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. 

Retrospective : Sanjay Maharishi

6th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM & Goethe-Institut, Chennai

Retrospective : Sanjay Maharishi

Sanjay Maharishi is a director, producer, cinematographer, and editor and has been making documentary films since 1991. His exploratory films reflect his wide range of interests from ancient traditions of water engineering, to those around education, crafts, arts and theatre. His film on the eminent theatre director, Habib Tanveer, (My Name is Habib, My Village is Theatre) has been widely screened in India and around the world, including the Kathmandu Film Festival and the Prithvi Festival in Mumbai.

For the past few years he has collaborated with the National School of Drama, New Delhi, to produce a series of films on Contemporary Directors, theatre processes and traditional urban theatre. The first three parts of this series were screened at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav, NSD's annual theatre festival, New Delhi, 2009. In 2002-03 he initiated 'Travelling Documentary' a mobile documentary screening programme in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers. He works closely with children and young adults in workshops to produce films in various genres. Sanjay lives and works from Delhi.

The Films:

Circus Theatre

Dir: Sanjay Maharashi; 50 min

In 2010 theatre director Abhilash Pillai brought a group of his students from the National School of Drama to work with circus artists in Irindjalkuda in Kerala. The film documents the challenges faced by both theatre people on one hand who have never performed in a ring and circus artists who do not know basic norms of theatre like blocking or story telling. An exciting time for all.

Remains of a Dream

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi & Sreekala Sivasankaran; 70 min

The film moves between the past and present Cochin Jewish life through memoirs, interviews of local communities, writers and scholars and places that tell the stories of presence and absence of Jews in Kerala today.

Making of King Lear

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 50 min

The well known Uzbek theatre director Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli interprets Shakespeare's King Lear in his distinct style and brings out yet another adaptation of this fabulous play. Nature plays a big part in his narration as does memories of a peaceful childhood.

Kahinoor

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 10 min

Kahinoor is a short film that introduces the travelling theatre of Assam, a unique form, hardly seen anywhere in its expanse and reach. About a hundred and fifty people travel in trucks, buses and cars on a predefined itinerary for a year from village to village. Assam does not have too many film halls and the travelling theatre provides for popular entertainment, just as films do in other parts of the country.

Nautanki

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 10 min

This short film introduces to the viewer, a unique style of northern India called Nautanki or Swang. The film, although short, traverses three centres known as the origins of Nautanki, namely Mathura, Vrindavan and Hathras.

Ajay

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 10 min

I met Ajay on the road in the Kangra Valley in Himachal Pradesh. I was fascinated to see how he was looking after his small vegetable shop but his heart was in the guitar kept by his side.

Homage : S Sukhdev

6th Chennai International Documentary Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai

Homage : S. Sukhdev

Film screening and Interaction to remember and celebrate S Sukhdev

Sukhdev, who had served a long period of apprenticeship with Paul Zils and later became his assistant, is generally regarded as one of India's best documentary filmmakers. With a career spanning over two decades, Sukhdev has more than 60 films to his name and over 35 international and national awards. His work serves as an archival documentation of an emerging India – at times a critical voice that spoke with honesty, and not with the tone of state ordained propaganda that was rife in documentations of the nascent republic during the era. He showed an early promise with films like And Miles to Go and After the Eclipse, both of which had a socio-political content. However, he came to the fore with an hour-long documentary India '67. This was followed by another monumental work Nine Months to Freedom on the emergence of Bangladesh. 

1) India 67 - An Indian Day

Dir: Sukdev; 55 min; 1967; Color; No dialogue

Produced and directed by S. Sukhdev, this film is a cinematic perusal of the contrasts, contradictions and diversity of India. The film has no commentary, but the shots speak for themselves. Just like Indian feature films, this film also has drama and songs, but these are ‘real-life’ rather than conceived specially for this film. The film produces the same effect on the viewers as a month-long visit to India, a sense of having seen everything and a sense of having seen nothing, both at the same time. Shot almost half a century ago, the film is still relevant to the present day 21st century India.

