My Name is Salt: A Documentary on Plight of Salt Workers in Rann of Kutch

A Film Without any Narrations or Interviews

The 40 thousand salt worker families in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat have not been getting a substantial remuneration for their produce although they put hard labour to it for 8 months to get a harvest. They don’t get the remunerative prices because they are not organized. But this is not the theme of the feature length documentary ‘My name is salt’. Its more an art film that goes without narration or interviews, and moves mainly through cinematic experience. These were the remarks of Farida Pacha, Director of the documentary, at the press conference she held after screening of the film at 45th IFFI today(28.11.2014). Replying to a question regarding her not using narration in her film, she said, “I tried to keep my film free from any pre conceived notions and by virtue of this freedom there was ample space for it being an art film”. On economic viability of documentary making, she said, “the state funding has been shrinking worldwide and that is why the film maker has to go in for crowd funding. I too had to go for crowd funding. This is a practice particularly in developed countries in which general public comes forward to fund the film projects”, she informed. Born in 1972 in Mumbai, Ms. Farida Pacha did her MFA in film making at Southern Illinois University, USA. She has made several experimental, educational and documentary films. Her documentary ‘The Seedkeepers’ that was on the life of dalit farmers of Andhra Pradesh, won the 2006 Indian National Film Award. ‘My name is salt’ is her first feature length documentary, which won her among many others, the First Appearance Award at IDFA 2013, Amsterdam as well as the main prizes at Hong Kong, Madrid, Edinburgh and the German Camera Award 2014 for Best Cinematography in a documentary film. Farida lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. Courtesy: pib.nic.in