Eero Saarinen: The Architect who saw the Future (Finland/USA) | Click here to watch
(68 min; 2016; English)
Director: Peter Rosen

The film explores the life of Finnish-American modernist architectural giant Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), whose visionary buildings include National Historic Landmarks such as St. Louis’ iconic Gateway Arch and the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan. Saarinen also designed New York’s TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport, Yale University's Ingalls Rink and Morse and Stiles Colleges, Virginia’s Dulles Airport, and modernist pedestal furniture like the Tulip chair. 

Eero’s sudden death at age 51 cut short one of the most influential careers in American architecture. Today, Saarinen’s work stands apart and continues to inspire, especially amongst renewed interest in 20th-century architects and artists who exploded the comfortable constraints of the past to create a robust and daring American aesthetic.

https://vimeo.com/524000446

The Sumerians – Fall of the First Cities (UK) | Click here to watch
(148 min; 2020; English)
Director: Paul Cooper

In the dusts of Iraq, the ruins of the world's first civilization lie buried. We travel into the extremely distant past to look at the Sumerians. These ancient people invented writing and mathematics, and built some of the largest cities that the world had ever seen. Find out about the mystery of their origins, and learn how they rose from humble beginnings to form the foundation of all our modern societies. With myths, proverbs and even some recreated Sumerian music, travel back to where it all began, and find out how humanity's first civilization fell.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sumerians-fall-first-cities/
 

A six part BBC series with Michael Mosley who takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

Episode 4: Can We Have Unlimited Power? (60 min) | Click here to watch
Director: Nicola Cook

We are the most power-hungry generation that has ever lived. This film tells the story of how that power has been harnessed - from wind, steam and from inside the atom. In the early years the drive for new sources of power was led by practical men who wanted to make money. Their inventions and ideas created fortunes and changed the course of history, but it took centuries for science to catch up, to explain what power is, rather than simply what it does. This search revealed fundamental laws of nature which apply across the universe, including the most famous equation...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6qazkx
 

(45 min; 1992; English)
Director: Volker Zielke

This rare documentary examines the life and work of German literary icon Thomas Mann, beginning with Mann’s nomination for the 1949 Goethe Prize. His symbolic representation of Germany in exile after the war, and his status as a representative of the liberal, humanist tradition, are juxtaposed against Mann’s private life. The program discusses how his works, such as Death in Venice, explore the disparity between the life of bourgeois convention and desire, a disparity present in Mann’s own life. From the suicide of his eldest son, to his own homosexuality, the film explores the dual identity of Mann as representative of post-war Germany and also as private citizen. 

Shringara in Classical Indian Dance

edited by Sharon Lowen 

Shringara, Sringara, Śṛṅgāra, Sringar (love) is the dominant rasa, or aesthetic flavor, that has been interpreted in literature, philosophy, the visual and performing arts. The concept of communicating unselfish, unconditional spiritual love through the metaphors of mundane human love is intrinsic to Indian aesthetic and philosophical traditions. The chapters of this book offer insights into both the shared and unique understanding and performance of shringara in various classical Indian dance traditions. ‘Nritya Kalanidhi’ Guru Lakshmi Vishwanathan kindly contributed an introductory overview of Śṛṅgāra in Nāṭya (communicative dance) to contextualize the focus then enlarged upon within specific genres. Performing artist /scholars of seven of India’s classical dance traditions share the history and development of interpreting Sringara in Bharatanayam, Kuchipudi, Vilasini Natyam, Mohiniattam, Sattriya, Kathak and Odissi, by respectively, Kamalini Dutt, Anuradha Jonnalagadda, Anupama Kylash, Bharati Shivaji, Anwesa Mahanta, Shovana Narayan and Editor Sharon Lowen. 

Speakers : Dr. Sonal Mansingh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Scholar, Cultural Activist, Guru & Choreographer; Sh. Kumar Tuhin, DG ICCR & Former Ambassador to Hungary; Dr. Shovana Narayan, Educationist, Choreographer, Kathak Guru and Vidushi Sharon Lowen, Performing Artist, Guru, Write &  Editor of the book

Chair : Dr. Karan Singh

Performance by :

Nitisha Nanda
Vishwanathan Mangaraj 

Ikebana demonstration by Mr. Luca Ramacciotti and Mr. Lucio Farinelli, Sogetsu Ikebana teachers from Italy and co-founders of the Concentus Study Group in Rome. Both Ramacciotti and Farinelli have created arrangements for large installations, and have featured in international publications, exhibitions and on several Italian national television broacasts

Introduction: Smt. Veena Dass, Director, Sogetsu School, New Delhi

(Collaboration: Sogetsu School, New Delhi; and Embassy of Japan)

Zoom meeting ID: 5815017181 
Passcode: Sogetsu
 

A celebration of Shakti, the creative Power of Mother Earth, the biodiversity of our Sacred Plants and Nourishment from our Sacred Foods

Organised in collaboration with Navdanya

11:00 to 18:00 in Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza
Exhibition: Sacred Plants and Sacred Foods

From 15:00 to 18:00 in C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium

Panel discussion on Sacred Plants and Sacred Foods
Panelists: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Nanditha Krishna, Pandurang Hegde, Prasanna, Maya Goburdhun, Dr. Madhu Khanna and Dr. Shukla Chattopadhyay

At 18:30
Ratnagarbha
 

Ode to Mother Earth who creates, nurtures and sustains
Bharatanatyam choreographed and presented by Rama Vaidyanathan

Introduction: Meera Khanna 

Thoughts to Music: Narayana Guru

Lesson from an experiment in Carnatic Music

Illustrated presentation by Shri S. Goplakrishnan

The presentation will try to echo the layers of insights while imagining an idea of transforming Sree Narayana Guru's philosophical poems into the Carnatic format as interpreted by T.M. Krishna. The process of selections from a repository of poems in Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil, the constant exchange of ideas between the musician and the team involved, the culmination at the concert stage, and the evolution of the songs thereafter. The presentation will include the speaker's own experiences in the process; a recorded interaction with T.M. Krishna on his engagement with philosophical texts vis-à-vis music; basic texts of Guru with their English translations and excerpts from the music concert. 

Shri S. Gopalakrishnan is a Delhi-based writer and broadcaster. He writes on music and culture. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for prose. 
 

H.E. André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, Ambassador of Brazil and Kanu Kartik Agrawal, architect and theorist, will discuss the role of modern architecture in the making of modern Brazil and India, nations with colonial legacies and global aspirations. The discussion will trace shared histories as well as divergent aspects of the evolution of modern designs in Brazil and India; the architecture culture in both countries that gave rise to a diversity of production. The discussion will also address the role of late colonial and modernist architecture in collective memory and the need for preservation will serve as a coda to the discussion

Chair: Prof. Amita Baviskar, Dean, Faculty and Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Living in Truth: The Gandhian Paradigm

Discussion on the forthcoming book by Ramin Jahanbegloo

Speakers: Ramin Jahanbegloo and Pooja Sharma, co-authors of the book

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)