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Watch: ‘Waiting for a storm’

The Films Division of India will premiere Prachi Mokashi’s debut film that documents the lives of people farming on ‘chars’.
by Medha Kulkarni | @VeryMedha on Twitter

This Saturday, July 26, 2014, the Films Division of India is hosting the premiere of a film by Prachi Mokashi, titled Waiting For a Storm. Made this year, This film was made possible with an Early Career Fellowship awarded by the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS and is Mokashi’s first film.

A young, independent India believed in the panacea of technology to address the crisis that nature often imposed on the nation. The Films Division archives has painstakingly documented that vision by making films on the building of dams, on the production and use of fertilisers and pesticides, on modern farming techniques and use of high yielding seeds. The 1957 film, Defence Of Dibrugarh, produced by Films Division, documents the taming of the river Brahmaputra – therein lies the solution to the crisis of this tempestuous river.

Prachi Mokashi sets out to the document the lives of the people who live and farm on chars, the temporary islands formed by the ever shifting Brahmaputra. The river is not the adversary, not for the filmmaker and nor for the subjects of her film. Waiting For A Storm tries to inhabit life alongside the river through breathtaking visuals and a rhythm that draws from the ebb and flow of the river. Within this world, the filmmaker’s gaze rests on embattled lives of those who live on chars and the issues of citizenship and ownership that marks their existence.

The 14 minute film, Defence Of Dibrugarh, will be screened first, followed by Prachi’s film.

Head to RR II Theatre, 6th floor, Phase II building, Films Division, Peddar Road. The films will be screened on July 26, 2014 at 4 pm. Entry is free and on a first-come-first-seated basis.

 

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Two films, photography, and Films Division

Head to Films Division this evening, January 11, for a screening of two landmark documentary films about photography in India.

As a lead-up to the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), which will be held from February 3 to 9 at NCPA, Films Division is bringing audiences a series of films that have won awards at earlier editions of the festival. Today, Saturday, January 11, they’ve planned a special programme on photography that includes Sabeena Gadihoke’s landmark film Three Women and a Camera, which won the Golden Conch at MIFF 1998. The programme is curated and will be presented by cinematographer and film maker Ajay Noronha.

When the Kodak Brownie camera debuted in the early 20th century, few could have imagined how it would revolutionise photography. The photograph became a popular form to chronicle significant and historical events as well as everyday snapshots. Today, over a hundred years later, it is estimated that over 380 million photographs are uploaded just on Facebook every day!

How has this changed the way we look at ourselves and the world around us? This week Films Division celebrates the act of ‘seeing’ with two passionately-made films about image making and the image-maker. Set 25 years apart, these two filmmakers present two very different narratives on photography in India.

YES, IT’S ON

12mins/1972 /Films Division

Director: SNS Sastry | Photography: B Khosla | Editing: MN Chaubal, NS Patole | Sound: SD Patil

SNS Sastry in his inimitably playful manner captures the nation and its people, especially its women, post independence. He invites us into a dialogue between the one looking and the one being looked at. The untiring camera gaze is underscored by ingenious juxtaposition of advertising jingles and popular film dialogues and songs. The film reassures us that along with the nation, the camera is still rolling.

THREE WOMEN AND A CAMERA
56mins / 1998 / Doordarshan

Director: Sabeena Gadihoke | Writer: Shohini Ghosh | Editor: Vinod Kaul | Sound: Harikumar Pillai

Sabeena Gaihoke’s award-winning film is a quiet meditation on photography seen through the eyes of three celebrated women photographers. The film debates the major shifts in the concerns of photographer Homai Vyarawalla, whose work celebrates the euphoria and optimism of the birth of the India nation, while Sheba Chhachhi and Dayanita Singh attempt to grapple with the various complexities and undelivered promises of the post independence era. This film debates the major shifts in their concerns regarding representation, subject-camera relationships and the limits and possibilities of still photography in India today.

Head to RR Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division, 24, Peddar Road. Entry is free and open to all.

