A Rifle and a Bag with NoCut Film Collective

A conversation with three filmmakers, Isabella Rinaldi from Italy, Cristina Hanes from Romania, and Arya Rothe from India, who make up the NoCut Film Collective on their transnational, collaborative approach to documentary filmmaking.  Their debut feature-length documentary, A Rifle and a Bag (2020), premiered earlier this year at the International Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR) in the Bright Future Competition section, where it was awarded a Special Mention from the jury. The film is a beautiful feat in observational cinema, quietly documenting Somi, a young mother pregnant with her second child.  A girl, she hopes. Once, Somi and her husband were Naxalites, communist rebels fighting for the rights of Indian tribes. However, to safeguard their family’s welfare, they surrendered to the government in exchange for marginal compensation and simple accommodation. Their young son has reached the age to enroll in school, but as reformed Naxalites, the process of enrolling him in school is obfuscated with an opaque bureaucratic process and incessant questioning about their past. With stunning cinematography and intimate family scenes by a campfire, directors Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Hanes, and Arya Rothe of the NoCut Film Collective bring us close into the crevices of revolutionaries splintered from their revolution and contemporary Indian society.   Eka Tsotsoria, a filmmaker and contributor of Docs in Orbit, caught up with Cristina, Isabella, and Arya to discuss the many resonances of this film and their transnational and collaborative filmmaking process. At the end of the episode, we also feature a special track courtesy of Vandana from her studio in Brooklyn. For show notes, visit docsinorbit.com and be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit