(58 min; 2007; English/Portuguese)
Director: Simon Broughton

A BBC 4 European Roots series

Fado is Portuguese blues music and Mariza is its exotic new international star. She was born in Mozambique, has an African mother and Portuguese father and whether she sings in concert halls or intimate bars, her intensely emotional performances enthral audiences everywhere. Originating in Brazil, the story of fado mirrors the history of Portugal, including a 'lost' period in the early 20th Century when it was working-class and militant.

(93 min; 2007; English/Mandarin with English subtitles)
Director: Yung Chang

Multiple award winner including Cinema Eye Audience Choice Prize & Cinema Eye Honors Award, Cinema Eye Honors Awards, USA 2009; Genie Award for Best Documentary, Genie Awards 2009; Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary, Golden Horse Film Festival 2008; Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature, San Francisco International Film Festival 2008; among others

Yung Chang is a Canadian director whose grandparents came from China, and his witty, lovely and profoundly unsettling documentary Up the Yangtze takes him back to the legendary river of his grandfather's homeland, now transformed beyond recognition. Set on a riverboat cruise, the film follows 16-year-old Cindy, who comes from a poor family living on the banks of the river, and Jerry, who is from a more prosperous family. Cindy’s story contrast her simple village life with the lives of fellow travellers who live in a consumer economy and have been exposed to new technology. Jerry meanwhile tries to earn money for himself and his family by working as a porter and singer. 

(50 min; 2009; French/English and with English subtitles)
A BBC Four Production
Narrated by Susannah York

Profile of the perennially influential fashion designer Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, who devoted her life to becoming the symbol of chic and the style of France. But behind her image she hid a secret past as a nightclub singer, mistress and spy.

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 5: What Is The Secret of Life? (60 min) | Click here to watch
Director: Giles Harrison

The story of how the secret of life has been examined through the prism of the most complex organism known - the human body. It begins with attempts to save the lives of gladiators in Ancient Rome, unfolds with the macabre work and near-perfect drawings of Leonardo in the Renaissance, through the idea of the 'life force' of electricity, to the microscopic world of the cell. It reveals how a moral crisis unleashed by work on the nuclear bomb helped trigger a great breakthrough in biology - understanding the structure and workings of DNA.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6qazn8

(92 min; 2016; English and with English subtitles)
Directors: Bob Hercules, Rita Coburn Whack

A BBC One Imagine production
Presented by Alan Yentob

Multiple award winner including Audience Award for Feature Documentary, AFI Docs Festival 2016; Feature Film Award for Best International Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh 2016; Festival Prize, Best Documentary, Black Film Festival Montreal 2016; Audience Award for Feature Film, Milwaukee Film Festival 2016; Peabody Award Winner 2018; among others

Maya Angelou was born into a world that barely valued her at all, but her death in 2014, at the age of 86, occasioned worldwide mourning. A poet, playwright, author, dancer, singer, actor, film director and political activist, she transcended everybody's expectations of what a poor black girl from St Louis could become. Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack's in-depth documentary charts the full course of her life and includes extensive interview footage with the great woman herself.

The Mendicant Prince

By Aruna Chakravarti (Picador India: 2022)

Chief Guest: Ms Sharmila Tagore

Discussants: Shri Bishwajit Bhattacharyya, formerly Additional Solicitor General, Supreme Court of India; Ms Anita Agnihotri, novelist; Ms Madhulika Liddle, novelist; Ms Aanchal Malhotra, historian and writer; and Dr. Aruna Chakravarti,
academic, creative writer, translator and author of the book

Moderator: Ms Shuma Raha, novelist

Coordinator: Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Ashok K. Mehta
 

The Rise of Bangladesh: Partnership with India

Panelists: Amb. Pankaj Saran, former Deputy NSA and High Commissioner to Bangladesh; Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Satish Nambiar, former Deputy Chief of Army Staff and Director, United Services Institute; Amb. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and former High Commissioner to Bangladesh; and Dr. Sreeradha Dutta, Senior Fellow, Vivekanand Foundation and Centre Head, Neighbourhood Studies

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta

Bangladesh, one of the youngest countries, after some glitches, is making rapid progress in political and security stability, enabling stunning economic growth and rise in human development indices. Relations with India have seen highs and lows but are now on a positive trajectory. The panel will discuss the rise of Bangladesh

Conscience, Creativity and Courage: Response to Crisis

Speaker: Ashok Vajpeyi

Moderator of the series: Suhas Borker

Introduction: Vinay Kumar, Secretary General, Press Club of India (PCI)

The series ‘Conversations with Media’ is jointly organised by IIC and PCI and is hosted by them alternately every month

Problems of Critically Editing a Codex Unicus: The Mahābhāṣyadīpikā of Bhartṛhari

Speaker: Saroja Bhate, former Professor, Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages, University of Pune

Chair: Madhav M. Deshpande, Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics, University of Michigan

The Mahābhāṣyadīpikā is a commentary on the well-known treatise on Sanskrit grammar, the ‘Vyākaraṇamahābhāṣya’ of Patañjali. It is written by Bhartṛhari, the author of the celebrated work on philosophy of language, the ‘Vākyapadīya’. This commentary owes its importance not only to the fact that it is the oldest available commentary on the Vyākaraṇamahābhāṣya, but also to the fact that it is a mine of information on many other knowledge systems such as Sāṁkhya and Mīmāṁsā. Unfortunately, only a small part of this commentary has survived, that too, in a single manuscript. The single manuscript further poses a few problems, because it is written by multiple scribes, and contains folia with blank spaces in the middle of lines left by the scribes when they failed to understand the writing of the original scribe. There exist three different critically edited texts of this commentary published by different scholars at different times. The lecture will survey all the three editions with a view to finding out the method and means used to overcome the problems faced while editing a Codex Unicus.

Organised by IIC-International Research Division with the support of Ministry of External Affairs

Registration link

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3-k32ok_S_GDGL8wStlWrw