[Reader-list] Film Fest/ Aparna Sen

Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri jyotirmoy2003 at rediffmail.com
Sun Mar 30 11:45:41 IST 2003 

A friend at Wellesley asked me to put this up on Sarai - for those who are interested.

Jyoti
-----------------------
 Aparna Sen Film Festival

Wellesley College April 11-13, 2003

Massachusetts Institute of Technology April 16, 2003

 

Dear Members of the Press,

The Wellesley College Women Studies Department and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are very pleased to announce the Aparna Sen Film Festival, which will take place at Wellesley College’s Collins Cinema April 11-13, 2003 and at MIT Carpenter Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 16th, 2003. Aparna Sen is an award winning actress and director of multiple films, and the most accomplished woman filmmaker from India, home to the world’s largest national film industry.  The festival will present six feature length films directed by Ms. Sen. Opening and closing receptions will be held. Ms. Sen will be in attendance at the screenings and will participate in question and answer sessions as part of the festival program.

 

Aparna Sen’s Career
Aparna Sen is one of India's most celebrated directors. Her directorial debut was an English film, 36 Chowringhee Lane, which she also wrote. The film won The Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival and the National Award for Best Direction in India. Her directorial work also includes memorable films such as Sati, Parama, and Yugant. Daughter of the renowned film historian, critic, and filmmaker, Chidanda Das Gupta, Aparna Sen is also one of India's finest actresses and has won several awards for acting. 

Ms. Sen has served on juries at many international film festivals, such as International Film Festival of India, Moscow International Film Festival, and the Hawaii International Film Festival. Aparna Sen has also been honored with some of India's most prestigious awards including the Padmashree Award by the President of India and the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award.



 

Aparna Sen’s Filmography
Teen Kanya, 1961 – Actress

Akash Kusum, 1965 – Actress

The Guru, 1965 – Actress

Aparachita, 1969 – Actress

Bombay Talkie, 1970 – Actress

Aranyer Din Ratri, 1970 – Actress

Sagina, 1974 – Actress

Jana Aranya, 1976 – Actress

Kotwal Saab, 1977 – Actress

Imaan Dharam, 1977 – Actress

Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures, 1978 – Actress

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981 – Writer, Director

Pikoor Diary, 1981 – Actress

Parama, 1984 – Writer, Director, Actress

Sati, 1989 – Writer, Director

Shet Patharer Thala, 1992 – Actress

Mahaprithivi, 1992 – Actress

Unishe April, 1994 – Actress

Yugant, 1995 – Director

Paromitar Ek Din, 2000 – Writer, Director, Actress

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, 2002 – Director

 

Please contact K. Paras at aparnafilm @yahoo.com for interview possibilities.



 

Opening Night 
Reception at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 5:30-7 p.m.
 

Mr. And Mrs. Iyer, 2002, 120min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 7:00pm

Saturday, April 12, 8:00pm

(THIS FILM will also screen at MIT Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m., Carpenter Center for the Arts)

 

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer explores the common bond between a man and a woman separated by centuries of religious conflicts and taboos. On a bus journey, Meenakshi, a young Tamil Brahmin, accepts water from Raja, a Muslim. Introduced to Meenakshi by a mutual friend, Raja feels responsible for the young woman’s comfort and safety. Naturally enough, everyone on the bus takes them for a couple. But then the bus is stopped by a group of Hindu extremists, looking for the Muslims who had burned down one of their villages. Raja is frightened, while Meenakshi, born and raised in a Brahmin family, is shocked at his religious affiliation and feels obliged to keep her distance. But an extremely violent massacre takes place: guns are fired, blood flows and people are killed. When she sees how savagely the Muslims have been murdered, Meenakshi decides to save Raja’s life and lies to the extremists, assuring them they are married: Mr. and Mrs Iyer. Forced to leave the bus, they are left to their own devices. The violence and horror they have witnessed has brought them closer together, allowing them to put aside their religious differences, and they soon discover a mutual attraction. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Aparna Sen’s second English-language film, was written in the months following September 11, and six months before the riots in Gujarat, uncannily prescient in terms of current political events. 

 

Paromitar Ek Din (House of Memories), 2000, 132min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 8:00pm

 

Paromitar Ek Din centers around Paromitar, the wife of an oppressive husband, who, despite her master's degree, has taken a traditional path and cares for their physically handicapped child. The director appears in the role of the mother-in-law, the only person who understands Paromitar's difficulties because her experiences and Hindu values mirror the younger woman's. 

 

Yugant, 1995, 125min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 9:30pm

Sunday April 13, 2:00pm

 

Yugant shows how the disintegration of the marital relationship is part of a greater disintegration all around us of ecology and values. An unhappy couple, the husband, an advertising agency director, and the wife, a classical dancer, return to the fishing village where they spent their honeymoon seventeen years ago. Their past life is shown in a series of flash-backs, while the sea, polluted by conspicuous consumerism, symbolizes the current state of their relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

Sati, 1989, 140min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 4:00pm

 

Sati or “suttee” is the former Hindu custom in which a widow would sacrifice herself by being burned alive on her dead husband’s funeral pyre. The Sanskrit word literally means “faithful wife.” This film is set in the early nineteenth century, right before the practice of sati was outlawed. Uma is a mute orphaned woman considered unfit for marriage by an orthodox Brahmin society. She is compelled to marry a banyan tree because of a faulty astrological chart. Sati is a sustained indictment of 19th-century Hindu society’s practice of consigning widows to burn on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres and the symbolic fate of a mute orphan married off to a tree. 

 

Parama, 1984, 139min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 2:00pm

Monday, April 14, 8:30pm

 

 

Parama uncovers the ruthless confinements of gender in a traditional patriarchal social setting. Parama is an ordinary, sincerely devoted housewife in an affluent urban family living traditionally in a third world metropolis. Parama’s life changes when she falls in love with a photographer. After much soul-searching she abandons her family for a man that changes her life.

 

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981, 122min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 6:30pm

 

Violet Stoneham is an elderly schoolteacher whose life consists of a series of little routines: her walk in the park, church on Sundays, feeding her beloved cat, Sir Toby, visiting her brother in an old-age home and teaching Shakespeare to generations of uninterested students. When a new principal takes over, Violet is relegated to drilling younger students in the elements of English grammar. Her bewilderment and grief leave her especially vulnerable on Christmas Eve as she walks back from church. A chance meeting with a former student and her boyfriend cheers Violet. She feels she has found true friends at last. But the young couple is simply looking for a place to be alone. Miss Stoneham’s apartment seems ideal. 

 

 

***



 

The Aparna Sen Film Festival is sponsored by the Davis Fund for World Cultures and Leadership, the Wellesley College Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events, Wellesley College Friends of Art, the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College Art Department, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Writing Program and Office for the Arts, The Indian Consulate New York, and The Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Culture, India. 

 

Admission is free and on a first come, first served basis.  The theatre will open 20 minutes before each screening. Films are in their original version with English subtitles.

 

Please contact Geeta Patel at gpatel at wellesley.edu or K. Paras at aparnafilm at yahoo.com for further information

 

###

Geeta Patel
Associate Professor of Women's Studies
Wellesley College
Wellesley MA 02481
781 283 3335
508 753 8615 (fax) 

 Aparna Sen Film Festival

Wellesley College April 11-13, 2003

Massachusetts Institute of Technology April 16, 2003

 

Dear Members of the Press,

The Wellesley College Women Studies Department and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are very pleased to announce the Aparna Sen Film Festival, which will take place at Wellesley College’s Collins Cinema April 11-13, 2003 and at MIT Carpenter Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 16th, 2003. Aparna Sen is an award winning actress and director of multiple films, and the most accomplished woman filmmaker from India, home to the world’s largest national film industry.  The festival will present six feature length films directed by Ms. Sen. Opening and closing receptions will be held. Ms. Sen will be in attendance at the screenings and will participate in question and answer sessions as part of the festival program.

 

Aparna Sen’s Career
Aparna Sen is one of India's most celebrated directors. Her directorial debut was an English film, 36 Chowringhee Lane, which she also wrote. The film won The Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival and the National Award for Best Direction in India. Her directorial work also includes memorable films such as Sati, Parama, and Yugant. Daughter of the renowned film historian, critic, and filmmaker, Chidanda Das Gupta, Aparna Sen is also one of India's finest actresses and has won several awards for acting. 

Ms. Sen has served on juries at many international film festivals, such as International Film Festival of India, Moscow International Film Festival, and the Hawaii International Film Festival. Aparna Sen has also been honored with some of India's most prestigious awards including the Padmashree Award by the President of India and the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award.



