Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Artists Cinema : Interaction with Artists

Marupakkam Online Film Festival : Artists Cinema

Curated by C S Venkiteswaran, critic / writer 

Showing Now! Till 12 am, 2 November 



Interaction with the artists on Zoom

Schedule :

30 Oct @ 6 pm : Gigi Scaria, Ranjini Krishnan and Parvathi Nayar (video link)

31 Oct @ 6 pm : Riyas Komu, Vipin Vijay and Ashish Avinkunthak (video link)

1 Nov @ 6 pm : Radha Gomaty, Murali Cheeroth and Sumedh Rajendran (video link)

Moderated by C S Venkiteswaran

Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Festival : Artists Cinema

Artists Cinema : Curated by CS Venkiteswaran


On 26 Oct - 2 November; 12 am to 12 am / Facebook Event 

Interaction via Zoom with the artists / filmmakers on 30, 31 Oct and 1 November @ 6 pm


Curator's Note : C S Venkiteswaran 


Moving image practices, especially since the advent of digital technologies, are expanding and enveloping every field. Today the State and Capital constitute the two biggest image producers and users in the world, for their panoptic surveillance cameras, fixed in every public and open spaces – streets, malls, parks, pubs, offices, transport stations, public transports etc - are constantly at work recording and collating images of everything and everyone passing in front of them. What does this torrent of images amount to and do to us? Today, how does an image-artist work with, through and in this flood of visual information and narratives? How does and can the artist capture Life from the Flow?

These films by artists working in various mediums try to grapple with the very texture, tone, flux and flow of images; they ponder and meditate, interrogate and excavate, counterpose and juxtapose visuals to invite the viewer to enter into certain kinds of intensities of interaction with images: it could be their profound concern with nature, interrogations about hegemonic notions that rule our lives and dreams, explorations into other modes of sexual orientations and experiences, excavations into and through time, reinvention of space etc.

Free from the dictates of conventional narratives, beginning-middle-end structures, meaning-making compulsions and the market impositions about audience expectations, these image essays invite the viewers into exciting journeys into other realms of perception and experiences of the visual.


The Artists 



Vipin Vijay



A graduate of Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, multiple award winning Indian screenwriter, video artist, film academic, producer and filmmaker, Vipin Vijay’s works are made under strict independent codes and defy any categorization merging film, documentary, essay, and fiction all into one. His works portray the never-ending interfaces between times, mythical and historic; technologies, new and old; ways of living, past and present, that cut across and connect cinema and reality, memory and image, dream and experience, man and machine. 

His works include, The Egotic World (2000),Khurasyadhara(2001), Hawamahal (2004), Video Game (2006), A Flowering Tree (2007), Broken Glass, Torn Film (2007), A Perfumed Garden (2008), Chitrasutram / The Image Threads (2010), Venomous Folds (2012), Feet upon the Ground (2014), Prathibhasam (2018), Anthropocene Relooked(2018) Small-scale Societies (2018). His films have won short Tiger Award – Rotterdam, Best Film – Signs Du Nuit, Paris, National Film Awards, India (twice), Grand Jury Award MIFF, Golden pearl HIFF, Kodak Award, Kerala State Film & TV Award (thrice), Padmarajan Puraskaram, IDPA Award (thrice), Incredible India Award- IFFI Goa, John Abraham National Awards (thrice), Hassankutty Award- IFFK 2010. Apart from widely shown in film festivals across the world, like Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, São Paulo, Nantes, Montreal, Japan, Vladivostok , his works have also been exhibited in art museums like Serpentine Gallery, London, Ullens Centre for Contemporary art (UGCA) Beijing. He is a recipient of the Sanskriti Award for cultural achievement in filmmaking in India. The prestigious Oberhausen International Film Festival, Germany 2015 honored him with a specially curated retrospective, showcasing his works. Back home, his works were showcased in the ‘Film Maker in Focus’ section by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy at the IDSFFK 2017. He currently works as Professor and heads the film direction & screenwriting department at the K R Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science & Arts, Govt. of Kerala, India.


