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The Man Who Planted A Forest

In 1979 a young boy saw dead animals and snakes around a barren river bank. He went out to investigate the reason behind those deaths, he found out it was due to dwindling forest resources. To help the animals, he started planting saplings in the middle of a barren wasteland in Assam. Every day, he planted one new sapling. We went in search of him and to see the world he created...40 years later...

  • Sajeed A
    Director
    MC Kash
  • Jaidev Singh
    Writer
  • Albun Lobo
    Producer
  • Jadav Payeng
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 38 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 17, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sajeed A

Sajeed A, born on 17 January, is an independent filmmaker and writer from India, based in Mumbai for the past 15 years. He began his career with MTV India as a trainee and went on to create some of the most iconic projects on MTV India (2000 - 2010) that became synonymous with the youth sub culture in India. He left MTV after about a decade and ventured into the world of web content. In 2011 he created & directed India’s first horror reality show for MTV which received IDPA, ITA and Asia Television Awards, Singapore. The same year he wrote the story and screenplay for feature Goodbye December which is entering production in 2018. Later next year, he joined a digital startup - 101India.com as video content head and spearheaded edgy, young content for the platform and various brands. The platform was critical in giving a voice to the subculture and counterculture lifestyles in an otherwise orthodox media ecosystem in India. In 2015 he met Kashmiri rapper MC Kash and directed a short documentary called MC Kash on the life and times of the troubled rapper in an evermore troubled Kashmir, India. The short was a Semifinalist at Festival Internazionale del cinema documentario "Marcellino De Baggis”, Italy (2017) and official selection in the Mumbai International Film Festival, India (2016), Kaohsiung International Film Festival, Taiwan (2017), Scandinavian International Film Festival, Helsinki (2017) and lately at the Diversity in Cannes, 2018, France. Around the same time that year, few weeks before the onset of the Southwest monsoon, he collaborated with Academy Award Winning Sound Designer Resul Pookutty, Cinematographer Hari K Vedantam and used the sitar melodies from music composer Reul Benedict to interpret Indian Monsoon using images & sound. The experimental collaboration featured the prehistoric art form Theyyam as the protagonist and it went on to be talked and discussed in mainstream media in India Currently he is busy on first feature which will be written and directed by him.

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Director Statement

I came across Jadav Payeng while working on a brand film. One man, alone, creating a forest (bigger than Central Park) over 550 hectares. His dedication to this cause for over 40 years helped change the once barren land into a wild forest where Rhinos, Bengal Tigers started visiting.

Today we live in a world where our leaders are discussing whose missile is bigger on prime time media. But they don't see unknown people like Jadav, who is changing the world for our children to have a better future. Quietly.

Lot of media has carried his story through various stages of his life. But I was curious to know what was the first tree he planted? Is it still there? I had lot of questions.

I went to see the first tree he planted. A dangerous journey over Brahmaputra river. We got close as days passed. I was taken in by his dedication, energy, knowledge,humility. I was taken aback by the wisdom from an illiterate man. I asked him:
"Who helped you plant the trees?"
He said " I planted the first few myself. The rest, the birds helped me"
There!
That was the man who still goes up to his forest and talks and touches his trees. You look around him in the crowd, you won't even know who he is!

Through this short, I am trying to replicate what I saw and what I felt for those few days that I was with him. The images, the sounds, the pace, the organic approach everything in the film is me trying to replicate my feeling into images & sound while I was with Jadav.

He took me to the first tree that he planted 40 years ago. I touched it. I heard him whisper to that tree:

"I have travelled a lot around the world (to attend Eco conferences/activisms) Its all because of you. Because of you I got to see the world outside India."

Magical things can happen in this world.
And the most unassuming people in this world make it happen.
This film is an ode to him...
To let the world know; there are people, who are quietly changing the world minus the rockets and missiles...