75 min / color /India, Germany, Finland / 2016 / North American premiere
Director Rahul Jain is available for interviews - screenings TBA
Guy Lodge in Variety: "Mechanical spectacle and human pain make surprisingly complementary subjects in Rahul Jain's composed, immersive Indian factory tour.
Following its critically acclaimed world premiere at the International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Rahul Jain's feature debut MACHINES competes in the Sundance Film Festival's World documentary section. MACHINES offers a visual journey deep into the underbelly of a huge textile factory in Gujarat, India, exploring the monotonous and heavy labor involved by mostly letting the camera doing the work. A rare independent doc out of India, made by CalArts graduate Rahul Jain, in which he explores the meaning of modern day labor, exploitation and the human cost of mass production in our globalized world.
Director Rahul Jain presents an intimate, observant portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of the enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a journey to a place of dehumanising physical labor and intense hardship, provoking cause for thought about persistent pre-industrial working conditions and the huge divide between first world and developing countries.
Born in New Delhi, Rahul Jain grew up in various regions in India such as Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. He recently graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film and Video from the California Institute of The Arts and is presently pursing a Writing M.A. in Aesthetics and Politics. He is interested in ideas of distance, otherness and the everyday. MACHINES marks his debut feature. Its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival begins a path for broader awareness of Indian film, especially within the documentary field.
MACHINES participated at Goa's Film Bazaar in 2015 where it received the Work-in-Progress Award. Recently IDFA's Bertha Fund awarded the film with an IBF Europe distribution grant.
Website: http://machines-themovie.com/