Ali Kazimi in Person

A massive 150-mile-long, 6,000-strong protest march forms the crux of this galvanizing example of socially committed filmmaking, created not only to document a social movement, but to praise it. Central India's Bhil and Bhilal indigenous communities have lived in the Narmada Valley area for thousands of years, but they are about to be swept aside—literally—by a huge dam project that will flood the entire region. Armed with only a Hi-8 camera, Kazimi gives a platform to a remarkable group of activists, led by Medha Petkar, a firebrand who won't let government stooges, or global interference, stop her from fighting the project and organizing her community. Taking sides, not just photographs, Narmada: A Valley Rises provides "a textbook blueprint for political organization" (San Francisco International Film Festival).

—Jason Sanders

• Written, Photographed by Kazimi. (86 mins, Beta SP)

Preceded by short:
Documenting Dissent (Ali Kazimi, Canada, 2001). A portrait of the security crackdown during Quebec's 2001 Summit of the Americas Conference. (8 mins, DVCam)

• (Total running time: 94 mins, Color, From Peripheral Visions Film & Video Inc.)