Jun 10 2025 to Jun 10 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

97 minutes | Koli, Marathi and Hindi with English subtitles | 2023 | India

Against the Tide follows Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh, both belonging to the indigenous Koli community and inheritors of a rich, ancestral knowledge system—one that reads the sea through the moon and tides. Rakesh continues to place his faith in these traditional methods, while Ganesh embraces modern fishing technologies in search of more secure returns. As climate change renders the sea increasingly unpredictable, the pressure to provide for their families begins to fracture their once-unshakeable friendship.

A deeply human story set against the vast, changing waters of the Arabian Sea, Against the Tide explores the collision of tradition and technology, community and survival, through the intimate bond between two men as close as brothers.

The film was selected for the Sundance Film Festival 2023 – World Cinema Documentary Competition, where it received widespread acclaim for its lyrical storytelling and urgent relevance.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between the Director, Sarvnik Kaur and Sunanda Bhat, along with an audience Q&A.

Production Crew:
Director & Producer – Sarvnik Kaur
Producer – Koval Bhatia
Co-Producer – Quentin Laurent
Editing – Atanas Georgiev
Editing – Blagoja Nedelkovski
Sound Design – Moinak Bose

Speakers

Sarvnik Kaur
Documentary Filmmaker
Sarvnik Kaur is a documentary filmmaker whose work challenges the grand narratives of modernism and scientific certainty. Her films capture the quiet tension beneath everyday moments, exploring what it means to be human in complex times.

Her latest feature, Against the Tide, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2023, where it won the Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking. Since then, the film has earned numerous international accolades, including the Grand Jury Prize at Seattle International, Best Documentary at IceDocs, UN Perception Change Award at Visions du Réel, and sustainability and peace awards from festivals in Sydney, Warsaw, and Millenium Docs Against Gravity.

Her debut film, Soz – A Ballad of Maladies, won the 64th National Award for Best Debut Direction and multiple international awards. Kaur is a fellow of the HotDocs Accelerator Lab, Chicken & Egg’s Eggcelerator Lab, and IDFA Academy, with support from major global documentary funds.

Sunanda Bhat
Filmmaker
Sunanda is a Bangalore based filmmaker. Her interest in textures that emerge as ‘ordinary’ peoples’ lives intersect with layers of landscape, continue to shape her work. Her films have screened at IDFA, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, Planet in Focus Film Festival, Toronto, International Film Festival of India among several others. She was an artist-in-residence at the Kochi Muziris Biennale and as is part of the collective Vikalp Bengaluru, committed to the screening of non-fiction cinema in the city.