| Subject: Cinema of Prayoga: Indian Experimental Film and Video 1913-2006 |
Author:
Jane
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Wed, September 06 2006, 8:29:36-4
Dear friends
You are invited to the launch of 'Cinema of Prayoga: Indian Experimental Film and Video 1913-2006' – a series of historical and contemporary film/video screenings, accompanied by performances and talks, to be held at the Tate Modern gallery between 15th and 19th September.
The Tate Modern launch kicks off an unprecedented year long UK cinema tour of these films, and also marks the publication of the first ever book on this little-known subject.
These films – which range from the magical silent-era *swadeshi* experiments of Dadasaheb Phalke right through to politically-engaged contemporary video art from Bombay, Delhi, and Bangalore – in the UK. This kind of work otherwise has little/no possibility for distribution even within India, having been made entirely outside of the mainstream industry context. **
So – come see these beautiful, contrary, mesmerising, infuriating, extraordinary, evocative and provocative films for yourselves. You'll probably never get the chance again! And please do forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know who has even a passing interest in cinema, international contemporary art, and/or South Asian culture/history/politics. These films deserve to be seen by the widest possible audience, and we have only word-of-mouth to combat the Hollywood-Bollywood noise machine.
[Having said that, check out the write-up last week in *The Guardian*'s Film & Music Review: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/image/0,,1857620,00.html – and do keep an eye out for features in the other national papers and *Time Out*, as well as articles in the next issues of *Vertigo* and *Asian Woman * magazines.]
The links below will take you to the Tate Modern and Independent Cinema Office websites, where you can find out details about the films & accompanying events. Also, the ICO website will tell you where else in the country the films will be showing – at least for the coming few months, since it'll get updated throughout the year.
_____________
Note: 2 of the 3 programmes touring with ICO have a different name when they are on tour, which you'll come across on following the relevant links…
Cinema of Prayoga:
*Indian Experimental Film and Video 1913-2006*
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/cinemaofprayogaindianexperimentalfilmandvideo19132006.htm
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/prayoga.htm
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/prayoga_book.htm
Friday 15th September, 7pm
*Private and Public Prayoga: Phalke and Films Division (short film
programme) *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/6058.htm
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/prayoga_secrethistory.htm
- If you can only come to one screening, make it this.
- An extremely rare opportunity to see the surviving fragments of D.G. Phalke's pioneering silent-era work. And unlike Méliès, to whom he's often compared, Phalke situated his 'fantastic'/mythical films explicitly in the 'real' world – literally, filming on location not in a studio, and also
politically, in the anti-colonial *swadeshi* context.
- Also a unique opportunity to see these FD films. Flourishing in the 1960s/70s, in newly-independent socialist India, the government's Films Division is comparable to the British GPO Film Unit (supporting experimental filmmakers such as Len Lye) or even to the Soviet Mosfilm (w Tarkovsky).
Saturday 16th September, 10:30am-5pm
*Mapping Mumbai symposium *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/symposia/5967.htm
- Speakers include Rahul Srivastava and Sudhir Patwardhan.
Saturday 16th September, 6pm
*Migration and [Dis]location (short film programme) *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/6060.htm
- All films are great, but my highlight is 'I'm Bobby' – a v inventive
recasting of the iconic 1970s film *Bobby*, with street children in fancy dress, lip-synching to the original filmi soundtrack.
- Also, one of the other filmmakers, Anuradha Chandra, will be present for Q+A.
Saturday 16th September, all day
*Saturday Live / UBS Mumbai*
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/musicperform/ubsopeningssaturdaylivemumbai16september2006.htm
- Including performances by Monali Meher, Sujata Goel, Tejal Shah and D'Archetpyes.
Sunday 17th September, 3pm
*Contemporary Indian Video Art: Between Myth and History (video programme) *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/6062.htm* *
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/prayoga_indianvideoart.htm
- Most of these video works were made in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots, directly in response to those horrific events. The films in this programme reflect on nationhood, nationalism, religion, secularism, fundamentalism, war, violence, gender and power.
- Nalini Malani (two films here) represented India in the 51 st Venice Biennale.
Sunday 17th September, 6pm
*Kaal Abhirati / Addiction to Time (feature length film) *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/6059.htm
- When we screened this in Mumbai, half the audience walked out, completely befuddled. The other half (incl myself) left at the end as devotees.
- If you absolutely require action / plot / novelistic characters in your movies, this is not for you. But if you would like to be pushed, would relish hypnotically long takes, an emphasis on texture, framing, physicality, theatricality, and an enigmatic structural logic…this is a real filmlovers' film.
Tuesday 19th September, 6:30pm
*Experimental Ethnography (short film programme) *
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/6061.htm* *
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/prayoga_unseenindia.htm
- If you can only attend 2 screenings, include this with Phalke.
- 'BOMgAY' (which incl one of Rahul Bose's early roles) and 'Kalighat Fetish' challenge conventional representations of (male) sexuality.
- 'Kshya Tra Gya' is worth coming for alone. It's truly astonishing –dense, surreal, disorientating, funny, simultaneously abstract & concrete,mythic as well as demotic – pretty much incomparable.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 