2) Nine Months to Freedom

Dir: Sukhdev; 66 min; 1975; Color; English

When the Bangladesh pogrom began, Sukhdev was one of the very few Indian filmmakers who was in the thick of the action at considerable physical risk. The result was Nine Months to Freedom, a work of compelling power. The Bangladesh story is placed in historical perspective from the emergence of Pakistan upto the return of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to his people. The basic conflict that arose between the two wings of Pakistan - the language problem, the riots, the demands for freedom from exploitation and for self rule, the crackdown by the Pakistan Army, the exodus of refugees, the nine-month-long struggle, the genocide and the rapes and mass destruction - Sukhdev's camera shows it all.

3) And Miles to Go

Dir: Sukhdev; 14 min; 1967; B&W; English

Assisted by the voice of Zul Vellani, the film is an emphatic call to the citizens of India to be active participants in the future of the country. Made twenty years after India's independence, the film attempts to provoke through a montage of contradicting lifestyles.

4)The Vanishing Tribe

Dir: Paul Zils; 16 min; 1961; Color; English

A documentary on the Todas, the origingal inhabitants of the Nilgiris, 'the Blue Mountains' of South India. The origin of the Todas is shrouded in mystery but what is interesting about them is that their traditions and elaborate ceremonies have remained unchanged ever since the days of their forefathers

Sukhdev assisted Paul Zils in this film.

5) Voice of the People

Dir: Sukhdev; 16 min; 1974; B&W; Hindi

Maker of this film, S. Sukhdev says in the beginning : "On the 16th ofApril, I read a news items that there is going to be an all Indiarailway strike. I got a little worried; we decided to take the cameraout to the people and asked them a few questions."Views from the cross-section of society are elicited on the questionwhether such a strike should take place or not.

Filmmaker in Focus : Bernd Lützeler

6th Chennai International Documentary Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai

Filmmaker in Focus : Bernd Lützeler 

Artist and filmmaker Bernd Lützeler lives and works between Berlin and Mumbai. In his works he explores techniques of moving image production and presentation in relation with their form and perception. Loops, found footage and jugaad (diy) technologies are an integral part of his films and expanded cinema works. His travels to Mumbai have a strong impact on his work that often looks into the aesthetics of popular Indian cinema and television within the urban context. His films have been shown at venues and festivals worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Berlinale International Film Festival, Rotterdam, San Francisco Cinematheque, Views from the Avant-Garde and many more. Bernd is an active member of the artist-run analogue filmlab LaborBerlin.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

In my films, installations and expanded cinema works I often explore the techniques of moving image production and presentation in interrelation with their form and perception. Therefore, loops, found footage and the disclosure of DIY- and analogue technologies have become an integral part of my work. I am an active member of the artist-run filmlab  LaborBerlin e.V., a space where filmmakers can process, edit and copy their own films on 8 and 16mm celluloid film. Another strong influence in my work are the aesthetics of popular Indian culture. Over the last sixteen years I have spent a significant amount of time in Mumbai where some of my projects were produced. What fascinates me, is seeing universal global themes like urban angst, mass media or migration gaining an emphasis against the backdrop of inequality and overpopulation in contemporary urban India.

1. the Voice of God 

India & Germany, 2011, 35mm, 1:1.85, 10 min

Voiceover - Harish Bhimani

If God would come down to earth and try to earn a living in Bombay, most probably he

would very soon become successful as a voice over artiste, lending his voice to thousands

of hindi movies and even more documentaries and public service films in India.

A melo-dramatic docu-drama with voice-over in stop-motion and long-time exposure.

2. Traveling with Maxim Gorkiy

Dir: Bernd Lützeler & Kolja Kunt

Germany, 2014, Super-8, 1:1.37, 11 min

As so often, also here it's rather about allusion than description. This also applies to the

persons represented. Flat silhouettes of people. Their heads depicted in profile. Faces

with no expression, formal gestures. In the background, a little bit of everyday life: 

The hard, square, stone architecture arises from ocher-colored, brownish, blackish mush of

color or mud. A demonstration of the function of the central perspective. An idealized

representation of a tropical paradise. Strangely, there's no absurdity in this.

