PARADIGM NON-SHIFT : Robert Bresson ↔ Mani Kaul ↔ Amit Dutta : Curated by Amrit Gangar

6th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai 

PARADIGM NON-SHIFT

Robert Bresson ↔ Mani Kaul  ↔ Amit Dutta

A Curatorial Note by Amrit Gangar

Not to use two violins when one is enough

Being a young art, cinematography stands in a certain beneficial position; it has its long hindsight. Eclectic! Autonomous! Hybrid! Intellectual! Emotional! In her short life, cinematography has had her own shining of sparks some of which have been articulated in an enduring state! Not as long theories or dissertations, or diaries and memoirs, but as short aphorisms and reflections and yet not losing their depth nor profundity. Not even playfulness.

Hands – Pickpocket, Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson becomes the precursor. He had been writing his short notes from 1950 but they got published first in French then in English much later; almost two and a half decades after! Mani Kaul who considered Bresson as one of his mentors along with Ritwik Ghatak, had also been jotting down his thoughts somewhere on his mind’s wall or on his diary’s blank pages, which got published in a journal as ‘Director Reflects…’. Amit Dutta, the youngest, had kept diaries (writing of which was a mandatory part of his study) when he was a student at the Film & Television Institute of India in Pune. Thoughts get nestled into memories and memories linger, some short, some long distances. Amit articulated his reflections in a book form as a chhatra first published in Hindi and English to be published soon. 

Hands – Uski Roti, Mani Kaul

My curatorial engagement is around what i call the Triveni Sangam, a confluence of three rivers where one is even invisible. An absence! In my perceived Triveni Sangam, there are points of meetings and departures too and that imbue cinematography with a sense of wonder, a sense of fascination. My curatorial engagement will be to try and explore these bhāvas, fathom them like a true rasika and share them in a sabhā, a congregation and see how the proverbial paradigm has not really shifted. The distillation process will broadly undergo the following stages.

Hands – The Unknown Craftsman, Amit Dutta

Vaachan: i will read some sections at random but within contexts from all the three Notes connecting thoughts, bhāvana (the cause of memory which arises from direct perception) and vibhāvana (imagination, a possibility).

Pradarshan: Screening of relevant films / excerpts from all the three filmmakers connecting with the readings and feelings.

Manthan: A collective churning; charchā, a discussion.

Amrit Gangar

Curator

Books / Notes:

Amit Dttta: Many Questions To Myself : ‘Notebook of an Indian Film Student’ (2000 - 2017).

Mani Kaul: Director’s Reflections, Cinema in India Annual, 1991.

Robert Bresson: Notes on Cinematography, Tr. Jonathan Griffin, 1977.

Amrit Gangar (photo by RV Ramani)

Amrit Gangar is a Mumbai-based writer, film theorist, curator and historian. He has presented his theoretical concept Cinema of Prayoga at different venues in India and abroad including the Tate Modern, London; Lodz Film School, Poland; the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen; Students Centre, Zagreb, Croatia; Santiniketan, Jnanapravaha and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in India. His essays on cinema have appeared in a number of edited and peer-reviewed books and anthologies. He writes both in English and Gujarati languages and his Gujarati books, viz. Cinema Vimarsha and Rupantar have been awarded by the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi. His latest book in English The Music that Still Rings at Dawn, Every Dawn: Walter Kaufmann in India, 1934-1946 published by the Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhvaan Mumbai has been highly acclaimed 

Gangar has served juries of several national and international film festivals and has worked as Consultant Curator of the National Museum of Indian Cinema being set up in Mumbai. Besides having curated numerous film programs over the years for the Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films, Kala Ghoda Artfest, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, etc. he  has also worked on a number of productions of documentary, short, feature films and video installations from Scandinavia and Europe.