To celebrate the centenary year of Satyajit Ray, legendary filmmaker, writer, illustrator and music composer, a series of programmes will be organised in virtual and physical mode throughout the year. The programmes will include exhibitions, films – documentary and features, talks and discussions to try to present both the known and lesser known aspects of Satyajit Ray.

Satyajit Ray
[136 min; 1985; English]
A film by Shyam Benegal
Produced by Films Division

Satyajit Ray is seen on the sets and at home through the lens of film director Shyam Benegal. In conversation with a fellow artist for whom he has considerable respect, Ray opens up in a manner rarely seen, reminiscing about his childhood and growing years, discussing his oeuvre, responding to questions on his craft and exploring memories immortalized in his films. The result is a discovery of the private person as much as a look at his work – a close-up of a major presence in world cinema.

The film brings together a rare selection of visual material documenting Ray as designer, illustrator, film director and scriptwriter.
 

A 2010 Discovery Channel Smini science documentary series with Stephen Hawking. The world's most famous living scientist explores the greatest mysteries of the cosmos. In three landmark instalments he reveals the wonders of the universe as never seen before. Definitive, provocative, surprising, and beautiful, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking is a fascinating look through the mind's eye of one of the finest brains on the planet.

EPISODE 2: Time Travel [43:31 min]
"Is Time Travel Possible?" Hawking explores the world's favourite scientific 'what if?' He explores all the possibilities, warping the very fabric of time and space as he goes. From killing your grandfather to riding a black hole, we learn the pitfalls and the prospects for a technology that could quite literally, change everything.

[60 min; 2011; English]
Director: Mick Csàky

During the 19409s, 50s and 60s, Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock and roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

[59 min; 2009; English]
Director: John Trefor
A BBC production

Click here to watch this film.

Dan Snow travels to Mexico to investigate the history, character and legacy of Montezuma, the last great ruler of the Aztecs of central America. He uncovers the extraordinary story of the Aztecs themselves, a cultured and civilised people whose lives were governed by elaborate ceremony and blood-curdling ritual.

Dan Snow also discovers how, in a titanic clash of cultures, their leader Montezuma faced up to a mortal threat from another world – the weaponry, gold-lust and greed of 16th century Spanish conquistadors.

[56 min; 1987; English]
Director: Aviba Slesin

Recipient of the Oscar Award for Best Documentary, Features, Academy Awards 1988; and Lilian Gish Award for Excellence in Documentary, Los Angeles Women in Film Festival 1987.

Throughout the "Roaring '20s," a flock of the decade's most vibrant writers gathered daily to dine at New York City's Algonquin Hotel. Here the likes of Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman and Harpo Marx socialized and philosophized while crafting works that captured the era's high-class ambitions and ultimate decadence. In this Oscar-winning documentary, Aviva Slesin uses the Round Table as a focal point to explore how the Jazz Age shaped these artists' relationships and lives.

Welcome Address: Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, Research & Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
 
Panelists: Shri Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, Board of Directors, TeamLease Services Ltd; Ms. Dakshita Das, Additional Member, Railway Board and former, Managing Director, National Housing Bank; Shri Sangram Singh, EVP & Head – Commercial Banking Coverage Group, Axis Bank; and Shri Charan Singh, CEO and Director, EGROW Foundation
 
Chair: Ms. Usha Thorat, Chairperson, Foundation for Ecological Security and formerly Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
 
(Collaboration: RIS)

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Matchmaking in Middle Class India: Beyond Arranged and Love Marriage 
By Parul Bhandari (Springer, New Delhi: 2020)

DISCUSSANTS: Prof. Janaki Abraham, Associate Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi; Prof. Katherine Twamley, Associate Professor of Sociology, University College London; Ms Raphael Susewind, Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Development, King’s College London; and Dr. Parul Bhandari, Associate Professor, Sociology, Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, and Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University 

CHAIR: Prof. Patricia Uberoi, eminent sociologist, Chairperson and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies 

IIC/WISCOMP DIALOGUES

SPEAKERS: Anita Ghai, Professor and Dean, School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University; Mahesh Pannicker, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi; Seema Baquer, LLB, India & BCL, Oxford;  Karuna Rajeev, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi; and Meenakshi Gopinath, Director, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP)
 
FACILITATOR: Seema Kakran, Deputy Director, WISCOMP
 
The gap between Niti and Nyaya is large for several marginalized groups in India. For one group of individuals this gap is particularly daunting – persons with disability. The invisiblization of persons with disabilities in the public discourse or alternatively merely tokenistic representation is routine. This, despite national laws and international covenants that mandate full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in socio-economic and political processes.
 
The forthcoming IIC/WISCOMP Dialogue, Gender and Disability seeks to unravel the multiple layers of discrimination and prejudice that conspire to perpetrate individual and structural violence against persons with disabilities in the public and the private spheres.  
 
Recognizing that a sense of ‘agency’ is pivotal to transformation, this dialogue seeks to provide an opportunity to learn from the struggles and triumphs of activists, researchers and institutional leaders who work to create conditions for differently-abled people to lead a life of dignity and choice. The dialogue, it is hoped, will raise questions of individual, societal and state responsibility in securing the rights of people with disability, especially women.
 
(Collaboration: WISCOMP)

[119 min; 1941; b/w; English]
Director: John Ford

With Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee

Multiple award winner including Oscar Award for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction, Academy Awards, USA 1942; NYFCC Award for Best Director, New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1941; recipient of the National Film Registry, National Film Preservation Board, USA 1990; among others

An adaptation of Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel, one of the most beautifully-shot films of the 1940s. The film represents one of the highest achievements of John Ford's career-long fascination with the ebb and flow of life in a small community and the family as a small-scale extension of that community. The story of the Morgans, a hard-working Welsh mining family living in the heart of the South Wales Valleys during the 19th century. The story chronicles life in the South Wales coalfields, the loss of that way of life and its effect on the family.

Click here to watch this film.
 

Rafeeq Ellias is a multiple award-winning photographer and filmmaker, whose films explore and engage with India’s smallest minority communities. Sensitively portraying the richly textured lives of communities living on the margins, the films present an India where multiple identities meet and flourish.

The Ninety First Symphony: The Musical Journey of Homi Dastoor

(Click here to watch this film)

[20:01 min; 2016; English]
Direction & Cinematography: Rafeeq Ellias

Recipient of the Jury Award, 5th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival 2016

The Ninety First Symphony introduces audiences to Homi Dastoor, a man who loved Western classical music with a passion and spent a lifetime exploring its treasures and sharing it with the world. At the age of 90 in 2014, Dastoor published a remarkable book, richly illustrated with rare archival images, based on his enduring love affair with music. The foreword to the book was written by maestro Zubin Mehta who was one among the legions who had known and loved him. Dastoor who passed on two years ago remains an important inspiration for both his love and knowledge of Western music and his incredible spirit and attitude towards life.

What Man Joe: Portrait of a Funeral Musician

(Click here to watch this film)

[36:29 min; 2018; English and with subtitles]
Direction & Cinematography: Rafeeq Ellias

Recipient of the Jury Award, National Documentary ShortFilm Festival, Thrissur 2019 

Joe Vessaoaker is a man who lives and breathes the trumpet every minute of his waking life. A life-long teacher and musician, he represents a dying tradition of funeral music in the East Indian community of Christians in Bombay. Joe, who lives in the vibrant, multi-talented 'musical' neighbourhood, is as extraordinary as he is simple and ordinary, coming from a traditional fishing family whose every member played a musical instrument with panache.