[Reader-list] Vikalp at Prithvi: Celebrating Poetry on 23rd Feb 2009, starting 8 pm at Prithvi Theatre

[Chandni Parekh]

From: Vikalp at Prithvi <vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com>





We're celebrating our 2nd Anniversary screening at Prithvi Theatre! Do join
us!



*Since Feb 2007, **Vikalp at Prithvi* <Vikalp at Prithvi>* has screened over 35
contemporary Indian and international documentaries and short films. We
invite you to a celebration of the spirit of Vikalp, and the second
anniversary of the Vikalp and Prithvi partnership. *

* *

*On 23rd Feb, we bring to you two films directed by Shabnam Virmani as part
of the Kabir Project. The Kabir Project started in 2003 aims to bring
together the experiences of a series of journeys in quest of this 15th
century mystic poet in our contemporary worlds. Here we present 2 parts from
a 4-film series. More to come in the near future.*

* *
<http://pages.google.com/edit/lynnehenry/kabirproject.JPG/kabirproject-full;init:.JPG>
*8 pm – 9:45 pm | **Had-Anhad** | 105 mins*
 *This film journeys in search of the "Ram" invoked in Kabir's poetry,
delving into the heart of divisive Hindu-Muslim politics of religion and
nationalism, encountering singers and lay people in India and Pakistan,
probing the forces of history and politics that have created disputatiously
diverse Rams, while also spawning many Kabirs.*

  <http://pages.google.com/edit/lynnehenry/Had-Anhad-still-1.jpg/Had-Anhad-still-1-full;init:.jpg>
  *10 pm – 11:40 pm** | **Koi Sunta Hai** | 96 mins*

*This film interweaves the oral folk traditions of Kabir in central India
with the intensely personal narrative of the late classical singer Pandit
Kumar Gandharva, keeping the spiritual ideas of Kabir as the central binding
thread. Journeying between folk and classical, between rural and urban
expressions of Kabir, the film finds moments of both continuity and rupture
between these disparate worlds.** *

*Shabnam Virmani director of the Kabir Project, is a documentary filmmaker
and artist in residence at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology
in Bangalore since 2002. Co-founder of the Drishti Media Arts and Human
Rights collective (www.drishtimedia.org), she has directed several
documentaries in close partnership with grassroots women's groups in the
country. In 2002, she co-directed an award-winning community radio program
with the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan in Gujarat.*

* *

*Vikalp: Films For Freedom*

*Vikalp: Films For Freedom is an action platform of over 300 Indian
documentary filmmakers. The filmmakers came together as Campaign Against
Censorship in response to an attempt by the Mumbai International Film
Festival to impose censorship on Indian films. *


*In February 2004, Mumbai became the location of an unprecedented act of
cultural resistance - Vikalp: Films For Freedom - a six-day long festival of
documentary films. Running parallel to MIFF 2004, Vikalp was run by the
filmmakers themselves. The festival screened all the films rejected by MIFF
2004, as well as more than a dozen films withdrawn from MIFF by filmmakers
whose films had been selected by the MIFF 2004 jury, in protest of the
covert censorship-by-selection. Since then, Vikalp has been organizing
screenings in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta. A package of Vikalp
films has also traveled to festivals abroad. *

* *

*Having to consistently work towards the creation of 'free' spaces for the
expression of varied political thoughts and ideas, Vikalp collectively takes
a stand against all forms of covert and overt; state, legal and extra-legal
censorship.*

* *

*The challenge before us today is to transform Vikalp into a movement, a
sustained channel for dissemination and discussion of alternative
documentary films and alternative movements that pose a vigorous threat to
the forces that seek to silence dissent and marginal voices.*

* *

*We invite everyone, filmmakers and non-filmmakers to participate in this
collective and take the movement forward.*

* *

 *Vikalp at Prithvi screens a curated selection of documentaries and short
films on the last Monday of every month at Prithvi House from 7 pm onwards.
Entry to all screenings is free!*

* *
 *For screening queries please contact Anand Patwardhan 9819882244 *
 **
 vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com www.freedomfilmsindia.org

*For more information on the three day event "Celebrating Poetry" at Prithvi
Theatre starting Feb 23rd, log onto www.prithvitheatre.org

We would also like you and your friends to join the Vikalp at Prithvi group on
Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46819848804


*