''Ocean of Tears'' is a 2012
short documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
directed by Billal A Jan
in
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
produced by
Rajiv Mehrota under the banner of
Public Service Broadcasting Trust of India (PBST). The film is a documentary of the crimes and
human rights violations imposed on the people of Kashmir, especially on women.
The film covers the
mass rape incident of Kunan Poshpora.
The film, supported by the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was banned from screening by the
University of Kashmir
The University of Kashmir (U-K, UoK), informally known as Kashmir University (KU), is a collegiate public state university located on the western side of Dal Lake in the city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India which was established in 1948 ...
and the
Aligarh Muslim University on their respective campuses. Attempts were also made by the activists of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...
(RSS) to block the film from being screened.
[
]
Production
Bilal conceived of the idea of exploring the situation of the women of the region while filming an earlier documentary on child labour in Kashmir. The original proposal was for a much longer film, but it was later shortened on the advice of the PSBT. The film was shot over 10 days on location in the villages of Kunan Poshpora and Shopian. It took several negotiations with the villagers before they would consent to tell their stories on camera; at first only the men were willing, but after four visits the women agreed to be filmed.[
] A team of four young women assisted in the filming.[
]
The PSBT recommended that the 78 minutes originally planned for be cut to 26 minutes, so as to fall under the short film category, and requested that a disclaimer accompany the film. The Censorship certificate was then granted.
Obstacles to screening
The film was banned from screening by the University of Kashmir
The University of Kashmir (U-K, UoK), informally known as Kashmir University (KU), is a collegiate public state university located on the western side of Dal Lake in the city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India which was established in 1948 ...
and the Aligarh Muslim University on their respective campuses. It was reported in 2013 that the only screening of the film in India was at the film festival of the Federation of Film Societies of India
Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) is the umbrella body of film-screening societies in India. FFSI is currently a member of the International Federation of Film Society that has its Central Office in Paris. The international organisati ...
. Outside India, it was screened at the Human Rights International Film Festival and the Al Jazeera film festival in Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...
.[
][
]
It was also reported that the activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...
(RSS) attempted to block the screening of the film at a film festival in Thrissur
Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...
in 2014, but the local police cleared the activists, allowing the screening to proceed.[
][
]
See also
* The Kashmir Files
''The Kashmir Files'' is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The film presents a fictional storyline centred around the 1990s exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Indian-administered Kashmir. It depicts ...
* Rape during the Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict has been beset by large scale usage of sexual violence by multiple belligerents since its inception.
Mass rapes were carried out by Dogra troops as well as Hindu and Sikh mobs during the 1947 Jammu massacres, and by Pakis ...
* Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), ...
References
{{Reflist
2012 films
2010s short documentary films
Indian short documentary films
Films set in Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmiri-language films
Documentary films about violence against women
Films about rape in India
Documentary films about women in India
Kashmir conflict in films