Out of Our Hands

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India/2009/9mins/Tamil with English subtitles
Direction, camera and editing by Ian McDonald
Produced by Geetha J. for AkamPuram
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Synopsis

A quiet summer’s day. Four youths play chess. But this is no ordinary game. We watch the hands and fingers of the four blind youths glide over the board. They seem to ‘see’ the pieces through their fingertips. The sound of the chess pieces being moved around the board, of crows in the surrounding trees, and of players casually chatting with each other, are intertwined with the voices of the players talking about their love of chess. An evocative documentary set in Chennai.

Screenings

March 2012: International Festival of Sport Movies, Moscow, Russia.
September 2010: Canadian Sport Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
December 2009: Cine-city: the Brighton Film Festival, UK.
November 2009: MIAAC Indo-American Film Festival, New York, USA.
July 2009: Parnu International Documentary Film Festival, Estonia.
July 2009: RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film (in competition, awarded commendation), Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.