Parvathi Nayar 



Chennai-based visual artist and writer Parvathi Nayar is known for her multidisciplinary art, centred on complex drawings, video artworks, installations, photography, paintings. Parvathi’s art talks about different engagements with our environments, and the philosophies of inhabiting them.

Her solos which often feature her video works include Atlas of Reimaginings (2018, Chennai), At the Heart of the Question (2018, Singapore), Haunted by Waters (2017, Chennai), Dissonant Images: Drawing in Time, (2016, New Delhi), The Ambiguity of Landscapes (2014, Chennai), I sing the body electric (2008, Mumbai), Win Lose Draw (2007, Singapore) and Drawing is a Verb (Singapore, 2006).

Some of her installations, including those in public spaces, include The Fluidity of Horizons (drawings & sound), Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014/15 curated by Jitish Kallat, Invite/Refuse at the Indo-German DAMned Art project curated by Florian Matzner and Ravi Agarwal (2018); Gender Fluid (Kochi 2018) and Reflecting (on) The Inhabited Crossroads (Kochi, 2016) as part of TheHashtag#Collective of which Parvathi is a founder member; WAVE (2018, trash art installation) Chennai; The Music of the Spheres (Chennai Mathematical Institute, 2016). She pioneered the form of “drawn sculpture” as in the seminal 20-foot high drawing A Story of Flight, Jai He art programme, T2 Terminal, Mumbai international airport.

Her works have been collected by institutions such as the Singapore Art Museum, BMW, HCL, The Sotheby’s Art Institute, The Australia India Institute and Deutsche Bank. Films on Parvathi include Nocturnes by ARTHISTORY+ (2020), "Artists of Chennai: Parvathi Nayar" by photographer/filmmaker Saravana Kumar (2015); ‘V-ideo Ideas Worth Sharing’ Website (Knowledge Partner: Mohile Parikh Centre), http://www.v-ideo.art/videos/176 (2017) Parvathi Nayar Artist Interview at http://kochimuzirisbiennale.org/artist-interview-parvathi-nayar/(2014)

Parvathi is a writer and poet, and commentator on contemporary culture. She was a TedxChennai speaker (“Seeing the world through Different Lenses”, 2016) and and TedxMumbai (The Secret Ingredient of Creativity Mumbai, 2018).

Parvathi received her Masters in Fine Art from Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, on a Chevening scholarship.


Murali Cheeroth



Murali Cheeroth is a visual artist, BFA and MFA from Shantinikethan, West Bengal.

Murali Cheeroth has exhibited in over 100 significant shows across the globe. He has also taught in CEPT, Ahmedabad, Kanoria Centre for Art, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore and Chennai.Some of his major exhibitions include ‘passage to India’ – the New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen collection in UK (2009); Indian Art summit in New Delhi, SH contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, Chicago Art Fair and London Art Fair in 2010, Colombo Beinnale , 2012, Chalo India – A group show of Contemporary Indian Artists at Basel Art Centre, Basel, Switzerland, Feb 2014. Participated in 2nd Pula Ketam International Art Festival at Pulaketam, Malyasia. Theertha Art Residency, Colombo. India Australia Artist Retreat, Australia India institute, Melbourne University, Australia .Art Residency and show, Gallerie Christian Hosp, Triol, Austria.


Ashish Avikunthak



Ashish Avikunthak has been making films for the past 25 years. In 2014, He was named Future Greats 2014 by Art Review. Its citation succinctly describes his films:
“In an artworld where an increasing number of critics are arguing that much globalised art takes the form of hollowed-out visual Esperanto, Avikunthak’s works insist on an Indian epistemology while utilising a rigorously formal visual language that is clearly aware of Western avant-garde practices such as those of Andrei Tarkovsky and Samuel Beckett. These are self-consciously difficult works that are filmed in a self-consciously beautiful way”.


