Women's presence in public spaces is a phenomenon fraught with complex dynamics that are controlled by strong forces of patriarchy, and the sexual harassment they can potentially lead to. Consequently, even an activity as mundane and ordinary as taking a bus can turn out to be a deeply traumatic and disorienting experience. Along with portraying the aforementioned concerns, the short film also engages with the paranoia and stress that can define a circumstance of this kind for a woman - an ordeal which makes little things like napping on a bus seem like a distant luxury allowed only to men. 
 All of these elements are weaved together for the film to present its comment to you, one about the existence of women within a patriarchal realm, and the manner in which it comes to influence all aspects of their lives. Additionally, it employs the play of words in its title to raise a pertinent question about where does a woman's power to question her location in society begin and end. How much control does she truly have in a world that has turned the blatant denial of her agency into norm?

Mere Bus Mein | Short Film Nominee

The short film has a very important comment to make about a society that worships its goddesses, but forgets to apply the same approach, or one of even basic respect, when it comes to women and young girls in its lived reality. The narrative is weaved from the point of view of a young girl who is running out on the streets to meet her father at the river bank. While she is dressed in the garb of a goddess which the city prepares to celebrate soon, the lecherous glares that are turned in her direction tell a vastly different story. The film offers a supportive and accepting male presence as well in the form of her father, perhaps suggesting that men are not to be dismissed with a single stroke of the brush. However, the disconcertment of being ogled at for the first time remains an unshakable memory for most women, despite the comfort of loving men in their lives. The film explores all of these concerns and presents them for the viewer to engage with.

Duggakoth | Short Film Nominee

Workplace and street sexual harassment are more common realities of a woman's life than most men choose to acknowledge or accept. The short film endeavours an engagement with not simply the unease, disconcertment, and in several cases, the trauma of the women who are at the receiving end of this, but goes a step further. It brings in men into the conversation, allowing the situation to be approached by a man who had perhaps never looked at it in this manner. What follows next, at a breakneck pace, are disturbing realisations on his part when he begins to finally comprehend that he too, whether implicitly or explicitly, is also part of the same problem. From his own friends and companions, to absolute strangers, men he might have stumbled across all his life, innumerable of them are complicit in it, making the problem too prevalent for him to ignore anymore. On the whole, the film is well-intentioned and offers a zealous effort to do its bit to add to the dialogue on gender.

Sick | Short Film Nominee

Street sexual harassment, colloquially called 'eve-teasing', is a malice more prevalent in India than most other parts of the world. It is widespread enough to be accepted as the norm of society, with little to no resistance against it. Women and young girls are taught to ignore it, put their head down and continue living like nothing happened. This is in one of the better cases. In the worse ones, they are confined indoors, their movement closely monitored and controlled by their family members, often resulting in dropping out of schools and colleges until they are eventually married off. The short film aims to draw your attention to all of these aspects of this particular form of harassment, also reminding you of the strength in numbers. It portrays how women can stand for one another to end this, while also not fearing guilt and shame in reporting the harasser to the authorities. Further, there is an attempt to use poetry to convey the same.

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