Speaker: Mr. Michael Buckley, Canadian author and filmmaker

 

Chair: Ms Rebon Banerjee Dhar, Foundation for Non-violent Alternatives

 

Mr. Buckley will explain how he made the shift from guidebook writer to environmentalist - on a journey of discovery exposing the rampant exploitation of Tibet's natural resources, in particular through damming, water diversion, mining, and grassland degradation 

 

Presentation will include a short documentary about the extensive damming of Tibet's rivers and the impact of this on the nations downstream - on India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand and other countries 

An exhibition of paintings by leading women artists from India and China 

 

India – Gogi Saroj Pal, Bulbul Sharma, Kanchan Chander, Rekha Rao, Asma Menon, Nupur Kundu, Meenakshi Kasliwal, Sheetal Gattani, Madhuri Bhaduri and Kiran Murdiya

 

China – Chen Yinyin, Tang Baolin, He Daqiao, Liu Yuanshan, Wang Yuhong, Wang Xin, Lu Yuwei, Zhao Aihua and Yang Yan

 

 

Inauguration by Prof. Lokesh Chandra, President, ICCR on Friday, 20 February 2015 at 18:30

 

Evald’s Acre (45 min; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Kersti Uibo

 

This contemporary film recounts the courage and pain of Emmi and Evald Saag who survived the occupation of their native land, first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, then again by the Soviets, and finally lived to see Estonia a free and independent nation again. A sensitive and restrained study told with humour

 

Screening will be followed by a talk on Poetic Film Genre

Speaker: Kersti Uibo

 

At 14:30

511 Best Photos of Mars (9 min; 1968; dvd)

Director: Andres Sööt

 

The masterpiece of 1960s Estonian documentary combines hidden camera images of people in Talllinn’s cafes with music from the Beatles and G.F. Handel

 

St John’s Day (14 min; 1978; dvd)

Director: Andres Sööt

 

Film about the most important Estonian national holiday – the summer solstice, an ancient celebration, when bonfires are lit and parties held all over the country

 

The Winds of the Milky Way (55 min; 1977; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Lennart Meri

 

This film travels enormous distances of space and time as it visits various Finno-Ugric peoples and observes their life-styles and some of their work-day customs and ancient rituals, their myths and history and their folk songs

 

At 16:30 

Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue (87 min; 2002; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Dorian Supin

 

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has, for the third year running, been given the title of the “world’s most performed living composer”. Director Dorian Supin’s intimately close film succeeds in revealing Arvo Pärt’s musical thinking and his work opens a door on the inner world of one of the most spiritually intense composers of our time

 

At 18:30

Disco and Atomic War (80 min; 2009; dvd; English subtitles)

Directors: Jaak Kilmi, Kiur Aarma

 

This witty, charming and provocative film recounts how in the mid 1980’s, the nation of Estonia still lay firmly in the grip of the Soviet Union, and the repressive authorities controlled virtually all aspects of Estonian life. Rock and roll was but a rumour and the only television shows on the air were dreary propaganda, but one day everything changed…

 

A festival presenting seven award-winning films which paint a colourful portrait of the Estonian people who, despite all odds, have resisted multiple conquests and kept their freedom. Organised in collaboration with Embassy of Estonia and Estonian Film Institute

 

Ash and Money (100 min; 2013; dvd; English subtitles)

Directors: Ene-Liis Semper, Tiit Ojasoo, Rein Kotov

 

In March 2010, the Estonian theatre NO99 took a decision to expose the corrupt practices of Estonian politics in a provocative way: it announced it would start a new political party, Unified Estonia. The film follows the progress of this unique project which also won international recognition

By Dr. Sunita Jain, well-known  poet writing in Hindi

 

Chair: Dr. Tarannum  Riyaz   

 

In Conversation 

Nilima Sheikh in conversation with Gayatri Sinha and Latika Gupta

 

Moderator: Shri Ashok Vajpeyi

 

Salt, Robes and Blood: A Historical Code of Honor and Loyalty that Spread from Spain to China

Illustrated lecture by Stewart Gordon, Senior Research Scholar, Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan and author of The Marathas (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

 

Chair: Sunil Kumar, Professor, Dept. of History, University of Delhi

 

Everyone across North India, Central India and the Deccan knows the term “Namak Halal”, that is, to act loyally to one’s “salt”. And everyone has seen the presentation of a Kashmiri shawl to an honoured guest. Virtually no one realizes, however, that these two seemingly disparate events are the remnants of a vast system of loyalty and honor that allowed men to move across a huge swath of Asia and find employment as soldiers, clerics, administrators, philosophers, even ambassadors

 

CANCELLED

 

To be delivered by Smt Sujahta Singh, Foreign Secretary 

 

Chair: Shri Ronen Sen, President, Federation of Indo – German Societies in India

 

A talk by Shri A.N.D. Haksar, former Indian Ambassador, scholar and translator of several Sanskrit texts including  the Jatakamala

 

Chair: Shri Rajiv Mehrotra