The Best of Dharamshala International Film Festival
Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction; Punjabi)
(115 min; 2015; dvd; English subtitles)
Director: Gurvinder Singh
Multiple award winner including the Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes Film Festival 2015; Golden Gateway of India for Best Film Award, Mumbai Film Festival 2015; Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film, Singapore International Film Festival 2015; Best Feature Film in Punjabi, National Film Awards 2016; among others
Set in Punjab in 1984, Chauthi Kootevokes the atmosphere or mahaul, of suspicion, fear and paranoia of the time. The film is based on the short stories of Waryam Singh Sandhu, and centres on two loosely connected incidents – two Hindu friends trying to catch a train to Amritsar and, some months earlier, a farmer who is told he has to kill the family dog, whose barking threatens to reveal the presence of Sikh militants in the area…
The Best of Dharamshala International Film Festival: 3rd and 4th October 2016
One of India’s most alternative, off beat and eclectic film festivals held once a year in McLeod Ganj in Dharmshala, the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) was first started in 2012. Conceptualized by filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam of White Crane Films as a means of bringing quality contemporary, independent Indian and World Cinema to the culturally diverse location of Dharamshala. On 3rd and 4th October, we present a selection of the finest films presented at DIFF 2015
Kothanodi (The River of Fables; Assamese)
(115 min; 2015; dvd; English subtitles)
Directed by Bhaskar Hazarika who will introduce the film
Recipient of the Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese, National Film Awards, 2016
Kothadodi is an adaptation of four stories from the Assamese folktale compendium Buri Ai’r Xadhu (Grandma’s Tales). Set in pre-colonial India, the narrative concerns four mothers caught up in various acts of grisliness, irrationality and magic realism. Although anchored in the past, the film refers to present day crimes against women in Assam, including infanticide and witch hunting. Director Bhaskar Hazarika pushes the tales in dark, unorthodox directions, where magic is real, emotions are raw and horror is visceral
BHOOMI 2016
BHOOMI 2016
Healing our Planet, Healing our Body
Panel discussions and films on Climate Change, Biodiversity, Agro-ecology; Food and Health
AT 17:30
Cultural Evening
Performance by Tadpole Artists Collective
A Harmony Recital
Songs by Vidya Rao, renowned Thumri and Classical singer
Songs by Tenzin Choegyal
(Collaboration: Navdanya; Institut Français India; and SOL)
South Asia State of Minorities Report 2016: Mapping the Terrain
Release of the book followed by a discussion
The book will be released by Prof. Muchkund Dubey, Council for Social Development
Speakers/Authors: Sajjad Hassan, Editor, Misaal – Centre for Equity Studies; Omar Sadr, South Asian University, New Delhi (Afghanistan); Naaz Khair, Minority Rights researcher and activist, India
Discussants: Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights and Ravi Nair, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre
‘South Asia State of Minorities Report 2016: Mapping the Terrain’, seeks to systematically document and track the condition of South Asia’s minorities and their access to rights as citizens, in order to build a body of evidence, and spur public debate on the subject, in the region. The report, jointly authored by a group of research and advocacy groups from across South Asia – calling themselves The South Asia Collective - aspires to contribute to advocacy for establishing South Asia-wide minority rights standards, instruments and mechanisms, and also galvanise the region's civil society, around minority rights protection and promotion, in order to encourage state parties to adopt and enforce those instruments
INDIA-US RELATIONS AND THE US ELECTIONS
AN INTERACTION WITH AMBASSADOR TIMOTHY ROEHMER, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO INDIA
CHAIR: AMBASSADOR LALIT MANSINGH
1730 – 1800 TEA & COFFEE
1800 – 1805 REMARKS BY CHAIR
1805 – 1820 PRESENTATION BY AMBASSADOR TIMOTHY ROEHMER
1820 – 1920 DISCUSSION
1920 – 1930 VOTE OF THANKS BY AMBASSADOR H.K. SINGH (DG, DPG)
(COLLABORATION: FORUM FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND DELHI POLICY GROUP)
An Evening of Indo-Persian Poetry in Dastan – Goi Style
AS PART OF THIS EXHIBITION THERE WILL BE A PROGRAMME ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2016 AT 18:30 IN THE MULTIPURPOSE HALL
An Evening of Indo-Persian Poetry in Dastan – Goi Style
A selection from Indo-Persian poetry through the centuries will be read by performers with a narrator providing facts and background details of the works being read. The passages selected will represent a historical chronology of the influence of Persian in Indian literary writing
BHOOMI 2016
BHOOMI 2016
Healing our Planet, Healing our Body
Panel discussions and films on Climate Change, Biodiversity, Agro-ecology; Food and Health
AT 17:30
Cultural Evening
Performance by Tadpole Artists Collective
A Harmony Recital
Songs by Vidya Rao, renowned Thumri and Classical singer
Songs by Tenzin Choegyal
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and UN International Day of Non Violence
Dastan- e –Gandhi
A narration on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the tradition of Dastangoi
By Fouzia Dastango and Fazal Rashid
Followed by a Musical Rendition
By Students of Springdales School, Pusa Road
(Collaboration: The Sarvodya International Trust)
India and Central Asia - Past, Present and Future
India and Central Asia - Past, Present and Future
Speaker: Shri Ashok Sajjanhar, President, Institute of Global Studies, Former Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia, Former Secretary/Principal Executive Officer, National Foundation for Communal Harmony, Government of India
Chair: Shri K. Raghunath
Hindustani Vocal Recital
Hindustani Vocal Recital
By Dhananjay Joshi from Nanded, Maharashtra, disciple of Pt. Ramesh Kanole and Pt. Ajay Pohankar
With Manish Kanole on tabla and Devendra Sharma on harmonium