[Reader-list] [Announcements] Excavating Cinema and the City

[PUKAR @ The Paperie]

Dear Friends:

PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research) cordially 
invites you to a discussion on cinema and the city, with VIRCHAND 
DHARAMSEY, archaeologist and film scholar, discussing the travails of 
documenting the cinematic history of Mumbai, with critic and scholar 
ASHISH RAJADHYAKSHA.


We popularly imagine Mumbai to be a 'cinematic city'. Like all cities 
whose representation in the cinema becomes a part of their very 
identity as a place, the history of the city becomes intertwined with 
the history of the cinema made in it. As the archive of the city in 
some ways becomes the cinema, so the archive of the cinema is to only 
be found in the crevices of the city.

How do we research the cinema in Mumbai? Where would we find our 
data? Why do public libraries and major archives store so little of 
cinema history? How do you compile a filmography of the earliest 
history of the cinema? Why are private collections so important? How 
did they come about? What happens when precious film material 
including publicity booklets and posters are being bought by 
collectors and sold in auctions?


VIRCHAND DHARAMSEY (b. 1935) is an archaeologist and a leading 
authority on early Indian cinema. As an archaeologist, he has been 
part of a number of field excavations and was a member of a 
collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and the 
Department of Archaeology, Gujarat. He has edited Gujarat Gatha 
(1993), and has assembled the definitive filmography of Indian silent 
cinema, Light of Asia, (edited by Suresh Chhabria, 1994), contributed 
the sections on silent cinema for the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema 
(Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, 1999) and co-written with 
Amrit Gangar the book Indian Cinema: A Visual Voyage.

ASHISH RAJADHYAKSHA (b. 1957) is Senior Fellow of the Centre for the 
Study of Culture & Society (CSCS), Bangalore, and was the editor of 
the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (1999). He is an active member of 
the editorial collective of the Journal of Arts and Ideas, and is a 
regular contributor to Framework and to Sight & Sound. He has written 
the book Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic (1983), was Editor, The 
Sad and Glad of Kishore Kumar (Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 
1988); was Editor, with Amrit Gangar, of Ghatak : Arguments/Stories 
(Screen Unit/Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 1987). He is 
currently coordinating the CSCS Media Archive. He was co-curator, 
with Geeta Kapur, of the exhibition Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001, part of 
the exhibition Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern 
Metropolis, at the Tate Modern, London, 2001.


Date:
SATURDAY 15 MARCH 2002
6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

At:
The BOMBAY PAPERIE
Mezzanine Floor, Soonawalla Building
59, Bombay Samachar Marg
Opposite the Stock Exchange
Fort, Bombay 400001

R.S.V.P.
Phone Shekhar Krishnan or Rahul Srivastava at 2207 7779
E-Mail <secretariat at pukar.org.in>


About PUKAR @ The Paperie:

These discussions is part of a monthly programme organised by PUKAR 
for friends and guests at The Bombay Paperie, Fort. These gatherings 
are usually held on the third or fourth Saturday of every month at 
6.00 p.m. PUKAR thanks Neeta Premchand and Navaz Kotwal of The Bombay 
Paperie for hosting this monthly public discussion. We look forward 
to your attendance and participation, and suggesting names of people 
and organisations to add to our mailing list.
_____

PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research)
P.O. Box 5627
Dadar, Mumbai 400014
INDIA

E-Mail <pukarsecretariat at vsnl.net>
Phone +91 (022) 2207 7779, +91 98200 45529, +91 98204 04010
Web Site http://www.pukar.org.in
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