3. Batagur Baska [by Guido Möbius]

music video, directed by Bernd Lützeler

Germany, 2016, Super-8, 1:1.37, 8 min

They gather here every day. They come from far and without purpose. They don't know

each other and they won't come to know each other. They carry their gadgets to optimize

the experience. They engage with the world through a small frame. They believe that this

moment will remain unforgotten.

4. Fictitious Force

by Philip Widmann

India & Germany, 2015, Super 16, b&w, 1:1.78, 15 min

with Tarun Katari

Cinematography - Basab Mullik

Additional Cinematography - Bernd Lützeler

Conception & Montage - Philip Widmann

A theorem from physics that describes apparent forces in circular motion when observed

from an external frame of reference lends its name to this film: Fictitious Force is a

cinematic exchange on the impossibility of sharing experiences, in black and white and

grey.

5. Camera Threat

India & Germany, 2017, 35mm & DCP, 1:1.85, 30 min

with Mansi Multani, Pushpendra Singh & Girish Pardeshi

Voiceover - Harish Bhimani & Shai Heredia

Somewhere in the rather dreary spheres of Mumbai's film industry, stuck between

star-cult, superstition and the daily gridlock, Camera Threat explores the ambivalent, and

sometimes paranoid relationship that this film city has with the moving image as such.

Seated on a casting couch, two actors are getting trapped in their impromptu

conversations on the unwanted side effects of a world that no longer bothers to tell facts

from fiction. An expanded multi-genre film within the constraints of the so-called Masala

Formula popularly known from Indian cinema,

Filmmaker in Focus : Shazia Khan

6th Chennai International Documentary Short Film Festival 2018

Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai

Filmmaker in Focus : Shazia Khan

Shazia khan is an award winning Indian filmmaker , with over 15 years in the field as director, cinematographer and producer, her work often draws upon her own life experience. Her internationally acclaimed and screened  films,  Caravan,(2008) Salam India(2009) and Sama Muslim Mystic Music of India(2014)  profoundly document the historical, ethnographic,  and spiritual coexistence of Muslims in the largest democracy of world, India. 

Having been born in the conflict torn state of Kashmir, she is passionate about human rights , social justice  and migration , giving a voice to the situation in Kashmir, she is working on a fiction film SnowFairies  and the distribution of a  point of view doc I Never left , which won the best pitch in Docedge Kolkatta  and has been awarded the prestigious Chicken and Egg Pictures grant and the IDFA Bertha Fund grant. She also has an upcoming doc with PSBT on women who practice the martial art of Kalaripayattu and has a web series in development  starring Pooja Kumar in USA. In her free time you would possibly find her meditating on a beach in south India or los angles.

Films:

Salam India

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; English

India today is home to 16 million Muslims, the second largest population of Muslims in the world. ‘Salaam India’ documents the extra/ordinary lives of some of them.

The documentary engages some young Muslim adults, asking them a question: what is an Indian muslim?. A group of friends and a radio jockey from Delhi, a trainee cleric at Deoband in uttar pradesh, a gaffer in mumbai’s film industry, even the inimitable Sania Mirza talk about: Are they Indians? Are they muslims? Are these two different questions?

Caravan 

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; English

‘Caravan’ is a documentary that explores the confluence of Islam and India, and the resultant composite cultural integral to India.

Beginning 6^th century AD, there have been several carriers of Islam to the sub-continent: Arab traders, territorial invaders, the Mughal emperors and the religious mystic Sufis. In distinct ways, these carries affected and were affected by, the manners and morals of a changing, evolving India, so giving rise to an Indo-Islamic identity, inseparable from present – day India.

SAMA

Dir: Shazia Khan; 54 min; English

SAMA is the story of Indian Islamic Music, born out of a union of Indian and Islamic traditions, more than a thousand years ago. It explores the intermingling of these, in both form and content, to become a truly magnificent sound. 