His films have been shown worldwide in film festivals, galleries and museums. Notable screenings were at the Tate Modern, London, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, Taipei Biennial 2012, Shanghai Biennial 2014, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, along with London, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Berlin film festivals among other locations. He has had retrospective of his works at Wolf Kino, Berlin (2019), Kino Klub, Split, Croatia (2019), Pungent Film Series, Athens, Greece (2018), Centre for Moving Image Arts, Bard College (2015), Apeejay Arts Gallery, New Delhi (2015), Rice University (2014), Signs Festival, Trivandrum (2013), Festival International Signes de Nuit, Paris (2012), Yale University (2008), and National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai (2008) and Les Inattendus, Lyon (2006).

In 2011 he was short listed for the Skoda Prize for Indian Contemporary Art.

He has published scholarly works in Contributions to Indian Sociology, Indian Economic and Social History Review, Journal of Material Culture, Journal of Social Archaeology, The Moving Image, Art India, Deep Focus among other locations. He has a PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology from Stanford University and has earlier taught at Yale University. He is now an Associate Professor in Film/Media at Harrington School of Communication, University of Rhode Island. 


Riyas Komu



A multimedia artist and curator based in Mumbai. Completed his Bachelors & Masters in Painting from Sir. J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1999. He is the Ideator of Kochi- Muziris Biennale and Co-Founder of Kochi Biennale Foundation (est. 2010). He co-curated the first edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012 and has been the Director of Programmes of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (2012, 2014, 2016) and in this capacity, he has initiated the Students' Biennale, Children's Biennale (ABC, Art by Children), Artists Cinema, Music of Muziris, Video Lab, Let's Talk series & History Now (Talks and Seminars), Pepper House Residency & Exhibition.

He has been the Advisor and Visual Arts Curator for Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa in 2016 & 2017 and has conceptualised and curated the 'Young Sub-Continent' project in 2016, 17 & 18. He also curated the Kondotty Sufi Festival in 2019. 

In 2016 he started URU Art Harbour, a cultural hub in Mattancherry, Kochi, (Kerala) which promotes artists from the region focusing on research on Local Culture and Maritime History. Uru Art Harbour also provides a well-supported artist in residency and engages with international artists.

Co-curated first International Football Film Festival in India at Goa International Film Festival and Trivandrum International Film Festival in 2012. As an artist, his works have been exhibited globally including South Africa, Brazil, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, USA, China, UAE, Belgium, The Netherlands and Iran among others. He often responds to the time and thematically explores the political and cultural history of India especially Kerala.


Sumedh Rajendran 



Sumedh Rajendran completed a BFA from the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, Kerala, 1994 and an MFA from the Delhi College of Art, 1999. 

His solo exhibitions include Water without Memory, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2017; Split Distance, Vadehra Art Gallery, 2015; Dual Liquid, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2010; Chemical Smuggle, Grosvenor Vadehra, London, 2008; Final Call, Anant Art Centre, New Delhi, 2007; Street Fuel Blackout, Sakshi Gallery Mumbai, 2006; and Pseudo-Homelands, Rohtas Art Gallery, Lahore. Rajendran has widely exhibited his works in various international exhibitions. These include participation in Indian Highway at Astrup Fearnley Museum, Norway; On the Road to Next Milestone, part of Indian highway at HEART, Herning, Denmark; Zones of Contact, Propositions on the Museum, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; and Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, among others. 

The artist lives and works in New Delhi, India. 


Gigi Scaria 



Gigi Scaria was born in Kothanalloor, a village in southern Kerala, India, in 1973. In 1995, after completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Scaria moved to New Delhi where he undertook a Master of Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia. In the mid-1990s, while establishing his career as a professional artist, Scaria also illustrated children’s books and taught art at an experimental school in New Delhi. 

By 2000, increased international exposure was accompanied by prestigious residency opportunities and solo exhibitions in India, Germany, America, Hungary, the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2002, Scaria was awarded an Inlaks Scholarship, and was artist-in-residence at UNIDEE, Cittadellarte- Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy. Scaria’s creative repertoire includes painting, photography, installation, sculpture, and video. 

