Movies seem to be raining in on City’s cinephiles. Bangalore Film Society’s bill of fare offers a sumptuous spread of acclaimed docu-dramas and featurettes under flagship 'Tricontinental Film Festival Gold List. These curated sextet films drawn from over three years of Tri Continental Human Rights Film Festival comprise some of most soulful-stirring documents of man’s quintessential struggle for dignity and life. These searing sagas depict how even against bleakest of odds, there is glimmer of hope as man braves myriad of elements with his indomitable spirit.

 The outing begins with Jennifer Wager’s Venezuela Rising, which tracks grandmother and community organiser and her compatriots during and after public referendum whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will continue in office or step down. How are elections ultimate measure of vibrant and participatory democracy? the film gets behind headlines to find out.

The Rockstar and the Mullahs by Ruhi Hamid and Angus Macqueen spotlights on Pakistan’s famous and charismatic pop musician Salman Ahmad who takes on the establishment as to “why spirituality cannot be expressed in a pop song?” It brings to fore deep rooted civil and hysterical contradictions within Pakistani society as it follows the lead singer of Junoon concerned about Pakistan’s growing religious intolerance that condemns music as obscene.

Jeff Zimblist & Matt Mochary’s Favela Rising set amidst Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slums, documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by murders of his family and his friends, a former drug trafficker turns revolutionary, through hip-hop music, rhythms of street, and Afro-Brazilian dance as he rallies his community to war against violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

Returning on discovery sojourn director Nelofer Pazira, star of Mohsen Makambalf’s Kandahar, to track down childhood friend lost in the strife, discovers an alien nation in Return to Kandahar, co-directed with Paul Jay. Pepper with picture-postcard landscapes and people devastated by wars, perpetuated by US-led war that has put Afghanistan back into the Stone Age, Pazira, paints a poignant potrait of her country and people yet to come to terms with itself.

Lina Makboul’s Leila Khaled Hijacker, spotlights on 24-year-old first woman ever to hijack an aeroplane and speaks of who she is and what made her become a freedom fighter. Hearts & Minds by Peter Davis is a monumental documentary that unflinchingly confronts the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. Cheered as anti-war film of its generation, it uses wealth of sources – from interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of conflict, both in US and Vietnam painting the disastrous effects of war.

Screenings at Thu (Nov 15) and Fri (Nov 16) 4.15, 5.30 & 6.45 pm, Ashirwad, 30 St Mark’s Road Cross, opp SBI. For details: 25492774/25493705/ 9886213516 (Siddarth) / (Narahari) 9480090128.