17th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL April 30-May 7, 2017
CENTERPIECE FILM: An Insignificant Man
Centerpiece Wednesday, May 3, 6.00 pm. Theater 2 Village East,
NYC. An Insignificant Man New York City Premiere
2016 | India | 96 mins | Hindi (w/ English subtitles)
Directed by - Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla
Cast - Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav, Santosh Koli
Synopsis:At the heart of An Insignificant
Man is the most polarising man in India today – Arvind Kejriwal. The fi
m follows Kejriwal and his Common Man’s Party – an insurgent new polit
cal party, as they wield basic public issues like water, electricity, and
graft against the country’s oldest and most powerful two politic
l establishments. It gives an insider’s view into Kejriwal’s bran
of politics, which has split popular opinion into two prominent factions.
One labels it selfish and anarchic, while the other insists on seeing it as
a major shift in the Indian political paradigm.
The 100-minute film has been distilled from 400 hours of
behind-the-scenes footage shot over a course of two years with a
fly-on-the-wall approach. We gain a premium, all-access pass to the
backstage of a new brand of politics, finding strength all over the world,
transporting us smack dab in the middle of party offices, daily meetings,
heated arguments, inside jokes, campaign strategies and the true events and
ideologies that inform rhetoric in public space.
About the Director: Khushboo Ranka has had
experience in the fields of journalism, graphic design and writing for a
number of years, before she moved to filmmaking. "Continuum," a
short film she wrote and directed at the age of 20, won the best short film
at the Hannover Film Festival. She next co-wrote the internationally
acclaimed fiction feature film “Ship of Theseus.” Her versatility gave
ise to her latest projects, “An Insignificant Man,” her first fea
ure documentary film, and ‘Right to Pray’, a unique virtual rea
ity experience, the first of its kind from India. Both films are set to
premiere at TIFF 2016.
Vinay's persisting fascination with the Indian politics has shaped two acclaimed
narrative projects for him: “Bureaucracy Sonata,” a short film he wrote
and directed in 2011, which premiered at 42nd International Film Festival of
India and won the HBO Best Short Film Award in New York at SAIFF 2012; and
“An Insignificant Man,” a feature documentary film he shot, wrote,
and directed, which will play at major international festivals in 2016. A
theatre actor in the past, he featured in the internationally acclaimed film
“Ship of Theseus.”