 

Aparna Sen’s Filmography
Teen Kanya, 1961 – Actress

Akash Kusum, 1965 – Actress

The Guru, 1965 – Actress

Aparachita, 1969 – Actress

Bombay Talkie, 1970 – Actress

Aranyer Din Ratri, 1970 – Actress

Sagina, 1974 – Actress

Jana Aranya, 1976 – Actress

Kotwal Saab, 1977 – Actress

Imaan Dharam, 1977 – Actress

Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures, 1978 – Actress

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981 – Writer, Director

Pikoor Diary, 1981 – Actress

Parama, 1984 – Writer, Director, Actress

Sati, 1989 – Writer, Director

Shet Patharer Thala, 1992 – Actress

Mahaprithivi, 1992 – Actress

Unishe April, 1994 – Actress

Yugant, 1995 – Director

Paromitar Ek Din, 2000 – Writer, Director, Actress

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, 2002 – Director

 

Please contact K. Paras at aparnafilm @yahoo.com for interview possibilities.



 

Opening Night 
Reception at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 5:30-7 p.m.
 

Mr. And Mrs. Iyer, 2002, 120min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 7:00pm

Saturday, April 12, 8:00pm

(THIS FILM will also screen at MIT Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m., Carpenter Center for the Arts)

 

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer explores the common bond between a man and a woman separated by centuries of religious conflicts and taboos. On a bus journey, Meenakshi, a young Tamil Brahmin, accepts water from Raja, a Muslim. Introduced to Meenakshi by a mutual friend, Raja feels responsible for the young woman’s comfort and safety. Naturally enough, everyone on the bus takes them for a couple. But then the bus is stopped by a group of Hindu extremists, looking for the Muslims who had burned down one of their villages. Raja is frightened, while Meenakshi, born and raised in a Brahmin family, is shocked at his religious affiliation and feels obliged to keep her distance. But an extremely violent massacre takes place: guns are fired, blood flows and people are killed. When she sees how savagely the Muslims have been murdered, Meenakshi decides to save Raja’s life and lies to the extremists, assuring them they are married: Mr. and Mrs Iyer. Forced to leave the bus, they are left to their own devices. The violence and horror they have witnessed has brought them closer together, allowing them to put aside their religious differences, and they soon discover a mutual attraction. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Aparna Sen’s second English-language film, was written in the months following September 11, and six months before the riots in Gujarat, uncannily prescient in terms of current political events. 

 

Paromitar Ek Din (House of Memories), 2000, 132min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 8:00pm

 

Paromitar Ek Din centers around Paromitar, the wife of an oppressive husband, who, despite her master's degree, has taken a traditional path and cares for their physically handicapped child. The director appears in the role of the mother-in-law, the only person who understands Paromitar's difficulties because her experiences and Hindu values mirror the younger woman's. 

 

Yugant, 1995, 125min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 9:30pm

Sunday April 13, 2:00pm

 

Yugant shows how the disintegration of the marital relationship is part of a greater disintegration all around us of ecology and values. An unhappy couple, the husband, an advertising agency director, and the wife, a classical dancer, return to the fishing village where they spent their honeymoon seventeen years ago. Their past life is shown in a series of flash-backs, while the sea, polluted by conspicuous consumerism, symbolizes the current state of their relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

Sati, 1989, 140min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 4:00pm

 

Sati or “suttee” is the former Hindu custom in which a widow would sacrifice herself by being burned alive on her dead husband’s funeral pyre. The Sanskrit word literally means “faithful wife.” This film is set in the early nineteenth century, right before the practice of sati was outlawed. Uma is a mute orphaned woman considered unfit for marriage by an orthodox Brahmin society. She is compelled to marry a banyan tree because of a faulty astrological chart. Sati is a sustained indictment of 19th-century Hindu society’s practice of consigning widows to burn on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres and the symbolic fate of a mute orphan married off to a tree. 

 

Parama, 1984, 139min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 2:00pm

Monday, April 14, 8:30pm

 

 

Parama uncovers the ruthless confinements of gender in a traditional patriarchal social setting. Parama is an ordinary, sincerely devoted housewife in an affluent urban family living traditionally in a third world metropolis. Parama’s life changes when she falls in love with a photographer. After much soul-searching she abandons her family for a man that changes her life.

