Strasburg Film Festival short Roadside Scientist details the life and work of Sukomol Basak, a scientist from the remote northern region of the West Bengali state in India. Despite dropping out of school in 2005, Basak invented a low cost liquid self-dispensing system, which proved to be incredibly useful for the liquid industry revolution as well as water conservation efforts in India.
Now a widely recognized issue in India, water conservation faces an uphill battle in the subcontinent, where the wastage rate is still immensely high. Basak’s automatic system is capable of reducing wastage up to 50% in domestic or semi-domestic water fields.
Ironically, even after winning the President’s Award for this innovation, Basak still struggles to properly promote his work or secure significant financial backing. He deserves much more help in implementing his invention, and the current state of poverty under which he operates paints his ‘award’ in an unflattering light.
Roadside Scientist will be shown on Friday, November the 9th, 3:25 PM at Strasburg Town Hall. Tickets can be found on the film’s event page.
Director Biography – Diganta Dey
Diganta Dey was born in 9th May 1994 in a small village at Coochbehar district of West Bengal state in India. Since the age of 12 he started writing, creating scripts and short stories. In 2012 he moved to Kolkata in order to pursue a higher education.
It was in Kolkata that he started to pursue filmmaking, even though he lacked any conventional film training. Since then he has been the recipient of 12 awards & 30 up film festival selections worldwide for his forays into experimental cinema. His notable projects include The Silent Wheel, Khelna Bati (My Toy World), and Monalisa Feelings.
