[Reader-list] 1st September Screening Programme at FD Zone, Mumbai: ABSTRACT CITY AND NATIONAL NARRATIVES

[rohitrellan at aol.in]

This week's programme at The FD Zone:
 
 ABSTRACT CITY AND NATIONAL NARRATIVES

 
 Curatorial note
 
 Films and videos of every genre play a crucial role in the documentation and construction of images of national cultures at a given point in time. This is true of all kinds of films, regardless of who makes them - the state, a private funder or an independent film maker. The language of film making and the agenda behind films may differ but each of these works of art forms an image of a time and a place, which serves as a visual record for generations to come.
 
 Our programme for this week features works by five film makers who make images of the places they live in, with a tremendous sense of beauty, gentleness, abstraction or brutality, sometimes all at once. The historical and political contexts are different, as are the media for making these films. But the films are united by their innovative use of imagery to make very distinct cinematic statements.
 
 All the films in the programme are much travelled, celebrated and awarded, both in India and internationally.
 
 TRIP
 4 min, B/W, 35mm, Films Division, 1970
 Director – Pramod Pati
 Camera – B. V. Dhawale
 Editing – U. H. Rao
 Music – Vijay Raghav Rao
 Sound – S. D. Patil
 
 ‘Trip’ is a wildly experimental portrait of Mumbai, set to music by Vijay Raghav Rao. The film uses a series of time-lapse sequences of the city’s iconic landmarks through a repetitive cycle from morning till night.
 
 MIRROR OF HOLLAND
 10 min, B/W, 35mm, Holland, 1950
 Direction, Camera and Editing - Bert Haanstra
 Music – Max Vredenburg
 
 Dutch documentary master Bert Haanstra’s beautiful short film  is a study in simplicity and abstraction. The film maker shoots images of a country that exists below sea level as a series of reflection in waterbodies. The film is set to music, as are many of Haanstra's films. Or maybe, the music is constructed around the images. The film was awarded the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951.
 
 PANCHABHUTA (THE FIVE ELEMENTS)
 16 min, Colour, HDV, SRFTII, 2011
 Direction – Mohan Kumar Valasala
 Camera – Sunny Lahiri
 Editing – Charitra Gupt Raj
 Sound – Iman Chakraborthy
 
 Mohan Kumar Valasala is a student of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India. The location of his documentary is the Dhapa dumping ground near Science City in Kolkata. Animals, rag pickers and lorry drivers co-exist in this brutal space, which becomes a surreal graveyard of derelict objects, unidentified animal and human dead bodies. The film is a study of this landscape and its inhabitants.
 
 The film was screened in competition at the Berlinale 2012, Tampere Film Festival, Busan International Short Film Festival and awarded Special Jury Mention at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival, Kerala.
 
 BHAL KHABAR (GOOD NEWS)
 18 min, Colour, DV, 2005
 Direction – Altaf Mazid
 Camera – Jyotiprasad Das and Altaf Mazid
 Sound and music – Debankar Bargohain
 Editing - Altaf Mazid and Debankar Bargohain
 Production – Zabeen Ahmad
 
 A writer looks for a bit of good news in the days of the Assam Movement (1985-90), when the youth had sunk to the lowest depths of despair. Newspapers had chilling pages of depressing stories and to read them was to be overcome by an even greater feeling of horror and helplessness. Finally the writer discovers a small piece of news item in a morning paper that gives him hope.
 
 The film has a very structured voice over. But the images are disjoint and abstract, at places, almost accidental. The film uses the freedom afforded by the small digital camcorder to great advantage by framing, or un-framing its subjects in the most unusual, yet gentle manner.
 
 ‘Bhal Khabar’ was screened at MIFF, Film South Asia, Kathmandu, IFFI, Goa, Gorakhpur International film Festival, Public Ka Multiplex, World Social Forum,  and Ballia International film Festival.
 
 JOURNEYS 
 37 min, Colour, 16mm, 2004
 Director – Vinayan Kodoth
 Producer – Anab Jain 
 Camera – Sameer Mahajan
 Sound – V. P. Mohandas  
 Editing – A. M. Narayanan
 Funded by – Jan Vrijman Fund,
 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
 
 What does it mean to be part of a desperate crowd of seven million commuters, to whom the suburban train journey between home and work is a nightmare, everyday, year after year. In Mumbai, a city of 15 million people, life goes on as if nothing is wrong, even as nearly 4000 people are killed in accidents as they fall off trains or are run over on the rail tracks.   
 
 In its treatment, the film uses sound and visual juxtapositions and an active montage to build up this surreal world. The film explores an urban dilemma that is universal and crucial to many other cities and countries. The film has stunning and studied imagery of Bombay city and the essence of traveling on its lifeline, the local train.
 
 Awards:
 Innovation Award, Chicago International Documentary Festival.
 Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary, 42nd Ann Arbor International Film Festival, U.S.A
 Best Short Film, 22nd International Film Festival of Uruguay.
 Best Short Documentary at Documenta Madrid
 EBS Spirit Award at the EBS International Film Festival, Korea.
 Grand Prix OMCT at prestigious Geneva International Film Festival for Human Rights, March 2005




 Venue:

 RR Theatre
 10th floor
 Films Division
 24, Pedder Road
 Mumbai - 400026
 
 Date and time
 Saturday, 1st September, 4 pm
 
 Directions
 Nearest station - Grant Road. From Grant Road (West), take a taxi, or bus no 155 to Pedder Road. The Films Division building is located at the signal diagonally opposite Jaslok Hospital.
 
 Entry is FREE

 
 Regards,
 The FD Zone Team