PSBT OPEN FRAME 2014
PROGRAMME
(The Programme is subject to change.)
29 AUGUST, FRIDAY
AUDITORIUM
SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSIONS MODERATED BY RITA BANERJI
Rita heads Dusty Foot Productions, a filmmaking and communications agency focusing on environment, wildlife and grassroots issues. She has been part of several awardwinning films over the last 20 years, including three Panda Award winning films at Wildscreen Festival, that include The Wild Meat Trail. Wildscreen Festival in UK is one of the most prestigious wildlife and environment film festivals internationally and the awards are also known as the Green Oscars.
10:00 AM: THE FORGOTTEN TIGERS |Krishnendu Bose | 52 min. | 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
The Film is an exploration into the lives of tigers and the forest spaces they live in, which are outside the tiger reserves. These spaces are less protected, have human presence and some are working forests.Some have increasing development pressures on them and some are inhospitable habitats with meagre resources. Do these tigers teach us something new about conservation?
Krishnendu set up Earthcare Films, after acquiring a Masters’ degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics. He has since produced many award winning documentaries. He produced the first wildlife series for children in India – Jungle Gang, in collaboration with WWF-India. In 2009, he was awarded the Grand Prix for the Best Film atDokumenta Art Film Festival, Romania, and also presentedtheprestigiousCMS-UNEP PrithviRatna Award for Environment and Wild Life Filmmaking.
11:30 AM: VILLAGE OF DUST, CITY OF WATER |Sanjay Barnela | 30 min. | 2006 | RETROSPECTIVE
A film that negotiates the rough terrain of water use and misuse across India.
- Antelope Award, Best Environment Film, Wild Life Asia Film Festival, Singapore
- Jury Special Mention, Verviers, Au Film De L’eau Film Festival, Belgium
- Film South Asia, Kathmandu
- Margaret Mead Travelling Festival
- Toxic Links, Environmental Film Festival
- Quotes from the Earth Travelling Film Festival
Sanjay is one of the founder members of Moving Images, a Delhi-based media production team comprising filmmakers and researchers who engage with a variety of issues of common concern. He has produced documentaries on a diverse range of issues, including the politics of water, conservation vs. livelihood, renewable energy technologies and high altitude mountain climbs in the Himalayas.Sanjay’s films have been nominated at several international film festivals and have won awards too.
12:00 PM: MERE DESH KI DHARTI| Sumit Khanna | 60 min. | 2006 | RETROSPECTIVE
In our effort to achieve food security, have we compromised on food safety? The Film investigates the impact of pesticides as they enter the food chain.
- Best Investigative Film, 54th National Film Awards
- International North South Media Festival, Geneva
- 48°C Eco Art Festival, New Delhi
- Konark Film Festival, Orissa
- Quotes from the Earth, Travelling Film Festival on Environment, Lehand Chennai
- Development Film Festival, Madurai
Sumit started his film career working as an assistant to directors Aziz Mirza, SaeedMirza and MeghnaGulzar on various feature films and documentaries. He made his first independent documentary in 2002, for PSBT, on the lives of assistant directors in the Mumbai film industry. Since then, he has made numerous documentaries, corporate films and promos for feature films. He was Associate Producer on the acclaimed film Parzania.
SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSIONS MODERATED BY VANI SUBRAMANIAN
One-time advertising writer, Vani has been a women's rights activist and documentary filmmaker since the nineties. Her work as a filmmaker explores the connections between everyday practices and larger political questions, be they in the areas of culture, food production, primary education, urban development, communalism, sex selective abortions, or even matters of identity embedded in our food practices. Her films have been screened and have received awards, both nationally and internationally. More recently, Vani has extended her practice to video art in performance, as well as a mixed media installation.
02:00 PM: WALKING IN THE CITY|ShrikantAgawane| 26 min.| 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
In a city where there are cars and trains and a fast paced life, the simple activity of walking freely on the road to move from one place to another or just taking a stroll, becomes a rarity. In the film, the filmmaker shares his own penchant for walking long distances and thus experiencing the city from the ground level. The Film also explores trendy walking as well as other new urban rituals of walking which have come up in recent times, juxtaposing them with the flaneurs,who look at the city, literally, standing and walking on its margins.
