Private Project

Windows of Time

In the first Covid-19 lockdown situation in 2020, a new existential discourse was developed in the new relationship between non-human elements and the human beings. A sense of “conflict/tension” was started taking its shape along the ‘Time’ traversed then.
Temporality became the space, the container of a narrative in the lockdown. All the spaces looked same, static, paused, and not dynamic enough to hold a narrative. Only Time moved in its unchanged rhythm, and we all went with that rhythm. Hence, the logic of temporality in our life became the only receptacle to sit inside and experiment with Time in our own way individually. We all began celebrating it.
But the nature didn’t tolerate so much anarchy in human existence and appeared as a devastating calamity, the Amphan. It broke all the unreal celebratory stasis of human life in the southern part of West Bengal state in India on 20 May 2020 and made everything topsy-turvy.
All the emotional lockdown which was developing gradually in people’s minds due to long functional lockdown got struck by this heavy natural catastrophe. They all came out from that temporal bucket and learned living with the virus maintaining rituals of new normal gracefully.

  • Mrinmoy Nandi
    Director
  • Mrinmoy Nandi
    Writer
  • Kaahon Kommunications
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    সময়ের জানালাগুলি
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 15 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 24, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Bengali, English, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Mrinmoy Nandi

Qualification:
Bachelor of Science, University of Calcutta
Post-Graduation in Cinematography, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI)

Script & Film Direction
1. Somoyer Janalaguli (Windows of Time) - a feature length documentary
Official Selection
● Film Southasia, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2022
● Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, 2021
● 16th SiGNS Film Festival 2023
● 24th Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2022
● Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions @ PinewoodStudios
● Cinemaking International Film Festival, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Honorable Mention
● Experimental Forum, 2022

2. Dhumpaner Opokarita (Smoking blocks...) - a short film
Award:
Cine-Parbon International Short Film Carnival and Awards 2022 (Best Film, Best Story, Best Screenplay)
Official Selection:
International Moving Film Festival
Siliguri Short and Documentary Film Festival 2022
Vindhya International Film Festival Madhya Pradesh
Kalaburagi International Film Festival
Kolhapur International Short Film Festival
South Asian Short Film Festival
International Film Festival of Ahmednagar India

3. PIKLU- a short film
Best Film-1st Runner-Up & Best Cinematography Award, Cine-Parbon International Short Film Carnival and Awards 2020
Best Short Film & Best Editing, Pattaya International Film Festival 2020
Honorable Jury Mention, 10th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2020
Audience Choice Award, Tagore International Film Festival, 2020
Finalist, International Open Film Festival, Dhaka
Semi Finalist, Kalaburagi International Short Film festival 2020
Darbhanga International Film Festival, 2020
Siliguri Short & Documentary Film Festival, 2020
NexGn International Short Film Festival of India, 2020
3rd South Asian Short Film Festival 2020
Kalinga International Film Festival 2020
PlayButton Short Film Festival 2020

4. SHOHORNAMA (Urban shorts)
Special Jury Mention, National Documentary Short Film Festival 2018

5. KHELNABATI (Play Things), Documentary
Silver Palm - Mexico International film festival, 2012
0110 International Digital Film Festival
International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala

6. ANIMAR AAKASH - a short fiction film on gender politics prevails in rural India
Cinephile 2015

Cinematography
SUNDER JIBAN (Rajat Kamal, National Award in 2002, Best Short Fiction Film)

Significant Works as Cinematographer
Documentaries
MURMURS OF SILENCE. A Documentary on the Central Library. University of Calcutta
DIRT. An International Film. National Film Board, Canada, Production
SITA KAHINI. (A TALE OF SITA)
CHHINNA MAHAL. A cross-border Independent Film on
Chitmahals of India and Bangladesh
LEGENDS - a documentary film on MANNA DEY. Produced by HMV SA RE GA MA
SHABNAM. 30mins. A Documentary on THE FIRST WOMAN KAZI OF INDIA, for PSBT, India
A Documentary on THE SATRA MAHASABHA, ASSAM
URMI-CHANGEMAKER. A BBC series
MARITIME INDIA. A Documentary for a European Channel
AUDREY’S DRESS. A Documentary with DOMINIQUE
LAPIERRE for a French and a Spanish Channel
GHOST OF EMPIRE. A Documentary on the works of famous Irish Sculptor JOHN HENRY FOLEY for HISTORY CHANNEL

Feature Films
ANTAR BAHIR
MAHALAYA
BAROOD
JHUMURA
BASANTA UTSAV
TOBE TAI HOK
GHENTE GHAW
PA MA GA RE SAA
PURPLE HAZE

Short Films
DOUR (RUN)
SAHORE (IN THE CITY)
POISON
LOVE INTERLUDE
THE WINDOW
SUNDER JIBAN (National Award in 2003)

Activities
Recently completed an extensive research based audio-visual documentation project for Cultural Research Institute, Kolkata on art, culture and crafts of 10 scheduled tribes of North Bengal.

Editor of www.kaahon.com, the leading web portal researching, documenting and archiving art & cultural activities of present and past.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

On the subject:
Helplessness, uncertainty, frustrations, depressions may lead to something productive, people may turn to be responsive and proactive. I experienced the same in the first lockdown period in 2020 when people were desperate to do something and to feel existentially valued in the social context. Guessing this as a fact, I approached lots of unknown people residing in different parts of Bengal, eastern India to participate in the “documentation of lockdown” programme and eventually, most of them responded very spontaneously with their available digital devices. 23 people (i.e. 23 cameras) shot this film and the outcome is here for you. Hence, we should call this film as the manifestation of social mind in the recent Covid-19 lockdown periods.

On the craft:
The relationship between Time and Space in Cinema is vulnerable. We filmmakers always love to play with it within its cinematic journey of a particular film. As Andrei Tarkovsky mentioned in his book “Sculpting in Time”-
“Cinema on the other hand is able to record time in outward and visible signs, recognisable to the feelings. And so time becomes the very foundation of cinema: as sound is in music, colour in painting, character in drama.”
“Rhythm, then, is not the metrical sequence of pieces; what makes it is the time-thrust within the frames. And I am convinced that it is rhythm, and not editing, as people tend to think, that is the main formative element of cinema.”;
these two comprehensions on Cinema of the great master has always lured me and I tried to practise them meticulously while making this film.