Occupation: Millworker

In Anand Patwardhan‘s career protest and film are closely intertwined. For his visual style he was inspired by the Imperfect Cinema of Fernando Solanas and Patricio Guzmán. During the sixties these Latin-American directors made films about liberation movements, putting the emphasis on political logic, not on aesthetics. Patwardhan made his first film in 1970, when he was still studying at Brandeis University in Boston, then the stronghold of student protests on the east coast. The prospective director captured one of the anti-Vietnam demonstrations here, which cost him his visa. Later on in his career, too, the politically committed Patwardhan recorded several demonstrations. For example, in Occupation: Millworker he follows a group of workers taking claim to an empty mill. The management wants to sell the surrounding land. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)