SAMA takes the journey to many breathtaking  locations across India and explores how this music organically blends to absorb cultures and flavours , yet retains its original texture.In doing so the film explores the kaleidoscope of Islamic culture in India and the contacts and conflicts of Islamic India with indigenous elements particularly those of Hinduism.

6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018: Screening Schedule - Day 5, 19 April

6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018

Screening Schedule - Day 5, 19 April

Guest speakers:

Arun Neduncheziyan, activist

Kombai Anwar, filmmaker

9:30 am Saints of Sin

Dir: Aniruddha Sen; 80 min; English; Documentary; India

The Saints of Sin is a lyrical journey of emotion and experiences of Seven and a Half Bengali women spread all over the globe between Nairobi to New York to New Delhi and Bombay. Built on intimate conversations recorded over three years, the film explores the lives of Debbie, Runa, Srila, Gopi, Shreya, Swati, Paro and Pradipta, where each of them acknowledges her propensity towards one of the Sins and speaks of her negotiations with it. 

11 am SD: Saroj Dutta & His Times

Dir: Kasturi Basu and Mitali Biswas; Bangla with English subtitles/ 115 mins/ 2018; Rest of India

In 1971, Saroj Dutta, communist revolutionary and poet, disappeared from the city of Kolkata. His was a copybook case of forced disappearance amidst widespread State repression on communist rebels. A secret killing that since became part of the urban folklore, a crime the State denies till date.

Using Saroj Dutta’s writings, poems, memories that inhabit spaces and sites in the present-day city, a flood of rich archival material and conversations with several active participants of the heady days of the first phase of the Naxalbari movement (1967-1972), this documentary explores how Saroj Dutta’s story - in its eventful turns and brutal execution - talks to our present.

1:00 Salaam India

Dir: Shazia Khan; 60 min; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Filmmaker in Focus

India today is home to 16 million Muslims, the second largest population of Muslims in the world. ‘Salaam India’ documents the extra/ordinary lives of some of them.

The documentary engages some young Muslim adults, asking them a question: what is an Indian muslim?. A group of friends and a radio jockey from Delhi, a trainee cleric at Deoband in uttar pradesh, a gaffer in mumbai’s film industry, even the inimitable Sania Mirza talk about: Are they Indians? Are they muslims? Are these two different questions?

2 :30 pm to 5 pm

Guest speakers:

Salai Basheer, activist

MD Muthukumarasamy, folklorist / writer / critic

2 :30 pm Remains of a Dream

Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 65 min; Retro

The film moves between the past and present Cochin Jewish life through memoirs, interviews of local communities, writers and scholars and places that tell the stories of presence and absence of Jews in Kerala today.

3:45 Nostalgia for the Future

Dir: Rohan Shivkumar & Avijit Mukul Kishore; 54 min; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Rest of India

Nostalgia for the Future is a film on Indian Modernity, the making of the citizen and the architecture of the home. It looks at imaginations of homes across four examples of buildings made over the period of a century. These are Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda, Villa Sodhaan in Ahmedabad, Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and public housing in post independence Delhi, designed by the Government of India to house refugees from Pakistan and the bureaucrats of the newly independent nation.

4:45 The Simple Day

Dir: Maria Kristoforova; 21 min; No dialogue; International

The simple day in the life of rickshaw driver in Delhi, India.

5:10 Belonging to Untouchable God 

Dir: Anuj Kumar; 26 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India

Story of Ramkali Devi, a dalit woman from Bihar who once was a bonded labourer, now an independent farmer after a long struggle for justice.

5:45 to 9 pm

Guest speakers:

Johnson Rajkumar, filmmaker

Arulmozhi, advocate

Aloor Shanavaz, activist/filmmaker

Someetharan, filmmaker 

5:45 Fireflies

Dir: Johnson Rajkumar; 6:20 min; Rest of India

In 1980s, when Manipur was inflicted with insurgency and armed violence, a group of women came out to the streets to uphold peace in the valley. Meira Paibis are loosely structured groups of women from each locality who volunteered to vigil through the night as a peace-building effort.

