Anand Patwardhan

Anand Patwardhan is an award-winning filmmaker who has been making political documentaries for nearly three decades. He has relentlessly pursued diverse and controversial issues that are at the crux of social and political life in India. At one time or another, many of his films have been banned by state television channels in India, to which Patwardhan invariably responded with litigation campaigns that successfully challenged his country's censorship practices.

Patwardhan received a B.A. in English Literature from Bombay University in 1970 and earned a Master's in Communications from McGill University in 1982. He has received no formal filmmaking training but has been a committed and tireless activist since his days as a student, having participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement; volunteering in Caesar Chavez United Farm Worker's Union; working in Kishore Bharati, a rural development and education project in central India; participating in the Bihar anti-corruption movement in 1974-75; and joining in the civil liberties and democratic rights movement during and after the 1975-77 Emergency.

Since then, he has been active in an astonishing array of movements, including those for housing rights of the urban poor, communal harmony and the environment. He has also been involved in lobby groups against the Narmada Dam, unjust and unsustainable development, and nuclear testing in South Asia. As a filmmaker, he has won over 20 international awards from festivals in India, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK and the United States.

Icarus Films