Document Actions
February 2003
Newsletter-February 2003
CONTENTS:
Workshop@ Sarai
22 Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices
Friday Films @ Sarai:
7 Metropolis
14 Clockwork Orange
21 Existenz
City One Conference
Sarai @ Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad
Forthcoming Events:
March 1 Urban Study Group Meet
March 3-5 Crisis Media Workshop
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORKSHOP @ SARAI
Saturday, February 22, 2003
10:30 am – 5 pm
Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices
by Amanda McDonald Crowley
This one day workshop on curatorial practice will focus on new media art,
providing an overview of the following topics:
- New media art practices and access to art work using new technologies
- New media art theory
- Techniques and technical considerations of new media art exhibition
- Audience development
- Collaborative practice
Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator,
researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence,
at Sarai with support from Asialink.
To pre-register email dak at sarai.net
FRIDAY FILMS @ SARAI
All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30 pm at the Seminar Room, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. The films are
listed in the order of screening.
The Archaeology of the Future: Science Fiction @ Sarai
While scanning sci-fi genres in the cinema, we may well wonder if we aren't
confronted with futures past, visionary essays which already seem threatened
with obsolescence. Perhaps these films afford us a sense of the times that
produced them rather than an unattained future condition. Looking back to the
days of early cinema history, it was probably Godard who noted, ironically,
that rather than think of Georges Melies as fantasist and visionary of the
future (amongst his credits was `Man on the Moon'), we should think of him as
a realist, fully alert to technological developments that compose our present
reality. In turn, what is futuristic, anymore, about Fritz Lang's Metropolis
(1926), with its vertiginous highways and its dank subways; the brainwashing
sequences of Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), which were perhaps
already anticipated in cold war fantasies such as The Manchurian Candidate
(John Frankenheimer, 1962, released around the same time as Anthony Burgess's
novel); and how far off is the bio port so central to the imaginings of
Cronenberg's 1999 eXistenZ, when chip implants are so widely advertised in
current scientific practice and biometrics so central to the lineaments of
surveillance regimes?
Rather than visions of a technological future, perhaps we should think of
science fiction as always composed of a layering of times past, present and
future. Consider the Christian narrative of Metropolis, with the angelic
Maria urging workers in the catacombs below the city to bear suffering with
fortitude; or the grotty London council housing, parents attired in
miniskirts and bellbottoms dating to the film's present time in Clockwork
Orange. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), conjures up the neon nights of
Japanese advertising, just as Tarkovsky's 1972 Solaris uses the
spectacular Tokyo flyover for his vision of the future. Blade Runner also
mobilizes the oriental bazaar, where dancers cavort with (mechanical) snakes
cheek by jowl with body part manufacturers. This is the rub: these are not
simply visions of the future, perhaps, but of its contemporary archaeology.
February 7, 2003
Metropolis (1927), 122 minutes
Directed by Fritz Lang
Metropolis, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an
epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite
class.
In 2026, a de-humanized proletariat labours non-stop in a miserable
subterranean city beneath a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying
automobiles, palatial architectural idylls, tubes and tunnels. With
stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and
architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely
future (especially for 1926 when the film was made.) As the elite frolic
above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside
the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. Metropolis is
controlled by a sinister authoritarian whose son, Freder, rejects his
father's callous philosophy and attitude towards labourers. Meek though they
are, the workers are encouraged by Maria, a wistful young woman who wills her
comrades to embrace patience and silent strength. Upon discovering her
influence upon the workers, a mad scientist kidnaps Maria and creates a robot
in her image that will incite the workers to revolt. As Freder races against
time to save Maria and curtail the damage done by her doppelganger robot,
Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a
breathtaking and highly moralistic climax.
