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Yindabad

Mariano Agudo, Roi Guitián

Yindabad

About

Yindabad deals with the flipside of Indian economic development, namely how an enormous construction project impacts an indigenous population. The Narmada Valley Development Project was created during the late 1960s to construct 30 large-scale dams, 135 medium-size dams and more than 3000 small-size dams in the Narmada River. Over 2.5 million people have been displaced by the flooding of forests, cultivatable land, and villages. The situation in Narmada Valley is an example of one of the biggest wars of the 21st century: water management and control of natural resources. 

The affected people, the local Adivasis, have struggled against this project for 20 years, fighting for fair compensation and the relocation of their homes. India's current economic plans seem to be synonymous with the destruction of indigenous people's living conditions. As the cement walls stop the water that used to bring them life, the river floods the people for the sake of the city and development. 

Adivasi women have gained consciousness of the dimensions of the problem and whilst fighting for the conservation of their culture, they have become main characters in this unequal fight. Yindabad shows this struggle from their viewpoint: from the riverbank, where the danger of rising water is a constant threat to the relocation process, and from the slum of the Indian metropolis, where the fight continues.

 This documentary poses an alternative solution to this destructive development scheme - local instead of global development, and self-management instead of government control. The construction of small dams and the recovery of natural water deposits have transformed the deserted environment and restored water management to the local communities, opening the door to an encouraging future for its population. 

For more information visit www.narmada.org.

Subjects:

Indigenous Studies:

Regions:

Credits

SCREENINGS & AWARDS

La Imagen del Sur Film Festival, Cordoba, Spain, 2007

Water Prize, 13 CineEco Festival, Serra da Estrela, Portugal, 2007

Medimed, Mediteranean Documentary Market

Muestra Internacional de Cine y Derechos Humanos - Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, 2007

Muestra de Cine de Cooperacion Internacional de Balears, Spain, 2007

Festival de Cine de Ponferrada, León, Spain, 2007

Liberty Festival, Belgium 2007

Document5, International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Glasgow, Scotland, 2007

Docusur, Granada (market)

I Festival de Cine de Colomera, Spain, 2007

VAD - Festival Internacional de Video i Arts Digitals, Spain, 2007

River to River 2007, Florence, Italy

9th Maduri Film Festival, India, 2007

4th International Film Festival, Bangladesh, 2008

Slow Film Festival 2008, Eger, Hungary

The Rights of Indigenous People Award, IX Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas, La Paz, Bolivia, 2008

Environmental Film Festival, Washington DC, 2008 Ecobahia, Brazil, 2008

Viscult - International Festival of Visual Culture, Finland, 2008

Festival du Film de Dakar, Senegal, 2008

FIDA DOC-SOUSS, Interational du Film Documentaire d?Agadir, Morocco, 2008

Personal Stories Special Prize, International "Water and Film" Events, Istanbul, 2009

Muestra Internacional de Cine y Derechos Humanos, Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala and Mexico, 2009

Festivals de Cine Pobre de Cuba, 2009

Festival Internacional Cine y Medio Ambiente de Catalunya (FICMAC), 2009

Green Film Festival Seoul, Korea, 2009

Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival, 2009

AAA/Society for Visual Anthropology Film, Video & Multimedia Festival, 2009

Reel Awareness Human Rights Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2010 

Yindabad


Produced by 

Maria Lobo

Miguel Paredes

Julio Sánchez Veiga


Music by 

Enrique De Justo


Cinematography by 

Mariano Agudo


Film Editing by 

Maria Lobo


Sound Department 

José A. Manovel

Supported by: