Speaker: Shri Ritesh Taksande, Faculty Member, Centre for Open Learning, Film & Television Institute of India, Pune

Chair: Suhas Borker, Convener, Jan Prasar and Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV)

The rapidly changing technology poses serious challenges to the way we live our daily lives…The impact of the smartphone on how we consume news has been mind boggling. Not only can we receive instant updates, read news stories and articles, and watch video on the go – as a story unfolds in real time, mobile journalism has also ‘disrupted’ the way news is produced and reported. In the post smartphone scenario, with virtually all tools of newsgathering in their pockets, millions of reporters have popped up all over the world while fake news, misinformation and planted distortions are putting the basic journalistic standards of truth, ethics, integrity and accuracy under threat.

(Collaboration: Jan Prasar)

An exhibition of digital prints reproductions of Maria Prymachenko's paintings from the collection of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art. 

Maria Prymachenko (1908-1997) was a Ukrainian folk painter and a representative of naive art, who also painted on ceramics, drew and was known for her embroidery. The works painted in the period 1963 - 1988, present an incredibly colourful world full of fantasy, filled with strange creatures, animals, floral motifs, as well as scenes from fairy tales. 

Inauguration by H.E. Igor Poliha, Ambassador of Ukraine on Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 18:30

(Collaboration: Embassy of Ukraine; and Polish Institute, New Delhi)

About the exhibition and the artist:

The Ukrainian World of Maria Pymachenko

The exhibition presents 11 reproductions of Maria Prymachenko's paintings from the collection of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art with text by Dorota Pietrzyk from PrestoPortal.pl
 
The exhibition includes digital prints of eleven paintings by Maria Prymachenko (1908-1997), a Ukrainian folk painter, and representative of naive art, who also worked on drawings, embroidery, and painting on ceramics. Selected works, painted in the years 1963 - 1988, present an incredibly colourful world full of fantasy, filled with strange creatures (e.g. black beast), animals (bull), floral motifs (peacock among hops), as well as scenes from fairy tales (a Ukrainian wedding). Maria Prymachenko’s works are full of folk ornamentations painted using rudimentary water-based paints, such as the so-called ‘tempera for beginners’. It was only towards the end of her life that she could afford to use more expensive and better quality tempera paints.
 
Maria Prymachenko did not receive any artistic education. She completed only 4 years of primary school and grew up in a family full of creative passions: her grandmother specialized in colouring Easter eggs, her father was an excellent carpenter, and her mother was a craftsman. She drew her ideas from the environment.

Manuscripts do not Burn: On the Track of the Manuscripts of the Syrian Christians of India

Speaker: István Perczel, Professor, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Vienna

Chair: Kesavan Veluthat, formerly Professor of History, Delhi University

István Perczel has worked extensively on Late Antique and early Christian philosophy, and on Syriac Christianity. He initiated and directed the digitization and cataloguing of the manuscript collections of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala (the SRITE project)

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

Registration link  

An exhibition of photographs by Debalina Mazumder and Manobina Roy
Curated by Sabeena Gadihoke, Mallika Leuzinger and Tapati Guha-Thakurta
 
This exhibition delves into the photographic lives of twin sisters Debalina Mazumder (1919-2012) and Manobina Roy (1919-2001). Their practice encompassed a range of subjects and genres, joint experiments with light and shadow in 1930s Ramnagar (Benaras) giving way to striking portraits of family and friends in and around their homes in Calcutta and Bombay and distinctive glimpses of 1960s Europe.
 
Inauguration by Sharmila Tagore on Friday, 12 August 2022 at 18:30
 
 The Art Gallery will remain closed on 15 August 2022
 

Curators Walks
On 13 August 2022 at 12 noon - Curators Walk with Sabeena Gadihoke; and at 5 pm with Mallika Leuzinger
On 14 August 2022 at 12 noon and 5 pm – Curators Walk with Mallika Leuzinger
On 20, 21 and 27 August 2022 at 5 pm – Curators Walk with Sabeena Gadihoke
 

Thursday 18
 
Discussion ■ Seminar Rooms I to III, Kamaladevi Complex at 18:00
On the eve of World Photography Day
 
Panel discussion on The Home and Beyond: The World of the Amateur Photographer
Panelists: Sabeena Gadihoke, Professor, Video & TV Production, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia; Mallika Leuzinger, historian based at the German Historical Institute, London; Suryanandinin Narain, Assistant Professor, Visual Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Uma Chakravarti, feminist historian, filmmaker and archivist
 
(Collaboration: CREA; Jadunath Bhavan, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata; and with the support of PhotoSouthAsia, MurthyNAYAK Foundation)

A tribute to well-known filmmaker and media professional, Pramod Mathur.

 13 August at 10 am    Are you with Me? (52 min; 2007; English)
An insight into the HIV & AIDS scenario in the state of Manipur in northeast India. The beginnings of injecting drug use, the subsequent spread of the HIV virus, later times, when awareness was higher but the task to combat drug use, HIV & AIDS and the status of widows was formidable. 

Discussion on Living with HIV
Introduction and Conversation led by Loon Gangte, HIV/AIDS activist

At 12:30     Sannate ka Chhand: Phrase of Silence (42 min; 1989; Hindi)
Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayana 'Ajneya', a great modern Indian littérateur, who was proficient in English, but wrote in Hindi. He died before this film was completed, but an exclusive interview had been recorded. In the video film, Vatsyayan speaks his own biography against the backdrop of places where he has lived, though, created, loved and written.

Discussion on Ajneya’s Contribution to Hindi Literature
Introduction and Conversation led by Om Thanvi, writer, senior journalist, editor and critic, founding Vice-Chancellor, Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication, Jaipur

At 3 pm    Brainstorm: Morphing of the Documentary in the Era of Social Media
Thought sharing by Milin Kapoor, filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor; and Dr. Anandana Kapur, filmmaker and education, founder-Director, Cinemad India; Amudhan R.P., documentary filmmaker and media activist; Iikka Vehkalahti, former Commissioning Editor, Yle Television, Finland

Moderator: Aparna Sanyal, award-winning Director and Producer of nonfiction independent and television documentaries

At 4:45 pm    Krishna – The Divine Lover (28 min; 1985; English)
The charm of a God, more human than godly, donning various roles in different circumstances. Here, he is depicted in his romantic form. This depiction of a much-loved and worshipped God is contextualised with modern attitude towards love.

Discussion on Sensual Reality in Indian Culture
Introduction and Conversation led by Shovana Narayan, well-known Kathak artist and guru

At 5:30 pm    Look at My India (21 min; English)
A trailer segment of an unfinished project. Pramod Mathur had been thinking of people he befriended over 20 years ago in his film-making journey, wondering what happened to them. The aim was to talk with characters from his old films and see where they are between the past and present. Bimla in Koraput, Odisha, is one such character. 

Discussion on Western Hegemony in the Documentary Sector
Introduction and Conversation led by Neelima Mathur

At 7:15 pm    In Conversation: Growing and Living with a Filmmaker
Tanushree Sengupta with Neelima Mathur

A tribute to well-known filmmaker and media professional, Pramod Mathur. The tribute includes a screening of documentaries made by Pramod and Neelima Mathur, conversations and a panel discussion

  Opening Address
Aruna Vasudev, Raghu Rai, Naresh Bedi, Rajiv Mehrotra, Lavlin Thadani, Mahendra Verma,  Indrani Mishra, P.D. Valson, S. Dhanpal, ,Milin Kapoor .

Pre-recorded videos from Monica Lal, Meinolf Fritzen, Michael Camerini, Cheryl Groff,  Ron Hess, Abdul Ashraf Dali, Sang-ki Lee and  Iikka Vehkalahti 

At 7:20 pm    Film: Jungle Dreams (28 min; 1997; English)
Chendru, a Muria tribal in central India, had acted in a Swedish film forty years ago before this film was made.  The present film studies the impact of the Swedish film on this simple tribal boy viz-a-viz his relationship with kinsmen and the changes in his life forty years later. 

Discussion on The Filmmaker and Protagonist Relationship
Introduction and Conversation led by Pankaj Johar, documentary filmmaker

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

Tibet in Song (USA) | (86 min; 2009; Tibetan & English)

Director: Ngawang Choephel

Recipient of the International Human Rights Award, Cinema for Peace Awards 2010; and Special Jury Prize – World Cinema Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2009

Screening will be followed by a discussion with the director

The film is both a celebration of traditional Tibetan folk music and a harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese-controlled Tibet. The Director, a former Tibetan political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, weaves a story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience, introducing Tibet to the world in a way never before seen on film, Depicting an array of traditional folk songs sung by native Tibetans, the film eloquently tells the tale of cultural exploitation and resistance in Tibet

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)

Commemorating India-Russia Friendship: Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation of 1971

By Achala Moulik (AuthorsUpFront: 2021)

Discussants: H. E. Mr Denis Alipov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation  ; Maj. Gen. (Retd.) G.D. Bakshi, SM, VSM, military and defence commentator, author and Editor of Indian Military Review; Ms Achala Moulik, former Secretary, Education, Govt. of India, former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India and author of the book

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