23 May at 6pm (Saturday)
Portuguese Premiere
Documentary, 84m, 2014 Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles
Directors: Jimmy Goldblum, Adam Weber Production: Jimmy Goldblum, Adam Weber, Joshua Cogan Editors: Adam Weber, Isaac Hagy, Hye Mee Na Directors of photography: Joshua Cogan, Will Basanta Executive Production: Guneet Monga, Alison Klayman Music: Dan Romer Co-Producers: Fazeelat Aslam, Naveen Chaubal, Will Basanta
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At first glance, the Kathputli Colony looks like any other Indian slum. Flies swarm its putrid canals, children climb on drooping electrical wires, and construction cranes and an ever-expanding Metro line loom on the horizon. But Kathputli is a place of endangered traditions. For half a century, 2,800 artist families have called its narrow alleyways home; there are jugglers and acrobats, puppeteers and painters, bards and poets, and most famously, jadugars, the street performers who preserve India’s ancient tradition of magic.
In 2010, the New Delhi government sold Kathputli to developers for a fraction of its worth. The land is to be bulldozed to make room for the city’s first-ever skyscraper, The Raheja Phoenix. We follow three of Kathputli’s most-talented performers as they wrangle with the reality of their approaching eviction.
Puran Bhatt learned puppetry from his late father, Manoram, the first president of the Kathputli Colony. Puran grew up to become one of India’s most talented puppeteers. He’s traveled to over 25 countries to perform his puppet acts, and in 2003 the president of India awarded him the prestigious National Award for traditional arts. But as plans for the colony’s redevelopment are unveiled, Puran sets to work fighting the government’s scheme. He writes letters to the government, marches a giant protest parade with 15-foot puppets through the busy streets of Delhi, and argues with poorer members of the community who want to sign away the rights to the Kathputli land in the hopes of getting allotted flats.
Rahman Shah heads to the street every morning to perform a comedic and gruesome magic show. Policemen force bribes from him, and with his income dwindling, he wrestles with whether to pass his family’s traditions onto his two young sons who idolize him. When he sees the plan for Kathputli’s redevelopment, Rahman ignores the pleas of his friend Puran and contemplates a future beyond Delhi.
The acrobat Maya Pawar is a fearless performer who feels that Kathputli needs to change. She hates the colony’s grime, its mistreatment of women, and her endless run-ins with artists broken from years of unfulfilled promises. Maya looks toward the relocation with optimism because she believes it’ll force the artists to either modernize or move on.
"Our story begins with the fate of thousands of marginalized performers in Delhi, India. The film chronicles a turning point in the lives of these performers, with the hopes of anticipating what’s to come in India’s future and preserving what’s being left behind."
Tomorrow We Disappear premiered at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was considered one of the 20 best documentaries of 2014 by Indiewire.
"One of the Best Documentaries of 2014... a powerful and heartbreaking documentary." - Indiewire
“Beautiful, sad and stunning, the film lovingly but unflinchingly documents the destructive collision between tradition and modernization, between ramshackle artistry and regimented bureaucracy. At times it has the vibrant spirit of a real-life Beasts of the Southern Wild; at other times it is imbued with a profound sense of loss summed up by the words of gifted puppeteer Puran Bhat: I wish I could stop the world for a moment.” - The Wrap
“Top film to see at Tribeca” - Wall Street Journal
“Best of Independent Film Week (...) What I’ve seen of it so far gives me goose bumps: the luscious cinematography, the beautiful use of music, the masterful editing (...)." - Filmmaker Magazine
"Every once in awhile, in our ongoing pursuit of strange and amazing places, people and stories, we come across something that truly inspires us. One such find is a film entitledTomorrow We Disappear." - Huffington Post / Atlas Obscura
Prizes:
-Salem Film Fest Special Jury Award, 2015;
-Special Jury Honor for World Vision - Philadelphia Film Festival;
-Spirit Award: Best Director - EIDF 2014.
BIO
Jimmy Goldblum began his career as an interactive director and producer. In 2008, Goldblum won the Emmy for "New Approaches to Documentary" for Live Hope Love, an interactive documentary he produced for the Pulitzer Center. Goldblum also wrote, filmed, and produced “The Institute for Human Continuity”, an online narrative for Sony Pictures’ film “2012,” which is widely considered one of the most successful transmedia campaigns of all time. Additionally, CNN called his first interactive documentary, “Yearbook 2006,” “so special…the best of the best” of all Hurricane Katrina documentaries. Goldblum's projects have won an Emmy, a Webby for Best Art Project, and been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and USA Today.
