In Memory of Friends
India
•
1h 0m
Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 1990 • 60 minutes
IN MEMORY OF FRIENDS documents the violence and terror in Punjab, India – a land torn apart by religious fundamentalists and a repressive government. After examining the political turmoil of the late 1970′s and the rise of Sikh fundamentalism, the film focuses on the legacy of Bhagat Singh, a young socialist executed by the British in 1931 at the age of 23. Singh has since become a legend. Today the State eulogizes him as a nationalist while Sikh separatists portray him as a Sikh militant. In fact, Singh was neither. Just prior to his death he wrote a book which he entitled ‘Why I Am An Atheist.’ In strife-torn Punjab a band of brave Sikhs and Hindus carry Bhagat Singh’s secular legacy from village to village. In the religiously charged countryside ideas of internationalism and secularism now carry a price.
Up Next in India
-
In the Name of God
Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 1992 • 75 minutes
Since gaining independence in 1947, India has been a secular state. But now, as religious fundamentalism grips much of India’s population, the greatest danger to the nation’s extremely strained social fabric may come not from Sikh or...
-
Jai Bhim Comrade
Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 2012 • 168 minutes
For thousands of years India’s Dalits were abhorred as “untouchables,” denied education and treated as bonded labour. By 1923 Bhimrao Ambedkar broke the taboo, won doctorates abroad and fought for the emancipation of his people. He ...
-
Meru
Directed by Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi • Documentary • With Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, Jon Krakauer • 2015 • 90 minutes
In the high-stakes pursuit of big-wall climbing, the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru may be the ultimate prize. Sitting 21,000 feet above the sacred Ganges Ri...
