Private Project

Jack Journeys - Teaser

FRUITFUL CAMPAIGN The largest tree borne fruit that grows in abundance in India is increasingly being considered as a saviour for human kind to tide over the climate challenges and perhaps the only fruit that will outlive all the other food crops! The miracle is the wonder fruit - Jack

Easy to grow, survives pests, diseases and rising temperatures, resistant to droughts and even famine!

Survivors of the horrendous Bengal famine have many a stories to tell on how they owe their lives to this miracle fruit that saved them! Many tribal and Adivasi community across India survived the worst drought because the Jack tree fed them! In spite of all its miraculous powers it remains downgraded as the food of the poor in India. An estimated Rs. 8000 crores worth of Jack fruit is wasted in south India alone! The figures are staggering if one considers the whole country.

It is largely believed that Jackfruit has its origin in the rain forests of the western ghats and from here it spread to other parts of India and southeast asia. With the spread of imperial colonies it moved to East indies, Eastern Africa and even South America.

While Mango is considered a major fruit and the most favoured for export, Jack remains a minor fruit despite its tremendous potential. The country has now slowly begun to wake up to the possibilities and potentialities of this miracle fruit. Recently Kerala declared Jack as the state fruit and some others are gearing up to market its produce, setting up processing plants for the ripe and unripe to minimize wastage.

Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia are way ahead of India in Jack processing and exports. Both the ripe and unripe fruit are marketed in many easy to use forms and exported across the globe. Unripe Jack is getting popular in the west as a Vegan substitute to meat and pork.

Medical journals have started reporting on the therapeutic, curative and preventive qualities of this fruit in relation to cardiovascular diseases, Thyroid metabolism and cancer. It’s also known to enhance our immune system.

Karnataka has some of the best and most varied varieties of Jack from light yellow to deep Orange and Red! Wet and dryland varieties that include trees that are more than 300 years old, still yielding fruits.

The project proposes to work on a campaign across Karnataka to bring together all the different stakeholders in every Jack cluster to connect with the consumer, the processing industries, the exporters by expounding its latent qualities as a great health food. A film that documents the Jack journeys will be a campaign document of about 30 minutes.

The campaign titled Jack Journeys will gather Jack stories from across Karnataka to bring it into sharp focus and attention of the media, the policy makers, the farmers, food industries and food specialists to raise it from a friendly neighbourhood homestead tree to a wholesome food and accord it the status of a major fruit.

  • Vinod Raja
    Director
  • Vinod Raja
    Writer
  • Vinod Raja
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 minute 30 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Vinod Raja

Vinod Raja Producer/Director , Grass Roots media ,
Sculpt n time productions

Graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India-FTII with a specialisation in cinematography 1984-85 . As the director of photography, filmed many advertisement commercials and Public awareness films on Environment, Rights of the Girl child, Save Water campaign, Health and Education, Disability, Physically challenged etc- shown on television channels and film festivals. As DOP photographed many documentary films shown on International Television channels and Film festivals.

FILMOGRAPHY

1995 -TOLI CHINUKA or ”The fragrance of the first rain” 22 minutes, on the indigenous water harvest systems through tanks ponds and lakes in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The film premiered at the Mumbai International film festival of shorts documentaries and animation films, MIFF -1996.

2001- The bee,the bear and the kuruba. 16mm, 66 minutes, on the indigenous people protesting against the opening of a luxury resort in the core area of the Nagarahole National park, while they were being forcibly thrown out. 35mm and 16mm print of the film was shown at many festivals across the world.

21st Bilan du film ethnographique, 2002, Musee del Homme Paris.
32nd International Film Festival of India-IFFI 2001.
United Nations Association Film Festival- Stanford-2001.
7th Mumbai International Film Festival-MIFF 2002.
Film South Asia, Nepal, 2001.
Planet in Focous, Toronto, 2001.
10th Environment Film Festival 2002, Washington DC.
Cine Eco 2002, Portugal.
6th environmental Film Festival 2002, Istanbul, Turkey.
River to River film festival- 2002 Florence.
Open Frame PSBT & UNESCO 2003.
Asian social Forum 2003 India
Siemenpuu Film Festival, Helsinki , Finland 2011

2006- Photographed a Hindi/Dakhni feature film titled Doosra, 35mm Cinemascope, premiered at the International film festival of Kerala in 2007

2007- Mahua Memoirs, Digital video.
Saloo, the bard and Thirku the Baiga take us on a journey through the lives of the many tribal communities who live in the mountain tracts and forests of the Eastern Ghats. The film unfolds the life visions and struggles of the Adivasis or indigenous people against mining that is mercilessly decimating their lands and lives.

Festivals and awards 

3rd SIGNS film festival, 2007 Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. 
The best Cinema on resistance

10th Mumbai international film festival of shorts, documentaries and animation films
Silver conch
The Indian critics award

1st international documentary and short film festival of Kerala IDSFFK- 2008 
Best long documentary.

4th One Billion eyes Film festival held at Alliance Francaise , Chennai.
Best documentary.

Global Investigative journalist conference GIDC 2008, held in September at Lillihammer, Norway. Showed the film and presented a paper on the making of mahua memoirs.

2008- Vanishing trails, tales of the nomads. 40 minutes. Screened at CHOTRO,the international indigenous peoples meet held at Tezgad near Baroda, Gujarat.

2008 to 2011 Photographed many documentaries.

2010 to 2015 Worked with International Institute for art culture and democracy IIACD on India Digital heritage project -IDH Hampi documenting the Vijaynagara murals.

2017 Co-curated the documentary section of the 9th Bengaluru International film festival, BIFF-2017

Currently working on a series short films on climate change and mitigation as perceived by the indigenous communities.
a project on the nomadic communities across India which has remained a work in progress since 2004.

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