Nomad Film Festival

The Nomad Film Festival 2025 showcases powerful participatory storytelling, amplifying marginalized voices through films made by collectives, first-time filmmakers, and community-led productions.

The festival opens with Mhara Pichchar by Dakxin Bajrange, a documentary about indigenous artists from India’s Denotified Tribes using video podcasts to document the impact of COVID-19 on their communities. The festival also presents a curated selection of these video podcasts created by the Budhan Theatre team, which integrate theatre, performance, and music.

The festival features a compelling lineup of first-time filmmakers trained in non-fiction participatory storytelling by Budhan Theatre, with films from Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Andaman and Nicobar, each offering distinct regional perspectives. Expanding on participatory storytelling, the festival presents three community-created films: Kathi, Kathi Kaarana, an anthology produced by workers and their families in Bangalore; Raat, by Third Eye, exploring small-town India’s night-time experiences; and Chanda ke Joote, a short fiction piece on a young girl from a basti navigating life in a ‘big’ school. A panel discussion follows, exploring the impact of participatory filmmaking on communities and the transformative power of the process.

Nomad Film Festival is glad to present a film by Rede Katahirine from Brazil - an Indigenous Women's collective, highlighting the universality of this approach. 

The festival will showcase films documenting experiences of India’s Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs), including Paandharya, Edpa Kana (Going Home) and Bird Trapper or Beggar.

The Nomad Film Festival 2025 concludes with the world premiere of An Actor, created by participants from Ahmedabad under the guidance of Dakxin Bajrange. This final screening encapsulates the festival’s essence—communities documenting their own narratives, empowerment, and transformation.