[Englecturers] Bombay Film Screening and Discussion

[John Ganim]

>
>
>>
>>>>>Imagining the City: Two Films on Bombay
>>>>>(Film Screening and Discussion)
>>>>>
>>>>>With filmmakers Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar
>>>>>
>>>>>May 14, 4 PM HMNSS 1500
>>>>>Refreshments will be served
>>>>>
>>>>>Mumbai has been represented in diverse ways in the media- a 
>>>>>range of representations that create a field as complex and 
>>>>>contested as the city itself. Every act of representation is an 
>>>>>exercise of power and resistance that relates to the larger 
>>>>>relations of power, to processes of exclusion and inclusion that 
>>>>>underpin the city. This presentation will explore the strategies 
>>>>>adopted and the dilemmas faced by the filmmakers in representing 
>>>>>the city. Two short films will be screened: Saacha (The Loom) 
>>>>>and Naata (The Bond).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Saacha
>>>>>The Loom
>>>>>49 Mins., Eng., 2001
>>>>>Directed by K.P. Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro
>>>>>Produced by Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata 
>>>>>Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
>>>>>
>>>>>Saacha is about a poet, a painter and a city. The poet is 
>>>>>Narayan Surve, and the painter Sudhir Patwardhan. The city is 
>>>>>the city of Mumbai (a.k.a. Bombay), the birth place of the 
>>>>>Indian textile industry and the industrial working class. Both 
>>>>>the protagonists have been a part of the left cultural movement 
>>>>>in the city. Weaving together poetry and paintings and memories 
>>>>>of the city, the film explores the modes and politics of 
>>>>>representation, the relevance of art in the contemporary social 
>>>>>milieu, the decline of the urban working class in an age of 
>>>>>structural adjustment, the dilemmas of the left and the trade 
>>>>>union movement and the changing face of a huge metropolis.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Naata
>>>>>The Bond
>>>>>English, 2003, 45 Mins.
>>>>>Directed by K.P. Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro
>>>>>Produced by Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata 
>>>>>Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
>>>>>
>>>>>Friends and activists, Bhau Korde and Waqar Khan, work with 
>>>>>neighborhood peace committees in Dharavi, Mumbai to promote 
>>>>>conflict resolution through the collective production and use of 
>>>>>visual media. Korde and Khan are both long-time residents of 
>>>>>Dharavi and both first-generation migrants to the city. As 
>>>>>Asia''s largest slum, with a population of 800,000, Dharavi has 
>>>>>often been represented as a breeding ground for filth, vice and 
>>>>>poverty, full of immigrants whose right to live in the city is 
>>>>>often questioned by vigilante citizens'' groups and right-wing 
>>>>>politicians. However, Dharavi''s long history of immigration has 
>>>>>created a creative, productive space which plays an important 
>>>>>role in the economy of the city; it is one of the major hubs of 
>>>>>the informal sector that produces commodities ranging from food 
>>>>>products to leather goods catering to a large export market. 
>>>>>When the deadly riots of 1992-93 tore the city and their 
>>>>>community apart, Korde and Khan were moved to act, working to 
>>>>>change both the negative perception of Dharavi and erase 
>>>>>religious and ethnic divisions. Naata follows these remarkable 
>>>>>men as they work on their film, Ekta Sandesh - their work 
>>>>>paralleling that of Naata''s own filmmakers, another filmmaking 
>>>>>pair who are immigrants to their city of Bombay. Traveling with 
>>>>>a projector and a screen, Korde and Khan show the film at their 
>>>>>own expense in communities savaged by distrust and prejudice. 
>>>>>The two pairs of filmmakers join forces in this documentary to 
>>>>>spread their important message even further.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Both films have been screened at numerous film festivals around the world.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
>>>>>Anjali Monteiro is Professor, and K.P. Jayasankar is Professor 
>>>>>and Chair, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute 
>>>>>of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Monteiro has a Masters degree in 
>>>>>Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. Jayasankar has an M.A. in 
>>>>>German language and a Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences. 
>>>>>Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and 
>>>>>research. Their work has been screened extensively at film 
>>>>>festivals all over the world and they have won thirteen national 
>>>>>and international awards for their films. These include the Prix 
>>>>>Futura Berlin 1995 Asia Prize for Identity- The Construction of 
>>>>>Selfhood, a Special Mention of the Jury at MIFF ''96 for 
>>>>>Kahankar: Ahankar, the Certificate of Merit at MIFF ''98 and 
>>>>>Best Innovation, Astra Film Festival 1998, Sibiu, Romania for 
>>>>>YCP 1997 and the Best documentary award at the IV Three 
>>>>>Continents International Festival of Documentaries 2005, 
>>>>>Venezuela, for SheWrite.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>They have several papers in the area of media and cultural 
>>>>>studies and have contributed to scholarly journals such as 
>>>>>Cultural Studies. They are both recipients of the Howard Thomas 
>>>>>Memorial Fellowship in Media Studies, and have been attached to 
>>>>>Goldsmith''s College, London and the University of Western 
>>>>>Sydney. Monteiro has been awarded a Fulbright visiting lecturer 
>>>>>fellowship for 2006-07 and is attached to the Center for South 
>>>>>Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley. They also 
>>>>>serve as visiting faculty to several leading media and design 
>>>>>institutions across India. They are both actively involved in 
>>>>>''Vikalp'' and ''Films for Freedom'', which are collectives of 
>>>>>documentary filmmakers campaigning for freedom of expression. 
>>>>>They are also associated with various media and voluntary organizations.
>>>>>
>>>>>Georgia Warnke
>>>>>Professor of Philosophy
>>>>>Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities
>>>>>College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
>>>>>951-827-2763
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John M. Ganim
President, New Chaucer Society
Professor of English
Department of English
University of California, Riverside
900 University Avenue
Riverside CA 92521
TEL (951) 827-1540
FAX (951) 827-3967
ON CAMPUS PHONE 21540
EMAIL John.Ganim at UCR.EDU
http://www.english.ucr.edu/people/faculty/ganim/index.html
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~chaucer/

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