

About docustan
Docustan, a social initiative founded in India in 2023, is committed to addressing pressing social issues, promoting community upliftment, and fostering greater awareness about daily lives, and challenges faced by people in India. Through the medium of documentary filmmaking, Docustan creates a platform to shed light on themes such as ecology, labor, climate change, mental health, folk culture, education, old-age care, social justice, and the Indian knowledge system ensuring these narratives reach wider communities.
As part of its efforts, Docustan introduced its flagship program, ‘Docustan – Idea to Screen,’ in 2023 to make films for Indian society´s well-being. Its primary focus is to inspire participants to create impactful films that bring attention to marginalized voices and societal concerns. The initiative empowers 15 participants from diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds to document stories that resonate with the beliefs, traditions, livelihood, and culture of Indian communities.
Over five months, participants embark on a journey to create short documentary films that highlight diverse issues such as environmental sustainability, mental health awareness, the preservation of folk traditions, and the lives of children, and senior citizens. These films aim to spark conversations, create empathy, and drive meaningful change at grassroots levels. Guided by globally acclaimed mentors, participants develop vocational skills alongside a deep understanding of ethical and socially conscious filmmaking practices in an Indian socio-cultural context.
Docustan’s vision is to build an inclusive platform where documentary filmmaking becomes a tool for human upliftment, social reform, and cultural preservation of India’s rich heritage and knowledge system. By offering scholarships to candidates from underrepresented and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, Docustan ensures accessibility and equity in its programs. With this approach, the initiative aspires to nurture filmmakers who are not only skilled storytellers but also agents of social change, committed to creating a more equitable, caring, and aware society.
Program philosophy
When the Lumière brothers reproduced reality through photographic images, a sense of ‘faith in the image’ was established, as Bazin noted in `What is Cinema.´ This leaves us with several questions: what lies beyond recording or reproducing reality, or even piecing it together? Where does the filmmaker fit in the process of making a film in a certain social reality? How do they utilize the medium and its tools? What is their experiential journey or worldview? Can the medium of cinema offer us possibilities for a creative interpretation of reality—an interpretation that stems from an individual’s personal, social, and historical context?
Keeping these core questions as our guide, docustan´s ´idea to screen´ program creates a space for critical and self-reflective dialogue on image-making and the history of the medium within the context of a changing social landscape. We encourage participants to develop a point of view that is uniquely their own, following the concept of ‘to each their own cinema’—an interpretation that doesn’t just need to be only informational but evocative as well.
Basic info
- Edition: 2nd
- Duration: 5 Months
- Dates: Nov 10 to April 17, 2024-2025
- Location: Buddha Pāda, Kalimpong, West Bengal
- Format: 3 Residencies and 3 Online Phases
- Participants: 15
- Outcome: Short Documentary Film (10-20 minutes)
Founders
Mukul is a filmmaker and educator from Assam his works dwell between sensorial exploration and reflection on the socio-politics Know More…
Sachin is a Rajasthan-based filmmaker who employs lens-based art to comprehend the world around him and express his ideas Know More…
Siddhant Sarin is a filmmaker and educator from India. His films delve into the everyday mundane lives of people through observational Know More…