February 14, 2003
Clockwork Orange (1971), 131 mins
Directed by Stanley Kubric
CONTENTS:
Workshop@ Sarai
22 Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices
Friday Films @ Sarai:
7 Metropolis
14 Clockwork Orange
21 Existenz
City One Conference
Sarai @ Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad
Forthcoming Events:
March 1 Urban Study Group Meet
March 3-5 Crisis Media Workshop
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORKSHOP @ SARAI
Saturday, February 22, 2003
10:30 am – 5 pm
Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices
by Amanda McDonald Crowley
This one day workshop on curatorial practice will focus on new media art,
providing an overview of the following topics:
- New media art practices and access to art work using new technologies
- New media art theory
- Techniques and technical considerations of new media art exhibition
- Audience development
- Collaborative practice
Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator,
researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence,
at Sarai with support from Asialink.
To pre-register email dak at sarai.net
FRIDAY FILMS @ SARAI
All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30 pm at the Seminar Room, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. The films are
listed in the order of screening.
The Archaeology of the Future: Science Fiction @ Sarai
While scanning sci-fi genres in the cinema, we may well wonder if we aren't
confronted with futures past, visionary essays which already seem threatened
with obsolescence. Perhaps these films afford us a sense of the times that
produced them rather than an unattained future condition. Looking back to the
days of early cinema history, it was probably Godard who noted, ironically,
that rather than think of Georges Melies as fantasist and visionary of the
future (amongst his credits was `Man on the Moon'), we should think of him as
a realist, fully alert to technological developments that compose our present
reality. In turn, what is futuristic, anymore, about Fritz Lang's Metropolis
(1926), with its vertiginous highways and its dank subways; the brainwashing
sequences of Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), which were perhaps
already anticipated in cold war fantasies such as The Manchurian Candidate
(John Frankenheimer, 1962, released around the same time as Anthony Burgess's
novel); and how far off is the bio port so central to the imaginings of
Cronenberg's 1999 eXistenZ, when chip implants are so widely advertised in
current scientific practice and biometrics so central to the lineaments of
surveillance regimes?
Rather than visions of a technological future, perhaps we should think of
science fiction as always composed of a layering of times past, present and
future. Consider the Christian narrative of Metropolis, with the angelic
Maria urging workers in the catacombs below the city to bear suffering with
fortitude; or the grotty London council housing, parents attired in
miniskirts and bellbottoms dating to the film's present time in Clockwork
Orange. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), conjures up the neon nights of
Japanese advertising, just as Tarkovsky's 1972 Solaris uses the
spectacular Tokyo flyover for his vision of the future. Blade Runner also
mobilizes the oriental bazaar, where dancers cavort with (mechanical) snakes
cheek by jowl with body part manufacturers. This is the rub: these are not
simply visions of the future, perhaps, but of its contemporary archaeology.
February 7, 2003
Metropolis (1927), 122 minutes
Directed by Fritz Lang
Metropolis, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an
epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite
class.
In 2026, a de-humanized proletariat labours non-stop in a miserable
subterranean city beneath a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying
automobiles, palatial architectural idylls, tubes and tunnels. With
stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and
architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely
future (especially for 1926 when the film was made.) As the elite frolic
above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside
the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. Metropolis is
controlled by a sinister authoritarian whose son, Freder, rejects his
father's callous philosophy and attitude towards labourers. Meek though they
are, the workers are encouraged by Maria, a wistful young woman who wills her
comrades to embrace patience and silent strength. Upon discovering her
influence upon the workers, a mad scientist kidnaps Maria and creates a robot
in her image that will incite the workers to revolt. As Freder races against
time to save Maria and curtail the damage done by her doppelganger robot,
Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a
breathtaking and highly moralistic climax.
February 14, 2003
Clockwork Orange (1971), 131 mins
Directed by Stanley Kubric
Stanley Kubrick dissects the nature of violence in this darkly ironic, near-future
satire, adapted from Anthony Burgess' novel, complete with "Nadsat" slang.
Classical music-loving proto-punk Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "Droogs" s
pend their nights getting high at the Korova Milkbar before embarking on
"a little of the old ultraviolence," such as terrorizing a writer, Mr. Alexander
(Patrick Maqee), and raping his wife while jauntily warbling "Singin' in the Rain."
