The Public Service Broadcasting Trust is an Indian non-governmental organisation. It helps independent documentary film-makers to work free from commercial and political pressures. [1] It hosts the annual Open Frame film festival in New Delhi. [2] [3] [4]
The Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) annually hosts the Open Frame film festival and forum, dedicated to fostering a meaningful discourse on contemporary issues through the exploration of documentary films from India and around the world. As a not-for-profit trust, PSBT commissions independent documentary filmmakers nationwide, resulting in over 700 films covering diverse themes such as gender, democracy, labor, diversity, livelihood, human rights, and conflict. [3]
An adda is a 'conversation' among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.
Mita Vashisht is an Indian actress. Known for her work on screen, stage and television, she has played a wide range of roles. Her most prominent appearances includes; sci-fi television series Space City Sigma (1989-1991), Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein, Swabhimaan, Alaan (Kirdaar) to Trishna in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Jethi Maa in Kaala Teeka to film roles with a wide spectrum of directors with different cinema styles.
Rajiv Mehrotra is an Indian writer, television producer-director, documentary film maker, a personal student of the Dalai Lama for whom he manages as Trustee/Secretary The Foundation for Universal Responsibility (www.furhhdl.org) established with the Nobel Peace Prize. He is best known as the former acclaimed host of one of India's longest running talk shows on public television, "In Conversation", that has been through several incarnations over more than twenty years, aired on the India's National broadcaster, Doordarshan News Channel, Saturdays at 9.30 pm.
Sridhar Rangayan is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, The Pink Mirror and Yours Emotionally, have been considered groundbreaking because of their realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the largely closeted Indian gay community. His film The Pink Mirror remains banned in India by the Indian Censor Board because of its homosexual content.
Jawhar Sircar is a retired Indian Administrative Services officer, who is prominent as a public intellectual, speaker and writer. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, on 2 August 2021 on an AITC ticket to represent the state of West Bengal.
Anwar Jamal is an Indian documentary filmmaker, based in New Delhi. He has been awarded the National Film Award on several occasions and had made critically acclaimed feature, short and documentary films a wide array of social, political and cultural themes. He has served as jury in many international film festivals including National Film Award Jury.
Rice and Rasam is a 52 minutes documentary film produced by Rajiv Mehrotra of the PSBT in the year 2012. It is directed by Ramchandra PN, under a fellowship that is awarded by PSBT for the year 2011-2012. The film is about the nomadic life style of the artists of the professional theater troupes in Karnataka, South India.
Sanjivan Lal is an Indian film director and writer. He did his specialisation in Film Direction from Film and Television Institute of India at Pune. Before making feature films, he had made several documentaries on various topics for Government as well as for the Corporates. He has also made several one-off episodes for various channels like Zee and Star TV.
Ocean of Tears is a 2012 short documentary film directed by Billal A Jan in Kashmiri produced by Rajiv Mehrota under the banner of Public Service Broadcasting Trust of India (PBST). The film is a documentary of the crimes and human rights violations imposed on the people of Kashmir, especially on women. The film covers the mass rape incident of Kunan Poshpora.
Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Indian filmmaker and writer. She is known for her documentaries on subjects such as urban life, desire, pop culture and gender. She has also written the screenplay of the award-winning feature film Khamosh Pani. Her film production company Parodevi Pictures is based in Mumbai. She writes a column Paro-normal Activity for the Sunday Mid-day and also wrote a weekly column for Mumbai Mirror.
Vipin Vijay is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He received his post-graduate degree in filmmaking from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute SRFTI, Calcutta. He received the Charles Wallace Arts Award for research at the British Film Institute, London, 2003. Vipin is the recipient of "The Sanskriti Award" (2007) for social & cultural achievement. His works are made under independent codes and defy any categorisation eluding all traditional genre definitions and merge experimental film, documentary, essay, fiction all into one.
Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story is a 2014 documentary on the Parsi community in India. The directors of the film are Shilpi Gulati and Divya Cowasji. The film has been co-produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (India).
Meera Dewan is a social-issue documentary filmmaker and columnist based out of New Delhi, India.
Boby John is an Indian film sound designer and mixing engineer. He has worked in various Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Assamese feature films, documentary films, short films and television advertisements. He is one of India's best sync sound editors. He owns a mixing studio, Prathibha, at Mumbai.
Aparna Sanyal is an Indian director and producer. She has directed multiple films, and produced several international documentary-series. She runs Mixed Media Productions, a production house based in Delhi, and is one of the co-founders of The Carbon Union, a creative collective.
Abhinandan Sekhri is the co-founder and CEO of Newslaundry, a media critique, news and current affairs website.
Purple Skies is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was broadcast on Doordarshan in 2015.
Aruna Vasudev is an Indian critic, author, editor, painter, maker of documentaries and is considered an eminent scholar on Asian cinema, who has also been described as the "mother of Asian Cinema".
Teenaa Kaur Pasricha is an independent filmmaker and screenwriter. Her most acclaimed documentary film "1984, When the Sun Didn't Rise" is based on the lives of the women who survived the massacre of 1984
Akanksha Damini Joshi is an Indian filmmaker, cinematographer, photographer and a meditation facilitator.