‘Fireflies’ takes us through the journey of these women in their struggles to protect their community from atrocities committed by the State. It explores the role of women in the conflict-ridden, male-dominated society of Manipur. Through powerful testimonies, this film looks into how gender identities are negotiated during the time of conflict and violence.

6:00 pm Protest Street

Dir: Debalin Roy, Ekta Handa, Piyush Nagpal; 24 min; Hindi/English/Bengali/Tamil with Eng subtitles; Rest of India

Protest Street is an experimental documentary critiquing the rhetoric of revolutionary activity in a democracy. It is a philosophical voyage trying to locate Jantar Mantar as a space amongst the historic spaces of revolution like Sahbag Square.

6:30 Bismaar Ghar (Withering House)

Dir: Shreyas Dasharathe; 26 min; Gujarati with Eng subtitles; Documentary

Bismaar Ghar (Withering House) is an observational piece about Maheshbhai, Tarunaben, Ganpatbhai and their house. Living in a hundred year old house for the past 20 years in the heart of Ahmedabad, they have decided to move on to a new apartment they got under the Prime Minister's Housing Scheme.

7:00 Closing Ceremony

7:30 Campus Rising 

Dir: Yousuf Saeed; 73 mins; Hindi and English with Eng subtitles; Documentary

While the students' unrest continues in many cities, this film travels to some seven Indian universities (including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad Central University and Banaras Hindu University among others) to record what the students and some teachers have to say about how their freedom is being curtailed, and how this movement will not die until they bring some change of perception about the rights of the underprivileged.

6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018: Screening Schedule - Day 4, 18 April

6th Chennai Int Doc & Short Film Fest 2018: Screening Schedule

Day 4, 18 April

10 am to 2 pm 

Guest speaker: Renu Sawant

10 am Many Months in Mirya

Dir: Renu Sawant; 3 hours 50 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; Documentary; India

In 2015, I stayed and shot in my ancestral village in western coastal India, and the film is a record of this village during that time. The resulting film flows into stories of people and events happening in the village. The subject's canvass demanded the scale of the longer narrative form, like a novel in digital video.

2:30 to 5:30 Artists' Cinema

Guest speaker: C.S.Venkiteswaran, curator / critic /  documentary filmmaker

Films by Sahej Rahel, Nina Paley, Ashish Avikuntak, Riyas Komu, Sumedh Rajendran, Gigi Scaria, Sudharshan Shetty and Mithu Sen

Curated and Presented by C S Venkiteswaran, curator/critic

5:45 to 9 pm

Guest speakers: 

Dhamayanthi, writer

Karunaprasad, theatre director/actor

5:45 pm Sanjay Maharishi Retrospective 

Making of King Lear (Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 50m)

The well known Uzbek theatre director Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli interprets Shakespeare's King Lear in his distinct style and brings out yet another adaptation of this fabulous play. Nature plays a big part in his narration as does memories of a peaceful childhood.

Kahinoor theatre (Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 8min)

Kahinoor is a short film that introduces the travelling theatre of Assam, a unique form, hardly seen anywhere in its expanse and reach. About a hundred and fifty people travel in trucks, buses and cars on a predefined itinerary for a year from village to village. Assam does not have too many film halls and the travelling theatre provides for popular entertainment, just as films do in other parts of the country.

Nautanki (Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 10 min)

This short film introduces to the viewer, a unique style of northern India called Nautanki or Swang. The film, although short, traverses three centres known as the origins of Nautanki, namely Mathura, Vrindavan and Hathras.

Grotowski Workshop (Dir: Sanjay Maharishi; 30 min)

7:30 Saints of Sin

Dir: Aniruddha Sen; 80 min; English; Documentary; India

The Saints of Sin is a lyrical journey of emotion and experiences of Seven and a Half Bengali women spread all over the globe between Nairobi to New York to New Delhi and Bombay. Built on intimate conversations recorded over three years, the film explores the lives of Debbie, Runa, Srila, Gopi, Shreya, Swati, Paro and Pradipta, where each of them acknowledges her propensity towards one of the Sins and speaks of her negotiations with it.