7th Chennai Film Festival 2019 : Gandhi, Gandhiness and Cinema Vimarsha : Curated and Presented by Amrit Gangar

Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2019
6-10 Feb; jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM & Goethe-Institut, Chennai

GANDHI, GANDHINESS AND CINEMA VIMARSHA
 Curated and presented by Amrit Gangar

Curatorial Note

The year 2019 combines two 150th birth anniversaries – of Bāpu and Bā! It is Mohan-Kastur (MK) 150! Mohan never liked movies but yet he remained one of the most filmed persons in the world, wherever he went camera followed him. Narrative films continue being made around his persona in India and abroad. He remains a phenomenon. And he never liked cinema.

What is, however, relevant is Gandhiness; being close to Gandhian ethos and praxis. What are the factors that could essentially constitute Gandhiness? How could they be applied to making life and films in the changing environments of overwhelming consumerist forces and globalization in the Age of Technology? How could the omniscient and omnipresent moving image be a negotiating agent? Could the ancient Indian wisdom perceive the all-pervading embrace of the Trinity of Jnāna (Knowledge), Abhyāsa (Practice) and Vairāgya (Detachment)?

Are there films and filmmakers and artists who believe in the rigor of austerity and yet produce profound thoughts through cinematographic minimalism? The holistic Gandhiness becomes more enduring and illuminating than the so-called Bollywoodian Gandhigiri.

In his 150th birth anniversary year, how could Bāpu be evoked and invoked in a more interactive way through cinema? In the process, this curated event will turn into a kind of an interactive workshop.

Vimarsha = Deliberation

Amrit Gangar is a Mumbai-based author, curator, film theoretician and historian, working in the field of cinema for over three decades. He has worked both on production and creative sides of a number of film and video installation projects from numerous European and Scandinavian countries. Besides his curatorial engagements, for the past decade he is engaged with his theoretical concept of Cinema of Prayoga and has presented it at various venues including the Tate Modern, London; Pompidou Centre, Paris, etc. He had conducted a master class on Cinema of Prayoga for Ph.D. students at the Sorbonne University, Paris.

Amrit Gangar has authored and edited several books on cinema in English and Gujarati, two of which have been awarded by the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi. He was artistic consultant along with Marina Abramovic on Total Masala Slammer, a dance-theatre production directed by Michael Laub, produced by Hebbel Theatre, Berlin. He was also a production executive on the Lars von Trier-Jorgen Leth collaboration, The Five Obstructions besides being part of Classic Incantations: The German Film Orchestra Babelsberg Performs A.R Rahman during the Germany Year in India, 2011-2012.

Over the years, he has been conducting many interactive film workshops all over Gujarat. Gangar was Indian correspondent for ARTiT, a Tokyo-based bilingual art journal and the Film International published from Tehran. At present he is on the Editorial Board of the bilingual monthly Chalachitra Sameeksha published by the Chalachitra Academy of Kerala