 (Picture courtesy Films Division, Mumbai)

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Let the world in, today

Volume II of the two-part film project ‘To Let The World In’ will be screened at the Films Division today.
by Medha Kulkarni

‘To Let The World In’ is a project that revolves around a significant period in the history of contemporary Indian art over the last three decades. The film feature three generations of some of India’s most iconic artists who share ideas, memories and concerns about their work.

M F HussainVolume I was screened last week and Volume II showcases MF Hussain’s 1967 film Through The Eyes of a Painter. The conversations are intimate and the interviews are conducted by renowned art historian and curator Chaitanya Sambrani, and have been filmed by Avijit Mukul Kishore. The works are a visual documentation of some of the most important moments in Indian art history from the 1980s to the present day. Volume II explores the changing contexts in art production and the connections between art and political history and the evergreen questions of patronage and recognition.

The film starts with the volatile context of art practice when India was on the brink of economic liberalisation juxtaposed against the re-assertion of religious fundamentalism in Indian politics. The artists featured in this volume are Anju Dodiya, Archana Hande, Benitha Perciyal, Sharmila Samant, Parvathi Nayar, Riyas Komu, Tushar Joag, Shilpa Gupta, Josh PS, Gargi Raina, Sumakshi Singh, TV Santhosh, Nataraj Sharma, Anandajit Ray, Gigi Scaria, Reena Saini Kallat and Jitish Kallat.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A session panelled by Abhay Sardesai, art critic and the editor of Art India Magazine.

The film was produced by Art Chennai, to accompany the show ‘To Let The World In: Narrative and Beyond in Contemporary Indian Art’, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, held in Chennai in 2012.

Head to RR Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division, Pedder Road, at 4 pm.

(Pictures courtesy www.thenational.ae, gulfnews.com)

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Cinema@100

Hundred years in three days

Rare Indian films will be screened in their original format at Films Division, Mumbai, starting today to Sunday, June 30. Be there if you love Indian cinema.
by Medha Kulkarni

Who doesn’t love our movies, right?

And some of our films have been the highest of successes riding on the fact that they were daring experiments. While some tanked, or were appreciated years later, most were recognised and hailed for their genius.

If you revel in experimentation and love the movies, you should head to Films Division today for a three-day retrospective of Indian Cinema. The event is titled ‘Hundred Years of Experimentation (1913-2013)’ and will be conducted by film scholar and anthropologist Ashish Avikunthak along with documentary film maker Pankaj Rishi. The duo will attempt to add a historical perspective to the contemporary debate to celebrate a 100 years of Indian cinema.

Raja-HarishchandraWorks that are “not driven by the desire to just produce an aesthetic artifact but rather to create a discursive field,” have been specifically chosen by the two film experts. According to the press release for the event, “The films challenge modernity by opening up a conversation with Indian history, tradition, culture and religion.”

Several films categorised under various heads will be showcased. It starts with Dadasaheb Phalke’s 1913 silent mythological Raja Harishchandra under the heading ‘Experiments with Gods’ and was chosen since the film effectively catapulted “modernity and tradition into a cinema of religiosity – a dominant form of cinema of the silent era.”

The second category ‘Experiment in the state’ will showcase films produced by S Sukhdev and Tyeb Mehta. ‘Experiment in the school’ will showcase the works of Ritwik Ghatak and his students at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) which include diploma films by Kuntal Bhogilal, Rajan Khosa and Satyajit Ray.

Alongside these, documentary films by the likes of Pallavi Paul and SNS Sastry and short films by Ashim Ahluwalia, Natasha Mendonca and animation (co-curated by Nina Sabnani) will also be screened. Mortimer Chatterjee of Chatterjee and Lal will co-curate the section on video and installation featured in contemporary art galleries over the past 10 years and which includes works by artists Nikhil Chopra, Hetain Patel, Sahej Rahal, Nalini Malani, and Kiran Subbaiah.

The festival is on from today, June 28 to Sunday, June 30. It will close with a round table discussion between the curators and film makers.

Entry is free. Head to RR Theatre, Films Division, Peddar Road, Mumbai. 

(Pictures courtesy dearcinema.com)

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