The World Around Us

Among a series of experimental films is his latest short film The Home. “The home, where we live, is also a home to billions of living beings. They might remain out of our vision, their sounds and signs continuously register their presence before us. We barely realise that much before we came into existence, this planet has been their domicile for billions of years. Our apartments are just a tiny corner of their vast habitat,” says Waghela, who has shot the film in black and white, with a variety of digital cameras.

[related-post]

The film is among 41 other Indian entries to The Short Film Corner, a section held parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The Home underlines the mutual habitation and interdependence of millions of micro-organisms under a roof. It is being screened at festivals across the world in April-May, which includes Moscow, Spain, Germany and New Jersey.

Waghela began his career as a painter nearly two decades before graduating as a video artist and subsequently became a filmmaker. His short films have been screened at the British Film Institute, London Asian Film Festival, Australian Video Art Festival, Berlin Director’s Lounge and Budapest Short Film Festival.

Based in Bastar, Dandakaranya, his film The Jungle of Punishment depicts death, destruction, dread and displacement of tribals through an interplay of various sounds. Phantom of a Fertile Land focuses on the land acquisition and tragedy of farmers, while The Ghost Taxonomy is on the failures of the Indian economy. Shadow of Thoughts is a tale of an intimate bond between a writer and a painter, while Prisoners of Moon depicts the gradual estrangement of two people. The last two were screened at Cannes in 2012 and 2014, respectively.