Since 2002, he has made over thirty-five video works including: A day with Sohail and Maryan (2004), Home: in/out (2005), Raise your hands those who have touched him (2007), All about the other side (2008), and Raise your hands those who have spoken to him (2010). Subjects of early videos include the children who inhabit the streets of New Delhi, and the memories of people who have met or seen Mahatma Gandhi and Mao Zedong, while recent video work deals with the impact of the rapid growth of India’s cities and the social conditions that have been affected by this change. 

His recent exhibitions include one in 2017 held at Aicon Gallery, New York, titled “All about this side” which included bronze sculptures along with paintings, photographs and video installations. An exhibition of selected works by Scaria titled Iconic Interruptions on Mahatma Gandhi was held at Frederic Jameson Gallery, Duke University was held in September 2017. Ecce Homo: Behold the man or how one becomes what one is, was a recent solo exhibition held in Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi in 2018 


Ranjini Krishnan 



Ranjini Krishnan is a researcher writer and film maker based out of Kerala. Trained in Psychology her research work is concerned about the ‘psychic significance’ of knowledge production endeavours. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore. Her writing, research and other interventions try to understand the connections between conceptual thinking and creative arts. She is the producer and script - writer of the National Award - winning documentary A Pestering Journey (2010), and was one of the script writers of the feature film Kanyaka Talkies (2013) which won an award for Best Screenplay at the New York Indian Film Festival. 'Daughters of Scheherazade' is her debut visual work. 


Radha Gomaty 



Born in 1968 in Kochi, Kerala, India, Radha Gomaty attended the Foundation Program at NID, Ahmedabad, and then went on to do her BA in Fine Arts – (Painting )from Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University, Baroda, while involving herself with the Indian Radical Sculptors & Painters Association in her final year there. Taking periodic breaks from academia to work on various pursuits and diverse occupations, Radha completed a postgraduate course in History of Art from Viswabharathi University, Santhiniketan, and later briefly did research in Aesthetics in preparation for a Ph.D. which she later abandoned. Radha was a voluntary coordinator of Anmpe Media Trust during which time she scripted and was involved in the post production work of the internationally acclaimed documentary "The 18th Elephant-3 Monologues" besides intensive outreach educational work with children & youth on ecological issues.

Radha, also a poet, works in a range of media, including video, painting, sculpture. In a mix of natural and other material, most of her art is layered and conceptual – mythic in nature and classical in approach. Her poetry has been published in two collections and she has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout India. Two of her works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Sacred Art in Brussels, Belgium.

Today Radha heads 'SlingIt!',in collaboration with a small rural women's unit that upcycles lovely bags from tailoring waste, works on Art & Creative Thinking Outreach Sessions as curator& coordinator of EkaRasa in collaboration with Sparcs Studio & writes for Lumiere Organic Home Store.. She is currently also in collaboration with DezynMode in coordinating online programs in Art & Creative Thinking. 


Interaction with the artists / filmmakers on 30, 31 Oct and 1 Nov @ 6 pm; 
message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction


Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 21 : The Last Run

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 21

From 23 Oct, Friday 6 pm! (for 72 hours only)


Film : The Last Run
Dir: Anirban Dutta; 37 min; Bangla with Eng subtitles; 2019

Synopsis : A glorious past withering away in a fast-changing world – The film is about a Postal Runner, a person who runs or walks from one place to another carrying mail bags. The runner used to be held in high regard with tales of his valour coming to life in the myths and folk forms of the land. With improvements in modes of communication, the runner's profession has become almost redundant.

Kalipada Mura, one of the last surviving runners, lives in a small town in Purulia, West Bengal, India. Age has caught up with Kalipada, and he seems a mere spectator as the images from the past, present and future pass by. The film gently explores his metaphorical ‘Last Run’, imbuing it with resonances from history, myth, music and folklore.


