A talk by Dr. Jahnavi Phalkey, filmmaker and historian of science and technology, Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru

And In Conversation with Amb. Bhaskar Balakrishnan, former Indian Ambassador to Greece and Cuba, Science Diplomacy Fellow, RIS

Chair: Amb. Bhaskar Balakrishnan

Writer, Rebel Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya

By Akshay Mukul (Penguin Random House India: 2022)

Discussants: Dr. Purushottam Agrawal, Visiting Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, scholar on medieval and early modern Hindi poetry; Prof. Malavika Maheshwari,  Assistant Professor, Ashoka University; and Shri Akshay Mukul, author of the book

On the Waterfront (USA) | Click here to watch
(108 min; 1954; b/w; English)
Director: Elia Kazan

With Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

Multiple award winner including Oscar Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Film Editing, Academy Awards, USA 1955; BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actor, BAFTA Awards 1955; OCIC Award, Pasinetti Award and Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival 1954

Marlon Brando plays Terry Malloy, a retired prize-fighter who has started running errands for the Dockers Union, a mob-controlled organisation that has intimidated the workers into silence. When Malloy finds himself involved in the murder of Joey Doyle, and becomes involved with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint), he begins to wonder whether he too should stand up and be heard.

On the Waterfront explores the difficulties and corruptions of working stiffs with a realism, sensitivity and intelligence that has seldom been matched since.

https://archive.org/details/On.the.Waterfront.1954.720p.BRrip.x265.HEVC…

Songlines, Dreamtime, and the Visionary Realm of the Aborigines | Click here to watch
(50 min; 2009; English)
Director: David Shadrack Smith

National Geographic joins Wade Davis on a journey deep into the Australian outback to document the disappearing cultures of Australia's Aborigines, thought to be one of the oldest groups of peoples on earth. After losing clan members to disease, war, and famine-as well as battling enforced relocations-small Aboriginal clans must fight to keep traditions alive for the next generation.

https://vimeo.com/33979224

Food, Inc. (USA) | Click here to watch
(94 min; 2008; English)
Director: Robert Kenner

With Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and Richard Lobb

Multiple award winner including Gotham Independent Award for Best Documentary, Gotham Awards 2009; NBR Award for Top Five Documentaries, National Board of Review, USA 2009; Emmy Awards for Outstanding Informational Programming – Long Form and Best Documentary, News and Documentary Emmy Awards 2011; among others

Perhaps the definitive cinematic investigation of the modern American food industry, the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc. exposes a system rife with corruptive, secretive and abusive practices, and whose products contribute to the rising epidemic of obesity and all the deadly diseases that result.

The reality of agriculture in America is no longer the romantic farmer with the white picket fence and the sputtering tractor. Food production has become entirely corporatized, and it operates with limited regulations and absolute impunity. The demands of mass production have led to disastrously diminished quality standards, and have placed the health of all consumers in peril.

https://vimeo.com/31813990

(75 min; 2002; French with English subtitles)
Director: Simon Brook

An intimate portrait of director Peter Brook by his son, Simon Brook.

Screening to mark the passing of Peter Brook (1927-2022), well-known British theatre and film director

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 2: What Is The World Made Of? (60 min) | Click here to watch
Director: Nat Sharman

In this episode, Michael Mosley demonstrates how our society is built on our search to find the answer to what makes up everything in the material world. This is a story that moves from the secret labs of the alchemists and their search for gold to the creation of the world's first synthetic dye - mauve - and onto the invention of the transistor. This quest may seem abstract and highly theoretical. Yet it has delivered the greatest impact on humanity. By trying to answer this question, scientists have created theories from elements to atoms...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x66clvi

(60 min;1993; English)
Director: Sarah Mondale

Deftly blending the personal and the historical, the film is an illuminating and accessible introduction to the life and work of Marcel Proust, whose novel Remembrance of Things Past changed the face of literature. Interviews with writers Dame Iris Murdoch, Shelby Foote, and writer-critic Roger Shattuck highlight the magnitude of Proust’s accomplishment, while dramatizations of key scenes from Proust’s life combine with rare archival footage to place his personal struggle in a historical context. The film was co-produced by William C. Carter, author of the critically acclaimed Proust biography. Archival interviews include Jean Cocteau, François Mauriac, and Celeste Albaret, Proust’s long-time friend and assistant. 

Netaji: Subhas Chandra Bose’s Life, Politics and Struggle

By Krishna Bose, Edited and translated by Sumantra Bose (Picador India: 2022)

Discussants: Prof. Sumantra Bose, Director, Netaji Research Bureau and Editor and Translator of the book; and Dr. Sugata Bose, historian, author and Chairperson, Netaji Research Bureau

In Conversation with Shri Arnav Das Sharma, journalist and author