Executive Producer/ Director
The Unique Harvest is a short documentary feature shot along the banks of the Ganges in Chunar, a small town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The river Ganges is the holiest river according to Hindu mythology and is revered across the country. At every festival, people come to the river’s bank to worship god. People come from far-off regions to the bank for the only purpose of a holy bath and worship god as it’s considered the most sacred of all rivers. This led to a massive accumulation of wastes in the form of flowers, garlands, incense sticks, coconuts, fruits, clothes, mud bowls, etc. Food grains are offered to the deity in every Hindu ritual. The leftover from rituals makes a livelihood for many poor people. Little kids with a long rod fitted with magnets are commonly seen at the banks who collect the coins from the sediments in the river. The coconuts, fruits, and clothes are also collected by several communities. Hundreds of poor people from neighboring villages assemble with their families at the river bank the day after any festival. For two or three days, they sieve out rice and other food grains from the sands along the river. This movie shows a little part of the hard lives these people have to go through every day.