Crew:
Script & Direction: Anirban Dutta
Editing: Anupama Srinivasan
Camera: Ranu Ghosh, Mrinmoy Mondal
Location Sound: Abdul Rajjak
Sound postproduction: Sandeep Singh
Colour Grading: Divya Kehr
Producer: Films Division

Festival selections: Collected Voices Film Festival Chicago 2020, intimalente/intimatelens film festival 2020, Chennai International Short Film & Documentary Film festival 2020, Madurai International Film Festival 2019



Anirban Dutta is a filmmaker, still photographer, and media educator based in Delhi, India. He started his career in television in 1996 and set up the film company, Metamorphosis in 2003. He has directed and produced several documentary films and created many photographic essays on diverse topics such as philately, children’s rights, biodiversity, environmental issues, health, and gender and sexuality. His films have traveled to various film festivals such as the New York Short Film Festival, the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival, Al Jazeera International Film Festival, and MIFF. He has been a Visiting Artist at the University of Boise, Utah, USA (2009), Stanica Slovakia (2013), and exhibited in the University of Lima, Peru (2007) in addition to having exhibitions in India.

Anirban has worked in Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and hills of Northeast India. He spent 2008 to 2010 in Nagaland and Manipur mentoring artists and filmmakers. He has worked closely with communities mainly children and young people to address violence, displacement, gender issues, and drugs through art, photography, and film projects.

Selected filmography: Flickering Lights (In post-production), The Last Run (37min, 2019), Tale of Stamps (30 min, 2016), 5 Exchange Lane (19min, 2015), The Mud House (17min, 2011), Beyond the Mountains (20min, 2010), Shadows of Tehri (47min, 2003)

Interaction : We invite you to online interaction via Zoom, with the filmmaker on Sunday at 11 am; message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

In Solidarity with Rahul Roy and Saba Dewan

In Solidarity with Rahul Roy and Saba Dewan: Online Film Screening



1) 22 Oct, from 6 am

Film : When Four Friends Meet
Dir: Rahul Roy; 43 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2000





Synopsis : When Four Friends Meet... they share with the camera their secrets...sex and girls; youthful dreams and failures; frustrations and triumphs. Bunty, Kamal, Sanjay and Sanju, best of friends and residents of Jehangirpuri, a working class colony on the outskirts of Delhi are young and trying to make their lives in an environment which is changing rapidly... girls seem to be very bold... stable jobs are not easy to come by... sex is a strange mix of guilt and pleasure... families are claustrophobic... and the blur of television the only sounding board...

2) 28 Oct, 6 am

Film : Delhi - Mumbai - Delhi
Dir : Saba Dewan; 63 min; Punjabi, Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2006





Synopsis : It is an intimate portrait of Riya, a young woman who earns a living as a dancer in the bars of Mumbai. Riya travels by train from her native city of Delhi to Mumbai, together with many other uneducated girls looking for a better future for themselves and their families. Things are not easy. Even though she is earning a living and has plenty of admirers who give her presents, her line of work does not do much for her reputation. Her family is also getting harassed by the police. Moreover, her boss forces her to work harder and harder to bring in more tips - money that she cannot even keep for herself. When Riya eventually finds a husband, she says she is happy, but the question remains as to whether she will be able to deal with being a housewife.

Organised by Marupakkam in association with Vikalp @ Prithvi (Mumbai), Pedestrian Pictures (Bangalore), Cinema of Resistance (Ghaziabad) and People's Film Collective (Kolkata)

Click here to watch the films! (Kindly note the dates) 

When Four Friends Meet (from 22nd Oct, 6 am)

Delhi - Mumbai  - Delhi (from 28th Oct, 6 am)

Interactions with Rahul Roy and Saba Dewan :

Rahul Roy

Saba Dewan


Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 20 : Some Stories Around Witches

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 20
From 6 pm, 16 Oct (Friday); for 72 hours only

Film : Some Stories Around Witches
Dir: Lipika Singh Darai, 53 min; Odia with Eng subtitles; 2015; Documentary
Produced by PSBT


Synopsis : The film does not deal with witchcraft as a practice. It depicts the humanitarian crisis surrounding the cases of witch hunting taking us closer to the people, who have been accused, ostracized, tortured and the circumstances that have led to it.

