Gopal Menon is an Indian documentary filmmaker and has made films on violence, communalism, nationality questions, state repression, human rights, environment, and caste. He is currently completing a film on Kashmir – which was started in 1998 – as well as a film on hijras and sexual minority rights. He is also working on a comprehensive film on manual scavenging and has started a film on political prisoners in India. Menon has a dual approach to a subject – he follows the issue continuously for some years until a comprehensive film on the issue is made and in the interim makes small campaign films on the same issue.
Menon was born in 1974 and has a Master's in Business Administration. He started his film career with a documentary on the destruction of tropical evergreen forests in the Nilgiri biosphere. While still a student of Business Administration, he started working with the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) on the organized violence on Muslims in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and the subsequent bomb blasts in the city. He has been documenting the Naga and Kashmiri political movements since 1998. Two films have evolved from this - Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence (on the Naga struggle) and PAPA 2 (on enforced disappearances in Kashmir). Menon's film Hey Ram!! Genocide in the Land of Gandhi, on the Gujarat riots, was the first on the subject, and was widely used to raise awareness about the riots. He followed this up with Voices from Gujarat on the continuing peace process in Gujarat.
Menon has made several films on the Dalit issue. Resilient Rhythms documents a range of responses to the Dalit issue, from identity politics to armed struggle. Other Dalit issue films are Of Inhuman Bondage, on manual scavenging, and Your Slaves No Longer, on the land struggles of Musahars (a Dalit community).
He has worked as Location Director for a Channel 4 News report on the funding of Hindu Extremist organizations and shot the film in UK and India. This film – ‘Hindu Nationalism in Britain’ – was telecast in UK on the day of the Gujarat elections and was widely reported in the Indian media as well. The report has subsequently been tabled in the British Parliament. The campaign films Twice Evicted and Caste Out were made on the Tsunami and its aftermath.
His film Rice: The Treasure of Asia completed a film on the struggle of rice farmers against globalization which was shot in six countries including India.
Menon’s films have been screened at several film festivals. Naga Story was presented the 'Spirit of the Himalayas' award at the Netherlands Himalaya Film Festival in 2004.
Filmography
· PAPA 2, 2000. Kashmiri and Urdu. 25 min
PAPA 2 was a notorious interrogation centre run by the Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir till 1996. Officially, over 2000 - unofficially, over 8000 - people have disappeared from the Kashmir Valley over the past 15 years. Most of these are enforced disappearances. The film, PAPA 2, documents the struggle of the mothers and wives of disappeared persons to trace their loved ones. It features interviews with the families of the affected people and also members of the Association of Parents of Disappeared People..
· Hey Ram!! Genocide in the Land of Gandhi, 2002. Hindi, 25 min
In the Gujarat violence, over a 1000 people were killed and more than 100,000 rendered homeless. Women and children were made the targets of especially brutal attacks. Property and sources of livelihood were systematically destroyed. Places of worship were destroyed or desecrated.
Hey Ram!! was the first film to be completed on the Gujarat riots and was released even as the violence was raging in Gujarat. It has been extensively screened in India and several other countries to raise support for the victims of the riots and to create awareness about the systematic way in which the communal violence was engineered.
· Resilient Rhythms, 2002. Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri with English subtitles. 66 min
India's caste system is perhaps the world's longest surviving system of exploitation based on social hierarchy. It places nearly 160 million people – the Dalits – at the outskirts of society, exploiting their services, especially to perform so-called "polluting" tasks, from cutting the umbilical cord, to disposing night-soil, to tending cremation grounds, while denying them acceptance even as human beings. The film documents the various atrocities that are committed on people simply because of their caste and shows how Dalits are fighting back.
Resilient Rhythms is the first comprehensive film on the Dalit issue attempted in India and explores a range of Dalit responses, from armed struggle to electoral politics.
· Let Iraq Live: Stop the War, 2003. English, 16 min
Featuring interviews with humanitarian workers, this was a campaign film made just before the War on Iraq.
· Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence, 2003. Nagamese, Manipuri, English and 14 Naga languages with English subtitles. 62 min
The Nagas are a 3 million-strong indigenous people who occupy the North-East frontier of the Indian subcontinent. The The Naga political struggle is one of the oldest nationality movements in South Asia, continuing till present times. The film Naga Story provides an introduction to the history of the Naga struggle, and documents the human rights abuses suffered by the Naga people in more than 50 years of the existence of Independent India.
Naga Story, which took 5 years to complete, is the first comprehensive film about the Naga struggle for identity, self-determination, peace, and justice.
· Hindu Nationalism in Britain, Produced by Channel 4 News. English. 16 mins
A news report on how funds collected in Britain by RSS-affiliated organizations in the name of earthquake relief in Gujarat, were actually used to foment communal violence in Gujarat. This report was telecast in the UK on the day of the Gujarat elections and widely reported in the Indian media as well. The report has subsequently been tabled in the British Parliament.
· Your Slaves No Longer, 2004. Hindi, Bhojpuri. 35 min.
On the land struggles of Musahars (a Dalit caste) in UP and Bihar.
· Of Inhuman Bondage, 2004. Hindi, Bhojpuri. 28 min
On the continuing practice of manual scavenging by Dalits.
· Voices from Gujarat, 2004. Hindi and English. 35 min.
Following the carnage of 2002, several organisations have been involved in the peace process. A look at the attempts for rehabilitation, and reconciliation, and the struggle for justice.
Premiered at WSF, Mumbai
· Twice Evicted, 2005. Tamil, English. 27 min
On the eviction of fisher folk from Tamil Nadu's 1000 km coastline, ostensibly for protecting them future tsunamis, but actually to push the government's hidden agenda of globalisation.
· Caste Out, 2005. Tamil, English. 35 min
On the discrimination of Dalits in relief and rehabilitation after tsunami by the State, NGOs, other communities.
· A Bloody Harvest, 2006. Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, English. 15 min.
A campaign film to resist the World Trade Organization's entry into agriculture and other livelihood resources. Documents farmer and weaver suicides in three Indian states, and the resistance from people.
· Rice: The Treasure of Asia, 2007. English, Bahasa, Thai
On the struggle by rice farmers against globalization in six countries – India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and China.
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