Historical Letters of President Najibullah and Dr. M. Hassan Kakar, A Collection of Essays

A conversation with contributors of the book — Dr. Barnett Rubin, Senior Fellow, Center on International Cooperation, New York University and a leading expert on Afghanistan and South Asia; Mr. Jawan Shir Rasikh, Editor of the book and doctoral student in South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Radha Kumar, writer and policy analyst, and former Director General, Delhi Policy Group;  Mr. Afrasiab Khattak, former Senator and former Head of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Mr. Jawed Ludin, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Pakistan, and member Heart of Asia Society. 

Moderator: Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian Foreign Minister and Algerian United Nations Diplomat who served as United Nations Special Envoy to Afghanistan from July 1997-October 1999
 
Discussion based a new volume of essays edited by Jawan Shir Rasikh (Kakar History Foundation & Heart of Asia Society, 2021). In the correspondence, exchanged in 1990, Najibullah and Kakar speak candidly about the hopes and desires of the Afghan people for peace, about plans to bring peace to their country, and about the national and regional-global actors, factors, and obstacles concerning the states of war and peace then in post-Soviet Afghanistan. The contributors to this volume, all established and emerging Afghan and international scholars, offer critical analyses of the correspondence, and fresh perspectives on historical and political themes related to the past and current peace-making processes and efforts.

A documentary series presented by Michael Wood, exploring magnificent masterpieces of the Western world in their cultural and historical settings. The series consists of eighteen episodes, each of which focusses on the artistic contributions of one period in the history of the West, from Ancient Greece to the late 1980s. From the classical ideals in Greek and Roman antiquity, through the Renaissance, to the postmodernism of the later 1980s, the series provides a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.

Two episodes will be presented every week online
INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

Episode 15  |  Between Genius and the Abyss [26:03 min]
With modernity came new energy and forms in Viennese building and painting. Paris saw the emergence of the Fauves, and of Picasso and Cubism. Kandinsky and others experimented with colour abstraction.

Click here to view Episode 15.

Episode 16  |  Between Utopia and Crisis [26:03 min]
Modernism spawned not only Cubism, but also the abstract and the surreal. Le Corbusier and Wright applied the abstract principles to buildings. Dada responded to the devastation of World War One with nihilism; surrealists Dali, Magritte, and Miro showed Freudian influence.

Click to view this Episode 16.
 

Zéro de conduit: Jeunes diables au college, France
[44 min; 1933; b/w; French with English subtitles]
Director: Jean Vigo

Recipient of the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award for Best Film, Parajanov-Vartanov Awards 2011

Effervescent and charming, a landmark film in the history of motion pictures, Jean Vigo’s enormously influential portrait of prankish boarding-school students is one of cinema’s great acts of rebellion. Based on the director’s own experiences as a youth, Zéro de conduite presents childhood as a time of unfettered imagination and brazen rule-flouting.

Click here to view this film.
 

[118 min]
Concert by The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic.

Wynton Marsalis and Kurt Masur take turns leading their orchestras in alternating movements of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and Ellington’s jazz arrangements of the same work.

[66 min]
An illustrated lecture by Dr. Shernaz Cama, Founding Director, UNESCO Parzor

Dr. Cama traces the origin, history and evolution of traditional Parsi embroidery. An aesthetic combination of pictorial traditions and an emblem of elegance, Dr. Cama explores the techniques and narratives that underpin each piece of embroidery. These exquisite embroideries, capture the intersection of Persian, Indian and Chinese cultures to evolve a unique style and design for the Parsi community.

Video recording of a lecture presented for the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington DC on 26/27 April 2021.
 

José e Pilar
[117 min; 2010; Spanish & Portuguese with English subtitles]
Director: Miguel Gonçalves Mendes

Recipient of the Audience Award for Best Brazilian Documentary, São Paolo International Film Festival 2010; Audience Award for Best Film, Winner of the Don Quijote Award & Film Award for Best Documentary, Coimbra Caminhos do Cinema Português 2011; and Andorinha Trophy for Best Documentary, Cineport – Portuguese Film Festival 2011

A deeply moving story about love, loss and literature. The film follows the Nobel Prize winning Portuguese author José Saramago and his Spanish journalist wife Pilar del Rio during his last years, including the writing of his book The Elephant's Journey. An incredibly intimate look at the lives of Jose and Pilar, that follows them from early 2006 until shortly after the release of The Elephant's Journey in 2008.

V.P. DUTT MEMORIAL LECTURE 2021

Speaker: Prof. Andrew J. Nathan, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Chair: Amb. Ashok Kantha, Director, Institute of Chinese Studies

The Biden Administration has continued the Trump Administration’s declaratory policy identifying China as a “strategic competitor.” It has retained Trump’s tariffs, the “Quad,” and other polices. Yet Biden’s China policy differs in five important ways. First, it is coordinated within the administration. Second, it seeks cooperation with allies. Third, it places emphasis on strengthening the U.S. rather than weakening China. Fourth, it raises the profile of the human rights issue. Finally, besides competition, it seeks cooperation with China on issues of common interest. While Trump called the relationship a strategic competition, Biden is treating it truly as that.

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Womb of Time by Laljee Verma (Cyberwit.net, New Delhi: 2019)

Discussants: Prof. Radha Chakravarty, poet, critic, translator; Dr. Rumki Basu, Professor of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, poet and author; and 
Air Marshal (Dr.) Laljee Verma, AVSM (Retd.), poet and author of the book.

Chair: Dr. Amarendra Khatua, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and former Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations

Moderator: Ms Mandira Ghosh, poet and author

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)

A festival of Spanish films that showcases the work of four exceptional filmmakers organised in collaboration with Cervantes Institute, New Delhi and Alcalá de Henares Film Festival (ALCINE). Envisioned as a dialogue between two works (a short film and a feature film) of each filmmaker, the festival includes the films of directors Juanjo Giménez, Álex Montoya and Belén Macias and producer María del Puy Alvarado. Four filmmakers with different perspectives that showcases the diversity, vitality, robust presence and promising future of Spain’s younger directors. 

The online screenings will be held throughout April 2021 with a screening of two works each by the four filmmakers. All the films will be accessible for a period of 48 hours starting from 23:30 hours onwards on the dates indicated below. The Vimeo link of each film is provided below.

WEEK DEDICATED TO MARÍA DEL PUY ALVARADO

Screening on 27th April 2021 from 23:30 hrs onwards
Pulse (Press)  
[17 min; 2013; b/w; Ukrainian with English subtitles]
Direction, Script & Editing: Álvaro Giménez Sarmiento 

It is the end of 2008 and the lifeless body of young Anna Skobalski, fourteen years old, is found on the outskirts of Kiev.

Click here to view this film.

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Screening on 30th April 2021 from 23:30 hrs onwards
Antonio Muñoz Molina: The Writer’s Job (Antonio Muñoz Molina: El oficio del escritor)
[60 min; 2014; Spanish with English subtitles]
Direction, Script & Editing: Álvaro Giménez Sarmiento 

Documentary on the life of writer, Antonio Muñoz Molina, one of the greatest figures in Spanish contemporary literature, who has been spending his time, between Madrid and New York for many years now. Spain is where his family is, his home, and his publishing house. A place where he grew up and a place that he never really left. New York is home to his dreams and its appeal lies in the anonymity of its streets, the relative quietness of his public life, and his work at the University of London.

Click here to view this film.