Tag: medha kulkarni

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Watch: Vikalp@Prithvi presents a ‘Green Tiger’

This film captures a valiant effort to stop a Chinese dam project; screening precedes Q&A with Jaitapur activist Girish Raut.
by Medha Kulkarni | @VeryMedha on Twitter

Waking the Green Tiger – The Rise of a Green Movement in China is a powerful film directed by Gary Marcuse, which will be presented by Vikalp@Prithvi this evening, Friday, December 26.

Following the screening, viewers can engage in a Q&A session with Girish Raut, environmental activist and advocate who has played a major role in protests against the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, among other projects.

The film is told through the point of view of activists, farmers, and journalists and follows the incredible campaign to stop a huge dam project on the upper Yangtze river in southwestern China. The film features rare and astonishing footage that has previously never been viewed outside of the country, along with interviews with a Government insider and witnesses. The documentary also analysis Chairman Mao’s campaigns to conquer nature in the name of progress.

The film has received rave reviews and is a must-see for film lovers and environmentalists alike.

“In this lushly filmed documentary, (the producers) beautifully captured the spirit of this grassroots movement in China with stunning images, superb writing and excellent use of strong, compelling personal stories,” says Susanne Reber, Grantham Prize Juror, about the film. Adds Brett Kessler, WABC 7, “Waking the Green Tiger manages the perfect balance between information and entertainment, condensing several decades of history into a rousing portrait of China’s emerging green movement. It’s a portrait of people, from the humblest of farmers to some of China’s biggest government players, coming together to shape a new socially-and eco-conscious paradigm.”

Head to Prithvi House, opposite Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church road. The screening begins at 7 pm. Entry is free but on a first come-first-serve basis.

(Picture courtesy filmbalaya.com)

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Watch: ‘Siddharth’

Today, the powerful feature film ‘Siddharth’ will be screened at the Theosophy Hall; the film is directed by Richie Mehta.

For a sensitive, well-made film on the travails of parents looking for lost or abducted children and the menace of child trafficking, you have to watch Siddharth this evening at the Theosophy Hall.

The film is named after its protagonist,12-year-old Siddharth, who is sent away for work by his father, Mahendra. Mahendra is a chainwallah, who fixes broken zippers on the streets and is relieved as he hopes Siddharth will help in allevating his financial burdens at home. But when Siddharth fails to return home, Mahendra learns he may have been taken by child-traffickers. With little resources and no connections, he travels across India in pursuit, with the hope that whatever force arbitrarily took his child away will return him unharmed.

The film takes a powerful look at the brutal exploitation of children on the streets, the most vulnerable people and the wide net cast by child-traffickers. Poignant and bitter-sweet, the film is a must watch.

Siddharth is presented by the Root Reel in association with Dharamshala International Film Festival.

Entry for the screening is free, however seating is limited and hence on a First Come First Serve basis.

Head to the Theosophy Hall, Alliance Française de Bombay, on Wednesday, July 30, at 6.30 pm.

(Picture courtesy www.anokhimedia.com)

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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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Screening: Ekti Nadir Naam

The Root Reel is screening a film on the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak at Alliance Française Auditorium today.

In continuation with their feature presentation of some of the treasured cinema from our country, The Root Reel is organising a screening of Anup Singh’s essay, exploring the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak. The film is titled Ekti Nadir Naam/Name of a River.

Anup Singh’s debut feature, The Name of a River, is an ambitious, evocative docu-fictional essay exploring the life and work of the great Indian filmmaker, Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976). Ghatak’s reputation as India’s most important filmmaker has been steadily growing since the first major retrospective of his films was organised internationally in the 1980s. Satyajit Ray described him as “one of the few truly original talents in the cinema this country has produced”. Although largely ignored in his lifetime and usually overshadowed by the illustrious Ray, Ghatak was a legend to a whole generation of Indian arthouse directors and was seen by many as the father of the Indian New Wave.

Born in 1925 in what is today known as Bangladesh, he was 18 in 1943 when the Great Bengal famine drove him and his family from Dhaka to Calcutta as refugees. India’s simultaneous independence and partition into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a further partition later into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, made it impossible for him to return to his homeland. The Partition of India and Ghatak’s separation from his homeland act as the driving force in his life and work.

In The Name of a River Anup Singh uses a love story between a man and a woman crossing the river between Bangladesh and India – playing the roles of refugees, divine beings and literary and cinematic characters – to understand the mysteries of the events that led to the massacre of half a million people and forced ten million people to migrate across the newly established borders. Covering a huge area of visual, aural and intellectual ground within its 90 minutes, this exquisite film presents its audience with a dreamlike odyssey through a history, a life and a work that we, the viewers, encounter in the shape of stunning landscapes and music, lovers and gods, myths and memories, literature and cinema.

The Name of a River has been screened at numerous international film festivals, winning the Aravindan Award, India, for best debut filmmaker in 2001, and the Silver Dhow Award for best feature at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2002.

Head to Alliance Française Auditorium, Theosophy Hall, near Nirmala Niketan, New Marine Lines, at 6.30 pm. Entry is free.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy worldcinemafoundation.org)

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Have a story to perform? Head to Prithvi

Caferati at Prithvi Theatre, a forum for writers, gives participants a two-minute chance to perform their written work this evening.

A lot of stand-up-and-perform acts for writers and storytellers are mushrooming all over Mumbai. Joining the bandwagon is Caferati, a performing event to be held at Prithvi Theatre tomorrow, January 28.

Caferati is a forum for writers in English. Most of their membership is Indian or has an India connection, because that’s where the group originated. However membership is open to adults anywhere in the world. Some of the members are published or earn a living from writing in some way, but that is not a condition for membership.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, head to Prithvi Theatre today for an exciting event. The event is essentially this: You + your writing + two minutes at the microphone.

However, there are some rules to follow. While the works can be in English, Marathi, Hindi or Urdu, the writing must be yours and you can perform for a maximum of two minutes only. No group performances are allowed. Participants are allowed to shot, declaim, sing; they can sit, stand or lie down; they can dance, do a cartwheel, play a musical instrument – anything goes, as long as you perform your words.

There is no restriction on genres – you can perform poetry, prose, scripts, songs, etc. but nudity, explicit language, slander or anything that flouts Indian laws is prohibited.

Sounds like your thing? Head to Prithvi Theatre today, at least half an hour before 7 pm to make yourself eligible to enter. Submit your script for approval and perform. Good luck!

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Prithvi Theatre)

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Stories with children

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay is hosting a day-long storytelling carnival tomorrow for children aged between 2 and 12 years.

“Stories are like spiders, with all the long legs, and stories are like spider webs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another, each to each.” – Neil Gaiman

A dilemma that most parents of children today face is instilling a sense of wonder and curiosity in children. Why? Because today’s children learn to use tablets and smart phones even before they learn to read or write! With information available at one’s fingertips, it’s that much harder to inculcate and encourage a keen imagination and creativity.

If you are a parent and are reading this and agree, then you now have a reason to rejoice. Tomorrow, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (CSMVS, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) is organising a day-long story carnival for children.

The Museum’s Kahani Karnival is specifically aimed at children in the age group of 2 to 12 years. With storytelling sessions, workshops and museum walk-throughs, the event should be an exciting one!

The event starts at 10:15 am and registration is compulsory. Email kahanikarnival@gmail.com or call +91 87670 94063 to register.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Kahani Karnival)

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