Towards an Unperfect  Swaraj: Life and Art of Priya Ravish Mehra

Panelists: Amba Sanyal, theatre artist, costume designer; Shruti Vohra, Editor of Priya's work in progress on Rafoogars; E.P. Unny, Chief Political Cartoonist, The Indian Express

 

Moderator: Dr. Rizio Yohannan

 

(Collaboration: Lila Foundation)

 

 

(Collaboration: Foundation for Peace, Harmony and Good Governance)

 

Korean Peninsula in an Evolving Indo Pacific: Special Strategic Partnership Between India And Republic of Korea

Panelists: H.E. Mr. Shin Bongkil, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea; and Ambassador Skand Tayal, former Indian Ambassador to Republic of Korea 

 

Moderator: Ambassador Suresh K Goel

 

(Collaboration: India-Republic of Korea Friendship Society)

DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018- A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES

 

Trembling Mountain (Nepal)

(83 min; 2016; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: KesangTseten

 

On April 25, 2015 Nepal was hit by a quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale. Among the worst hit was the prime trekking destination of Langtang. A glacial collapse caused an avalanche of rock, ice and mud, resulting in an air blast, equal to half the force of the Hiroshima atom bomb. A story of destruction and loss, slowly replaced by rebuilding and hope

 

At 12:40

Overruled (Afghanistan)

(52 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Directors: Fernaz 

 

Overruled recounts the lives and hopes of young Afghan refugees in Iran. Working as ball boys in tennis clubs in Teheran, they become proficient enough in the game to compete in competitions. But continue to be viewed as outsiders in the eyes of the Iranians and are faced with the constant threat of detention and deportation

 

At 14:00 

Lock and Key (India)

(83 min; 2017; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Shilpi Gulati

 

A story told with compassion and kindness of the families of five men in Punjab recovering from the rampant drug problem in the state. While they struggle to establish new relationships with their pasts, their partners strive to redefine the meaning of love and the labour of everyday life

 

At 15:30

The Shepherdess of the Glaciers (India)

(74 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Directors: Stanzin Dorjai, Christiane Mordelet

 

Way up in Ladakh at 16,500 feet, lives a shepherdess with a flock of 250 sheep and pashmina goats on a huge deserted rock-strewn mountain. Documented by her brother over four seasons, the film depicts both her world of icy loneliness and the unbreakable bond between humans and animals

 

From 17:00 to 18:30 

Conversations on Documentary As Protest

A conversation with leading documentary filmmakers – Pankaj Butalia, Sanjay Kak, Vani Subramaniam, Nakul Singh Sawhney

 

Introduction: Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor & Associate Dean, New Imaginations, Jindal School of Journalism and Communication

 

At 18:40  

Soz: A Ballad of Maladies (India)

(85 min; 2016; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Directors: Tushar Madhav, Sarvnik Kaur

 

Of folk, rock and hip-hop, this documentary captures the rhythm and blues of resistance in the Kashmir valley

 

DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018 - A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES

 

Rasan Piya (India)

(80 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Niharika Popli

 

The story of an extraordinary musician, poet and teacher, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan who represented the 16th generation of Miyan Tansen’s lineage. He continued to compose, teach, travel and perform across India until his death in February 2016 at the age of 107 years

 

At 19:30 

Among the Believers (Pakistan)

(84 min; 2015; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Directors: Hemal Trivedi, Mohammed Ali Naqvi

 

Charismatic cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Shariah law throughout the country, as a model for the world. Among the Believers follows Aziz on his very personal quest to create an Islamic utopia, during the bloodiest period in Pakistan’s modern history

 

DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018- A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES

 

Is it Too Much to Ask (India)

(30 min; 2017; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Leena Manimekalai

 

Is it Too Much to Ask follows the journey of two friends, Smile and Glady, looking for a rental apartment in Chennai and the obstacles and social stigma they encounter in the process for being single and for being transgender women. A delicate documentary that treats a sensitive subject with lightness while exposing society’s prejudices

 

At 18:40 

32 Souls (Myanmar)

(25 min; 2016; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Sai Naw Kham

 

A quietly poetic work on the rhythms of daily life, of mortality, and the persistence of memory in Myanmar

 

At 19:15 

Fireflies in the Abyss (India)

(88 min; 2015; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy

 

In the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India, boys and men descend into the abyss of the 'rat-holes' to scratch coal out of hard rock, with nothing more than a pickaxe and a head-torch. One of them is Suraj, an 11-year old boy. Born in the mines to Nepali immigrants, Suraj cherishes the hope of getting out of the coal-pit someday. But despite the hardships and pain of separation, we see pride, generosity and sacrifice

 

DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: TRAVELLING FILM SOUTHASIA 2018 - A FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES

1 TO 4 AUGUST 2018

 

A festival of 12 exceptional nonfiction films from South Asia produced in the last two years. The festival encapsulates the flavors of the Subcontinent with filmsabout people from Afghanistan, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The festival includes the award winners of Film Southasia Festival 2017, Kathmandu as well as other films selected to showcase the variety, treatment and intensity that marks the world of Southasian documentary and non-fiction. Organised with Film Southasia, Kathmandu; and in collaboration with New Imaginations: Jindal School of Journalism and Communication, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat

 

AT 18:00

Introduction

By Ms Mitu Varma, Director Film Southasia, Kathmandu

 

Followed by

Amdavad Ma Famous (Famous in Ahmedabad; India)

(30 min; 2015; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Hardik Mehta

 

Set during the kaleidoscopic backdrop of the biggest kite-flying festival in India, Amdavad ma Famous, an uplifting transformation of 11-year-old Zaid from child to passionate and aggressive kite-runner

 

AT 18:45 

Demons in Paradise (Sri Lanka)

(94 min; 2017; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Jude Ratnam

 

A Tamil documentary filmmaker in Sri Lanka analyses the two-and half decade long civil war from the inside 

Visiting Dolpo

Illustrated lecture by Deb Mukharji, writer and photographer

 

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, Life Trustee, IIC

 

Dolpo in mid-western Nepal is the least visited part of the country where the Bon religion is widely practised. The fame lake Shey Phoksondo in central Dolpo is surrounded by peaks, glaciers and steep gorges. A photographic account of a recent visit…

 

 

 

Felicitation

To felicitate Soumitra Chatterjee and Goutam Ghosh

 

In the Fountain Lawns

Cultural Evening

With Soumitra Chatterjee and Goutam Ghosh

 

Followed at 19:15 in Multipurpose Hall & Seminar Rooms I to III, Kamaladevi Complex

 

Film: Dekha (Vision/Bengali)

(123 min; 2000; dvd; English subtitles)

Directed by Goutam Ghosh who will introduce the film

 

Recipient of the Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali; & Special Jury Award to Soumitra Chatterjee, 48th National Film Awards 2001; and Silver Montgolfiere, Nantes Three Continents Festival 2001 

 

In Dekha Gautam Ghose makes a veiled attack against the winds of change sweeping our society. Based on a story by Sunil Gangopadhyay, all the characters in the film are caught in the web of life, sometimes owing to their flaws, or that of their spouse.The film chronicles the life of an ageing poet who has seen the world but is now nearly blind with glaucoma  

 

(Collaboration: Impresario India)