The film primarily engages in three cases from some parts of Odisha, India, which finds resonance in other parts of the country as well. A teenage girl kills an old woman, one of her relatives thinking that she is a witch and the cause of her father’s death. A village turns into a mob overnight to kill three people, a man and two women who were identified as witches by a witch doctor. A family believed to bring ill fate, ex communicated and threatened after they cooked meat.

Talking about the nuances of the incidents, the film tries to explore the politics of witch hunting - how superstitions, greed, ignorance, fear, insecurity, power in combination can result in immense suffering.

Crew Details :
Director & Editor : Lipika Singh Darai
Associate Director and Cinematographer : Indraneel Lahiri
Production Assistant: Archis Maan
Sound Editor: Alok Shanti Jha
Sound Mixing: Gandhar Mokashi

Film Festivals :
SIGNS Film Festival, Kerala 2016.
Queen City Film Festival, Maryland, US 2016
Equality Film Festival, Kiev 2016
Free Net World Film Festival, Serbia. 2016
15th International Images Film Festival for Women, Zimbabwe, 2017
Mumbai International Film Festival, MIFF 2018
Shimla International film festival 2017
Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 2018
Social Justice Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2018
Indigenous Film festival of Odisha, 2019
And many independent screenings by film societies and educational institutes across the country.


About the director : Lipika is a filmmaker based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. She is an alumnus of FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) with a specialization in film sound recording. Her journey as an independent filmmaker has taken her all across the culturally diverse state, while documenting the work and lives of folk artists, recording traditional songs of her native Ho tribal community and following the voice of resistance in communities.

Lipika’s films are characterized by strong personal narratives. She is inclined towards mix media work , art research and art performances. Her works try to reflect on the times we are in through a sense of introspection in her films. While her documentary, “Some stories around witches” investigates the humanitarian crisis surrounding the cases of witch-hunts in recent times, her short fiction film “ The waterfall”, specifically made for schools, underlines the need for the voice of resistance to reduce the growing distance between human beings and nature.

Lipika was one of the artists in "City as Studio project" under SARAI, CSDS. In 2017, She participated in “Seoul Biennale of architecture and urbanism” as a visual artist and filmmaker from India. She has been in the jury Panels for various film festivals including IFFI( international Film Festival of India) - Indian Panorama.

Lipika's films have been screened across various national and international platforms. She has received four National Film Awards in non-feature film category in various capacities in the period of 2010-2017 presented by the President of India.

She is currently finishing a feature length documentary produced by Films Division, India, on the folk art form of puppetry in Odisha.

Interaction : We invite you to an online interaction with the director on 18th Oct, Sunday @ 11 am.

Click here to watch the film (from 16th Oct, Friday @ 6 pm )

Monday, October 5, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 19 : Songs of our Soil

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 19
From 6 pm, 9 Oct, Friday; for 72 hours!

Film : Songs of our Soil
Dir: Aditi Maddali; 52 min; Telugu with Eng subtitles; 2019


Original title: పని పాట పోరాటం (Pani Paata Poratam)
English title: Songs of our Soil
Language: Telugu with English subtitles
Duration: 52 mins

Synopsis: Uyyala songs are an agricultural tradition rooted in the political expression of women in Telangana. Through these oral traditions, Songs of our Soil traces the histories of resistance and memories of disillusionment experienced by women across political assertions in the region.

From women’s participation in the historical Telangana People’s Movement to the demands of justice from the contemporary Mallana Sagar Irrigation project, this film attempts to complicate the relationship between memory, history, and cultural production in women's political journeys.