- SiGNS Film Festival, Kochi, Kerala
A graduate of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Shrikant is a Mumbai based filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He expresses himself and his experiences through fiction, non-fiction and new media, keeping the city as a pivotal point. He made Sin Cityfor PSBT and Majlis under their Cinema City project, and Flex N Faces under TISS-CMCS Film Fellowship. Shrikant is currently working on a graphic narrative on the city and its public transport.
03:00 PM: WASTED|AnirbanDatta|52 min.| 2011
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
Wasted looks at the concept of waste and recycle in India from an Easterner’s gaze with a Western vocabulary, in a media language that blooms through the unavoidable influence of the global network society.
- Jury Special Mention, Documentary Competition, John Abraham National Awards, SiGNS
- Bangladesh Short Film and Documentary Festival, Dhaka
- Astra Film Festival, Romania
- Sheharnama Festival, Mumbai
Anirban started his career as a screenwriter before he joined Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute as a student of Direction and Screenplay Writing. His Diploma film Tetris premiered at Cannes and travelled to international festivals. His film .In for Motion, which traces India’s recent growth after economic liberalisation and the information revolution vis-a-visits effect on the vast Indian populace, received the prestigious Jan Vrijman Fund from IDFA, Amsterdam.
04:30 PM: CITY WITHIN THE CITY|TuhinabhaMajumdar| 52 min.| 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
Three Indian cities, three immigrants, a filmmaker and a film which re-examines the changing face of the ‘inner exile’ of the Indian metropolis when the avatar of global capitalism has produced a new territorial mythology of village- the global village. A video-letter by an explicit ‘outsider’-the filmmaker- who records simultaneous stories of cryptic journeys of three immigrants from three Indian villages to three Indian cities to trace the local identity and its existence amidst limits of the city.
Tuhinabhahas a post-graduate Diploma in Filmmaking from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He has over 18 years of experience as a director, editor and writer. His film Raater Bioscope, which he wrote, directed and edited, won the Golden Conch for the Best Fiction Film and the Best Film of the Festival Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival,2012.
06:00 PM: MEMORY OF A LIGHT | Sandhya Kumar| 26 min.| 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
The Filmis an enquiry into what lies at the core of residential architecture. Through memories of architecture and accounts of lived experiences, it searches for this core. Does it lie in the structure and design of a building or in things that cannot be measured but make palpable impressions on the senses? The Film may be seen as a memoir of dwelling, a personal and philosophical journey through many houses of birth, rooms of childhood, the corners of a past and windows of the present.
- SiGNS Film Festival, Kochi, Kerala
Sandhya is a filmmaker based in Bangalore. She has been making documentary films and experimental shorts since 2007. All her work is rooted in non-fiction and inspired by the desire to make visible, the poetry of everyday life. Sandhya holds an MFA in Film from San Francisco Art Institute and an MA in Mass Communication from JamiaMillia University, New Delhi. Her work has been shown in international art and film contexts, such as the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; SF MOMA; the 3rd I South Asian Film Festival and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, among others.
07:00 PM: FILM INTRODUCED BY VIDYA RAO
VidyaRao is a performer of thumri-dadra and ghazal. For many years the disciple of legendary singer, the late VidushiNaina Devi, she has continued her study of this form under the renowned Vidushi Shanti Hiranand and also received taleem from VidushiGirija Devi. She has performed at national and international fora, has lectured and conducted workshops and lecture-demonstrations and has composed and sung for theatre, film and dance. She has also researched and written extensively on music and the performing arts. Her research and writing work has focused on gender and musical form. Her most recent work, Heart to Heart: Remembering Nainaji, is a memoir of life with her guru Naina Devi. Her repertoire ranges over thumri-dadra, ghazal and allied forms, the songs of medieval sufi and bhakti poets, verses from Hindu and Buddhist texts to the Islamic forms of naat, soz, nauha, etc.
ON AND OFF THE RECORDS |Pratik Biswas | 52 min. | 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
The history of 20th Century Hindustani classical music and the travelogue of recording in India are inseparable. How does this constant and continuous interplay affect the aesthetics of one of the oldest musical traditions of the world? What is the impact of this influence on the overall musical experience of both-the musician and the audience? The Film understands this equation through intimate discussions,even as it celebrates the music and art of some of the most beautiful musicians the world has ever known.