 

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981, 122min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 6:30pm

 

Violet Stoneham is an elderly schoolteacher whose life consists of a series of little routines: her walk in the park, church on Sundays, feeding her beloved cat, Sir Toby, visiting her brother in an old-age home and teaching Shakespeare to generations of uninterested students. When a new principal takes over, Violet is relegated to drilling younger students in the elements of English grammar. Her bewilderment and grief leave her especially vulnerable on Christmas Eve as she walks back from church. A chance meeting with a former student and her boyfriend cheers Violet. She feels she has found true friends at last. But the young couple is simply looking for a place to be alone. Miss Stoneham’s apartment seems ideal. 

 

 

***



 

The Aparna Sen Film Festival is sponsored by the Davis Fund for World Cultures and Leadership, the Wellesley College Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events, Wellesley College Friends of Art, the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College Art Department, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Writing Program and Office for the Arts, The Indian Consulate New York, and The Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Culture, India. 

 

Admission is free and on a first come, first served basis.  The theatre will open 20 minutes before each screening. Films are in their original version with English subtitles.

 

Please contact Geeta Patel at gpatel at wellesley.edu or K. Paras at aparnafilm at yahoo.com for further information

 

###

Geeta Patel
Associate Professor of Women's Studies
Wellesley College
Wellesley MA 02481
781 283 3335
508 753 8615 (fax) 

 Aparna Sen Film Festival

Wellesley College April 11-13, 2003

Massachusetts Institute of Technology April 16, 2003

 

Dear Members of the Press,

The Wellesley College Women Studies Department and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are very pleased to announce the Aparna Sen Film Festival, which will take place at Wellesley College’s Collins Cinema April 11-13, 2003 and at MIT Carpenter Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 16th, 2003. Aparna Sen is an award winning actress and director of multiple films, and the most accomplished woman filmmaker from India, home to the world’s largest national film industry.  The festival will present six feature length films directed by Ms. Sen. Opening and closing receptions will be held. Ms. Sen will be in attendance at the screenings and will participate in question and answer sessions as part of the festival program.

 

Aparna Sen’s Career
Aparna Sen is one of India's most celebrated directors. Her directorial debut was an English film, 36 Chowringhee Lane, which she also wrote. The film won The Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival and the National Award for Best Direction in India. Her directorial work also includes memorable films such as Sati, Parama, and Yugant. Daughter of the renowned film historian, critic, and filmmaker, Chidanda Das Gupta, Aparna Sen is also one of India's finest actresses and has won several awards for acting. 

Ms. Sen has served on juries at many international film festivals, such as International Film Festival of India, Moscow International Film Festival, and the Hawaii International Film Festival. Aparna Sen has also been honored with some of India's most prestigious awards including the Padmashree Award by the President of India and the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award.



 

Aparna Sen’s Filmography
Teen Kanya, 1961 – Actress

Akash Kusum, 1965 – Actress

The Guru, 1965 – Actress

Aparachita, 1969 – Actress

Bombay Talkie, 1970 – Actress

Aranyer Din Ratri, 1970 – Actress

Sagina, 1974 – Actress

Jana Aranya, 1976 – Actress

Kotwal Saab, 1977 – Actress

Imaan Dharam, 1977 – Actress

Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures, 1978 – Actress

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981 – Writer, Director

Pikoor Diary, 1981 – Actress

Parama, 1984 – Writer, Director, Actress

Sati, 1989 – Writer, Director

Shet Patharer Thala, 1992 – Actress

Mahaprithivi, 1992 – Actress

Unishe April, 1994 – Actress

Yugant, 1995 – Director

Paromitar Ek Din, 2000 – Writer, Director, Actress

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, 2002 – Director

 

Please contact K. Paras at aparnafilm @yahoo.com for interview possibilities.



 

Opening Night 
Reception at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum and Cultural Center, 5:30-7 p.m.
 

Mr. And Mrs. Iyer, 2002, 120min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 7:00pm

Saturday, April 12, 8:00pm

(THIS FILM will also screen at MIT Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m., Carpenter Center for the Arts)

 

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer explores the common bond between a man and a woman separated by centuries of religious conflicts and taboos. On a bus journey, Meenakshi, a young Tamil Brahmin, accepts water from Raja, a Muslim. Introduced to Meenakshi by a mutual friend, Raja feels responsible for the young woman’s comfort and safety. Naturally enough, everyone on the bus takes them for a couple. But then the bus is stopped by a group of Hindu extremists, looking for the Muslims who had burned down one of their villages. Raja is frightened, while Meenakshi, born and raised in a Brahmin family, is shocked at his religious affiliation and feels obliged to keep her distance. But an extremely violent massacre takes place: guns are fired, blood flows and people are killed. When she sees how savagely the Muslims have been murdered, Meenakshi decides to save Raja’s life and lies to the extremists, assuring them they are married: Mr. and Mrs Iyer. Forced to leave the bus, they are left to their own devices. The violence and horror they have witnessed has brought them closer together, allowing them to put aside their religious differences, and they soon discover a mutual attraction. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Aparna Sen’s second English-language film, was written in the months following September 11, and six months before the riots in Gujarat, uncannily prescient in terms of current political events. 

 

Paromitar Ek Din (House of Memories), 2000, 132min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 8:00pm

 

Paromitar Ek Din centers around Paromitar, the wife of an oppressive husband, who, despite her master's degree, has taken a traditional path and cares for their physically handicapped child. The director appears in the role of the mother-in-law, the only person who understands Paromitar's difficulties because her experiences and Hindu values mirror the younger woman's. 

 

Yugant, 1995, 125min, 35mm

Friday, April 11, 9:30pm

Sunday April 13, 2:00pm

 

Yugant shows how the disintegration of the marital relationship is part of a greater disintegration all around us of ecology and values. An unhappy couple, the husband, an advertising agency director, and the wife, a classical dancer, return to the fishing village where they spent their honeymoon seventeen years ago. Their past life is shown in a series of flash-backs, while the sea, polluted by conspicuous consumerism, symbolizes the current state of their relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

Sati, 1989, 140min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 4:00pm

 

Sati or “suttee” is the former Hindu custom in which a widow would sacrifice herself by being burned alive on her dead husband’s funeral pyre. The Sanskrit word literally means “faithful wife.” This film is set in the early nineteenth century, right before the practice of sati was outlawed. Uma is a mute orphaned woman considered unfit for marriage by an orthodox Brahmin society. She is compelled to marry a banyan tree because of a faulty astrological chart. Sati is a sustained indictment of 19th-century Hindu society’s practice of consigning widows to burn on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres and the symbolic fate of a mute orphan married off to a tree. 

 

Parama, 1984, 139min, 35mm

Saturday, April 12, 2:00pm

Monday, April 14, 8:30pm

 

 

Parama uncovers the ruthless confinements of gender in a traditional patriarchal social setting. Parama is an ordinary, sincerely devoted housewife in an affluent urban family living traditionally in a third world metropolis. Parama’s life changes when she falls in love with a photographer. After much soul-searching she abandons her family for a man that changes her life.

 

36, Chowringhee Lane, 1981, 122min, 35mm

Sunday, April 13, 5:30pm

Monday, April 14, 6:30pm

 

Violet Stoneham is an elderly schoolteacher whose life consists of a series of little routines: her walk in the park, church on Sundays, feeding her beloved cat, Sir Toby, visiting her brother in an old-age home and teaching Shakespeare to generations of uninterested students. When a new principal takes over, Violet is relegated to drilling younger students in the elements of English grammar. Her bewilderment and grief leave her especially vulnerable on Christmas Eve as she walks back from church. A chance meeting with a former student and her boyfriend cheers Violet. She feels she has found true friends at last. But the young couple is simply looking for a place to be alone. Miss Stoneham’s apartment seems ideal. 

 

 

***



 

The Aparna Sen Film Festival is sponsored by the Davis Fund for World Cultures and Leadership, the Wellesley College Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events, Wellesley College Friends of Art, the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College Art Department, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Writing Program and Office for the Arts, The Indian Consulate New York, and The Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Culture, India. 

 

Admission is free and on a first come, first served basis.  The theatre will open 20 minutes before each screening. Films are in their original version with English subtitles.

 

Please contact Geeta Patel at gpatel at wellesley.edu or K. Paras at aparnafilm at yahoo.com for further information

 

###

Geeta Patel
Associate Professor of Women's Studies
Wellesley College
Wellesley MA 02481
781 283 3335
508 753 8615 (fax) 

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