Adam Weber is an editor, director, and writer who has worked for major film and TV studios in both New York and Los Angeles. Weber edited Michel Gondry’s Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy (IFC Films), an animated documentary about Noam Chomsky, which IndieWire named one of the top 3 documentaries of 2013. Weber was an assistant editor on Gondry’s The Green Hornet, and previously worked as the apprentice editor on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
Directors: Jimmy Goldblum, Adam Weber Production: Jimmy Goldblum, Adam Weber, Joshua Cogan Editors: Adam Weber, Isaac Hagy, Hye Mee Na Directors of photography: Joshua Cogan, Will Basanta Executive Production: Guneet Monga, Alison Klayman Music: Dan Romer Co-Producers: Fazeelat Aslam, Naveen Chaubal, Will Basanta
“One of the best documentaries of 2014...” - Indiewire
At first glance, the Kathputli Colony looks like any other Indian slum. Flies swarm its putrid canals, children climb on drooping electrical wires, and construction cranes and an ever-expanding Metro line loom on the horizon. But Kathputli is a place of endangered traditions. For half a century, 2,800 artist families have called its narrow alleyways home; there are jugglers and acrobats, puppeteers and painters, bards and poets, and most famously, jadugars, the street performers who preserve India’s ancient tradition of magic.
In 2010, the New Delhi government sold Kathputli to developers for a fraction of its worth. The land is to be bulldozed to make room for the city’s first-ever skyscraper, The Raheja Phoenix. We follow three of Kathputli’s most-talented performers as they wrangle with the reality of their approaching eviction.
Puran Bhatt learned puppetry from his late father, Manoram, the first president of the Kathputli Colony. Puran grew up to become one of India’s most talented puppeteers. He’s traveled to over 25 countries to perform his puppet acts, and in 2003 the president of India awarded him the prestigious National Award for traditional arts. But as plans for the colony’s redevelopment are unveiled, Puran sets to work fighting the government’s scheme. He writes letters to the government, marches a giant protest parade with 15-foot puppets through the busy streets of Delhi, and argues with poorer members of the community who want to sign away the rights to the Kathputli land in the hopes of getting allotted flats.
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Rahman Shah heads to the street every morning to perform a comedic and gruesome magic show. Policemen force bribes from him, and with his income dwindling, he wrestles with whether to pass his family’s traditions onto his two young sons who idolize him. When he sees the plan for Kathputli’s redevelopment, Rahman ignores the pleas of his friend Puran and contemplates a future beyond Delhi.
The acrobat Maya Pawar is a fearless performer who feels that Kathputli needs to change. She hates the colony’s grime, its mistreatment of women, and her endless run-ins with artists broken from years of unfulfilled promises. Maya looks toward the relocation with optimism because she believes it’ll force the artists to either modernize or move on.
"Our story begins with the fate of thousands of marginalized performers in Delhi, India. The film chronicles a turning point in the lives of these performers, with the hopes of anticipating what’s to come in India’s future and preserving what’s being left behind."
Tomorrow We Disappear premiered at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was considered one of the 20 best documentaries of 2014 by Indiewire.
"One of the Best Documentaries of 2014... a powerful and heartbreaking documentary." - Indiewire
“Beautiful, sad and stunning, the film lovingly but unflinchingly documents the destructive collision between tradition and modernization, between ramshackle artistry and regimented bureaucracy. At times it has the vibrant spirit of a real-life Beasts of the Southern Wild; at other times it is imbued with a profound sense of loss summed up by the words of gifted puppeteer Puran Bhat: I wish I could stop the world for a moment.” - The Wrap
“Top film to see at Tribeca” - Wall Street Journal
“Best of Independent Film Week (...) What I’ve seen of it so far gives me goose bumps: the luscious cinematography, the beautiful use of music, the masterful editing (...)." - Filmmaker Magazine
"Every once in awhile, in our ongoing pursuit of strange and amazing places, people and stories, we come across something that truly inspires us. One such find is a film entitledTomorrow We Disappear." - Huffington Post / Atlas Obscura
Prizes:
-Salem Film Fest Special Jury Award, 2015;
-Special Jury Honor for World Vision - Philadelphia Film Festival;
-Spirit Award: Best Director - EIDF 2014.
BIO
Jimmy Goldblum began his career as an interactive director and producer. In 2008, Goldblum won the Emmy for "New Approaches to Documentary" for Live Hope Love, an interactive documentary he produced for the Pulitzer Center. Goldblum also wrote, filmed, and produced “The Institute for Human Continuity”, an online narrative for Sony Pictures’ film “2012,” which is widely considered one of the most successful transmedia campaigns of all time. Additionally, CNN called his first interactive documentary, “Yearbook 2006,” “so special…the best of the best” of all Hurricane Katrina documentaries. Goldblum's projects have won an Emmy, a Webby for Best Art Project, and been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and USA Today.
Adam Weber is an editor, director, and writer who has worked for major film and TV studios in both New York and Los Angeles. Weber edited Michel Gondry’s Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy (IFC Films), an animated documentary about Noam Chomsky, which IndieWire named one of the top 3 documentaries of 2013. Weber was an assistant editor on Gondry’s The Green Hornet, and previously worked as the apprentice editor on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
