The Museum of Goa or MOG for short has made it their mission to take art to an even wider audience. Not just with their unique and eye-catching displays but also by showcasing documentaries and movies by local and international directors to promote awareness on different issues in today’s world.
This Saturday (19th November 2016), MOG will be screening ‘Goa, The Land of Shiva’ by famed Italian director Massimiliano Mazzotta.
The Plot
The 75-minute documentary is based on the mining issues, drug trafficking and corruption in the state of Goa during the colonial era. In the course of Portuguese rule, the governing bodies granted foreign investors with mining licenses for the purpose of extracting rare and natural resources of Goa.
Enter Baron Ludovic Toeplitz who with the financial backing of another Italian entrepreneur, Antonio Vassallo, acquired a mining concession in North Goa entitled ‘Orasso Dongor’ and started Sesa Goa Economic Trade Limited Company in 1955.
Post Independence in 1961, Sesa Goa still continued to control the monopoly on the mining industry, with profits largely channeled overseas and local communities and ecosystems left to bear the cost of maintenance.
About the Director
Massimiliano Mazzotta was born in 1972 in Lecce, Salento, Italy. Self-taught in his craft, his first feature film ‘Oil (2009), won him the Best Italian Documentary Award and the Legambiente Special Mention at Cinemambiente. Oil was also termed as a film of ‘national interest’ by the Italian data protection Authority. Massimiliano’s filmography employs a diverse and internationally influenced oeuvre. Since 2014, he is the director of Life after oil – an International Film Festival in Sardinia, now in its third year of operation.
Honours and Laurels
Goa, The Land of Shiva was selected for screening at the Trevi Cinema in Rome at the first ever International Audio-Visual Award, Festival Delle Terre, which nominates up to 30 documentaries which record human rights practices in terrain based issues.
In Conclusion
The film is a real eye-opener from a director who goes to great lengths to educate people on injustices against nature. Sure to be a memorable experience for any viewer.
For general enquiries please contact: info@goathelandofshiva.org
For media enquiries please contact: Elvina Halli | elvina@musuemofgoa.com | +91 7722089666
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