This project is made possible with a grant from India Foundation for the Arts under the Arts Research programme, with support from Titan Company Ltd.


Crew details:
Editing: Lavanya Ramaiah
Cinematography: Kevin Jason Crasta, Fazil NC
Sound: Nagarjun Thallapalli
Translation: Shalini Mahadev, Pranoo Deshraju
Research: Aditi Maddali


About the director: Aditi Maddali is a researcher and multimedia producer based in Mumbai. She is interested in engaging with affect and everydayness in political journeys of women.

Pani Paata Poratam is her first independent documentary film.

Interaction : We invite you to an interaction with the filmmaker via Zoom on Sunday, 11 Oct at 11 am; message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the program.

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 18 : So Heddan So Hoddan

Marupakkam Online Film Screening # 18

From 2nd Oct (Friday) 6 pm; for 72 hours only!

Film: So Heddan So Hoddan (Like Here Like There)
Dir : Anjali Monteiro and K P Jayasankar; 52 min; Sindhi, Kachchhi, Hindustani with English subtitles; 2011; Documentary



Synopsis : Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a medieval Sufi poet, is an iconic figure in the cultural history of Sindh. Bhitai's Shah Ji Risalo is a remarkable collection of poems which are sung by many communities in Kachchh and across the border in Sindh (now in Pakistan). Many of the poems draw on the eternal love stories of Umar-Marui and Sasui-Punhu, among others. These songs speak of the pain of parting, of the inevitability of loss and of deep grief that takes one to unknown and mysterious terrains. Umar Haji Suleiman of Abdasa, in Kachchh, Gujarat, is a self taught Sufi scholar; once a cattle herder, now a farmer, he lives his life through the poetry of Bhitai. Umar's cousin, Mustafa Jatt sings the Bheths of Bhitai. He is accompanied on the Surando, by his cousin Usman Jatt. Usman is a truck driver, who owns and plays one of the last surviving Surandos in the region. The Surando is a peacock shaped, five-stringed instrument from Sindh.

The film explores the life worlds of the three cousins, their families and the Fakirani Jat community to which they belong. Before the Partition the Maldhari (pastoralist) Jatts moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. As pastoral ways of living have given way to settlement, borders and industrialisation, the older generation struggles to keep alive the rich syncretic legacy of Shah Bhitai, that celebrates diversity and non-difference, suffering and transcendence, transience and survival. These marginal visions of negotiating differences in creative ways resist cultural politics based on tight notions of nation-state and national culture; they open up the windows of our national imagination.



Credits : Direction: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar Camera: K.P. Jayasankar Location Sound: Harikumar M. Editing: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar

Film festivals: Film South Asia 2011, Kathmandu, Nepal Open Frame 2011, New Delhi Indian Panorama 2011 Vibgyor International Film Festival 2012, Kerala, India 11th Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2012 Mumbai International Film Festival 2012 International Festival of Folk Music, Kathmandu, 2012 Madurai International Film Festival, 2012 IntimaLente festival, Caserta, Italy, 2012 RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2013 Parramasala, Sydney 2013 Sydney Intercultural Film Festival 2013

Awards : Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) 2011 Awards: Silver for Cinematography, Silver for Sound Design and Silver for Script Best Film Award, International Festival of Folk Music, Kathmandu, 2012 Basil Wright Prize, RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, Edinburgh, 2013



About the filmmakers : Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are Retired Professors, School of Media and Cultural Studies (www. smcs.tiss.edu), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and research. They have played a key role in setting up the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS and the MA programme in Media and Cultural Studies. They teach courses in documentary and video production as well as theoretical approaches to image making practices. They have done pioneering and innovative work in critical media education with various groups including government officials, activists, school and college students, parents and teachers.

Their documentary films, which have been screened across the world, have won 33 national and international awards. A presiding theme of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates.

Interaction : Zoom interaction with the filmmakers on 4th Oct, Sunday at 11 am. Message to 9940642044 for ID and password to attend the interaction.

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