Speaker: Dr. Arthur L. Frank, Professor and Chair Emeritus, Public Health, Drexel University, School of Public Health, Philadelphia, USA and IIC Distinguished Fellow

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC
 

Coordinated by Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Ashok K. Mehta

Pakistan at 75

A discussion with Amb. T.C.A. Raghavan, former High Commissioner to Pakistan and former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs; Shri Tilak Devasher, Member, National Security Advisory Board; Prof. Sanjay Kathuria, former Lead Economist, The World Bank and South Asia Specialist; Dr. Smruti Pattanaik, Research Fellow, MP-IDSA and Coordinator, Pakistan Project; and Senator Mushahid Hussain, Member, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (recorded presentation)

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta, Coordinator of the ongoing India-Pakistan Track 2, facilitated by FES

Pakistan is no stranger to crises. At 75, it is facing multiple challenges – political, economic, foreign relations and is to choose a new Army Chief. Has Pakistan muddled through with its highs and lows but not taking its eye off Kashmir? The panel will discuss this question and other issues
 

(105 min; 1978; Russian with English subtitles)
Director: Emil Loteanu

Deeply atmospheric and beautifully shot, Emil Lotyanu's very popular adaptation of this Anton Chekhov novel takes place in the 19th century countryside in Russia and tells a story of crime and passion. Beautiful but poor young Olga is forced to marry an elderly prince Urbenin whose wealth and passionate love she enjoys. But Olga's heart is stolen by detective Sergey Kamishev, a younger friend of her husband. Torn between love and money, Olga promises her heart to Sergey but than bounces back to the older husband. A top Soviet-era production, A Hunting Accident depicts Russian aristocracy in its most decadent glamour through passion, obsession and jealousy. 

Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids (USA) | Click here to watch
(85 min; 2004; Bengali/English with English subtitles)
Directors: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman 

Multiple award winner including Oscar Award for Best Documentary, Features, Academy Awards 2005; Audience Choice Award, Bermuda International Film Festival 2004; Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2004; Best Film Award, Cleveland International Film Festival 2004; among others

"Without help they're doomed," says co-director Zana Briski of the kids she encounters in Calcutta's wretched Sonagachi district, and Born Into Brothels movingly charts how it is possible to make a difference to lives that appear devoid of any hope. Shot on digital video over a period of several years, this unsentimentally compassionate film focusses on a group of neglected and impoverished youngsters, who display unexpected photographic abilities.

https://vimeo.com/365877481

Series director: Adrian Pennink
Recipient of the International Emmy 2008 for Best Documentary 

A six-part documentary presented by Niall Ferguson. Based on his book The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World, the film examines the long history of money, credit, and banking. Throughout the series, Niall Ferguson examines the origins of the pillars of the world’s financial systems, and how behind every great historical phenomenon – empires and republics, wars and revolutions – there lies a financial secret.

Episode 5: Safe as Houses (47 min)
Niall Ferguson explains how someone's bright idea to bundle together a bunch of sub-prime mortgages and sell them on, virtually brought down the world's financial markets.

The Mushroom Club (USA) | Click here to watch
(35 min; 2005; English/Japanese with English subtitles)
Director: Steven Okazaki

The Mushroom Club is a filmmaker's journey to Hiroshima, sixty years after the bomb. Filmmaker Steven Okazaki, who first visited the city in 1980, takes a very personal look at Hiroshima — the place, the people, the historical event, the idea. He gathers a compelling collection of everyday images — a class photo, a spool of thread, a handful of buttons — and the powerful stories that come with them.

https://vimeo.com/299800622

China’s Forgotten Emperor (UK) | Click here to watch
(49 min; 2016; English)
Director: Stephen Finnigan

Narrated by Rufus Sewell

China's Forgotten Emperor is an elegant and illuminating portrait of one of China's most consequential and misunderstood figures. Wu Zetian rose to power over 1300 years ago when she became the only woman in history to claim the title of Emperor of China. Her history has been marred in scandal and controversy. In its examination of newly discovered artefacts and other materials, China’s Forgotten Emperor attempts to piece together the real story behind this enigmatic leader. 

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/china-forgotten-emperor/

(40 min; 2005; English)
Director: Eric Simonson 

Recipient of the Oscar Award for Best Documentary, Short Subjects, Academy Awards, 2006

On the evening of VE Day, May 8, 1945, Norman Corwin, known as the ''poet laureate of radio drama,'' presented a radio programme that galvanized and electrified the nation. The broadcast, ''On a Note of Triumph,'' was a moment that would mark the end of a long national struggle, and, in another sense, set a new standard for the art of radio drama. Featuring interviews with Robert Altman, Norman Lear, Studs Terkel and Walter Cronkite, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin examines the greatest radio presentation in the history of the medium and shows how it remains eerily prescient in light of current events. 

“Poems are the Dreams of the Earth”

Readings and talk by Raúl Zurita, one of the most important contemporary poets of Latin America and recipient of numerous awards, including the National Literary Prize of Chile 

Raúl Zurita will be accompanied by translator Anna Deeny Morales who will read in English

Welcome: Ms Omita Goyal, Chief Editor, IIC
Introduction by Dr. Sharmistha Mohanty

 
Raúl Zurita is one of the most extraordinary poets of our times. His is the compassion and hope and faith that come from having confronted despair. Zurita was arrested, when a young man, under the regime of General Pinochet in Chile. All his life his poems have spoken of the extreme injustice and suffering of the Chilean people. The devastation of the Chilean experience made it necessary for him to find new poetic forms, because those forms that already existed were incapable of containing these new brutalities. Although Zurita begins from tragedy, he ends with the beauty and hope of the human condition. He has often said, “The task is not to write books or to paint paintings, it is to make life a work of art and that is the task still at hand.” 

(Collaboration: Almost Island)