Pratik is a self-motivated and self-taught sound technician with over eighteen years of experience. He has worked with reputed music labels in more than 100 audio albums of Indian classical, devotional, contemporary and experimental music, including legends like UstadBismillah Khan, UstadZakirHussain, Pt.Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Smt. GangubaiHangal, Smt. KishoriAmonkar and so on. Son-et-Lumière shows installed at prominent heritage sites of India are an expression of his technical as well as creative ability. Besides sound and filmmaking, Pratik has an active interest in photography, sculpture and painting.
30 AUGUST, SATURDAY
AUDITORIUM
SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSIONS MODERATED BY ANANDANA KAPUR
Anandana is an independent filmmaker and social scientist based in Delhi. She has previously worked in broadcast television and is a published author on Media, Art and Gender. She conducts lectures on Cinema and Culture for exchange students from US, Canada and Europe and is a wiki-educator. Her recent work includes Much Ado about Knotting with GeetikaNarangAbbasi, for PSBT, and the award winning documentary The Great Indian Jugaad. Anandana likes to travel, photograph and collect folklore. She is currently working on a film on grassroots innovation in India.
10:00 AM: NATYANUBHAVA | SharadaRamanathan |55 min. | 2013
Indian Classical Dance is artistic Yoga or Natya Yoga, a means to the revelation of the spiritual through the corporeal. Natyanubhava explores the universal and timeless appeal, as well as the diverse and evolved aesthetics of Indian Classical Dance by following its evocative narrative from ancient to contemporary India, as also as an artistic manifestation of the Indian civilisation.
Sharada is a filmmaker and board member of the World Culture Forum, India. Her feature film Sringaram- Dance of Love, has been featured in international film festivals at Dubai, New York, Kerala and Los Angeles; and won three national and two state film awards in India. She has also been associated with the Ford Foundation, the India Foundation for the Arts and SPICMACAY. Sharada is a widely published author on culture and development.
11:30 AM: OCEAN OF MELODY (IN TWO PARTS) | LailiDutta | 52 min. | 2014
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker
The Films delve into the key aspects that construct the framework of Indian classical music, the fluidity that this form of music allows within a well-defined structure – one that is derived intrinsically from constant improvisations by the performer. While explaining the practical aspects of swaraand how their interplay over time created structures and formats in the form of Ragas, the narrative also explores the relationship shared by the master and the disciple in the backdrop of the age old Guru ShishyaParampara. TheFilms bring out the incomparable intensity and depth that this form of music holds in its belly.
Lailiis an independent filmmaker, media consultant, musician and educationist. An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College and MCRC, Jamia, she started her career as a video journalist with NDTV. Documentaries like Imagining our Future Together, VidyaRao- A Search Begins, Dhwani, Remains of the Caravan Route are some of her noteworthy works. She has had the privilege to travel extensively and present her musical performances in different parts of the country and beyond shores.
SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSIONS MODERATED BY AKANKSHA JOSHI
Akanksha is in the nature of wandering minstrels, a story-teller who uses film, sound, text and dance to share her experiences of the visible and inner worlds. She is also an award winning filmmaker and photographer. Her oeuvre stretches from stories of compassion, Gujarat 2002 – Passengers, to spending four years on the banks of Chilika Lake in Orissa. Another few roaming the forests, the deltas and the arid lands for her most recent award winning work - Earth Witness. She is the recipient of many awards for cinematography, direction and a nomination for the Wild Screen Awards at Bristol 2012. She continues to be a one woman film company who films, edits, scripts and directs herself.
02:30 PM: IF YOU PAUSE- IN A MUSEUM OF CRAFT|Sameera Jain| 30 min. | 2004 | RETROSPECTIVE
A cinematic document of the reflections of the urban middle class on varied images and experiences of being in a museum and the concealed stories of the people behind the art and craft.
- Mumbai International Film Festival
- Konark Film Festival, Orissa
Sameera is a noted filmmaker and editor. Her film Portraits of Belonging was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the Mumbai International Film Festival. Born at Home, a film on indigenous childbirth practices, participated at numerous film festivals including Mediawave Film Festival, Hungary; Film South Asia, Kathmandu, and the Margaret Mead Festival in New York.
03:00 PM: STAINED GLASS | MeeraDewan | 52 min. |2012