After Alex is jailed for bludgeoning the Cat Lady (Miriam Karlin) to death with
one of her phallic sculptures, Alex submits to the Ludovico behavior modification
technique to earn his freedom; he's conditioned to abhor violence through
watching gory movies, and even his adored Beethoven is turned against him.
Returned to the world defenseless, Alex becomes the victim of his prior victims,
with Mr. Alexander using Beethoven's Ninth to inflict the greatest pain of all.
When society sees what the state has done to Alex, however, the politically
expedient move is made. Casting a coldly pessimistic view on the then-future
of the late '70s-early '80s, Kubrick and production designer John Barry created
a world of high-tech cultural decay, mixing old details like bowler hats with bizarrely
alienating "new" environments like the Milkbar. Alex's violence is horrific, yet it
is an aesthetically calculated fact of his existence; his charisma makes the icily
clinical Ludovico treatment seem more negatively abusive than positively
therapeutic. Alex may be a sadist, but the state's autocratic control is another
violent act, rather than a solution. On the heels of New York Film Critics Circle
awards as Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, Kubrick received Oscar
nominations in all three categories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warm Wishes,
Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net
satire, adapted from Anthony Burgess' novel, complete with "Nadsat" slang.
Classical music-loving proto-punk Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "Droogs" s
pend their nights getting high at the Korova Milkbar before embarking on
"a little of the old ultraviolence," such as terrorizing a writer, Mr. Alexander
(Patrick Maqee), and raping his wife while jauntily warbling "Singin' in the Rain."
After Alex is jailed for bludgeoning the Cat Lady (Miriam Karlin) to death with
one of her phallic sculptures, Alex submits to the Ludovico behavior modification
technique to earn his freedom; he's conditioned to abhor violence through
watching gory movies, and even his adored Beethoven is turned against him.
Returned to the world defenseless, Alex becomes the victim of his prior victims,
with Mr. Alexander using Beethoven's Ninth to inflict the greatest pain of all.
When society sees what the state has done to Alex, however, the politically
expedient move is made. Casting a coldly pessimistic view on the then-future
of the late '70s-early '80s, Kubrick and production designer John Barry created
a world of high-tech cultural decay, mixing old details like bowler hats with bizarrely
alienating "new" environments like the Milkbar. Alex's violence is horrific, yet it
is an aesthetically calculated fact of his existence; his charisma makes the icily
clinical Ludovico treatment seem more negatively abusive than positively
therapeutic. Alex may be a sadist, but the state's autocratic control is another
violent act, rather than a solution. On the heels of New York Film Critics Circle
awards as Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, Kubrick received Oscar
nominations in all three categories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'FRIENDS OF SIDDHARTHA' LESBIAN & GAY
ANNUAL FILM FESTIVAL
celebrates 10 years with an evening of short films & discussion
A TRIBUTE TO SIDDHARTHA GAUTAM
on Sunday, February 16, 2003, 3 pm to 8 pm
at SARAI, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi
110054.
The Friends of Siddhartha is an informal group that comes together each year
to organise a day of films on Lesbian & Gay Sexuality. This event is held in
the memory of Siddhartha Gautam who died of cancer in 1992.
Siddhartha was a lawyer and well-known human rights activist. He was intensely
involved in challenging discrimination against sexual minorities and people
with HIV/AIDS and was instrumental in bringing out a path-breaking report
called 'Less than Gay' on the status of homosexuality in India just before he
died. The festival has been held since 1993. With this event, we seek to
continue Siddhartha's engagement with these issues, and through it, pay our
tribute to the vision and spirit of Siddhartha. Over the years the event has
provided a safe space for people to dialogue on issues relating to lesbian,
gay and other alternate sexualities, and also provided a forum for members of
the community.
Schedule
3.00 pm: Introduction to the Festival
3.05 pm: 'A Letter from Home', David Kalal & Gita Reddy, 1996, USA. Written &
Performed by Shaffiq Essajee, 12 mins
A humourous and touching piece where Essajee brings out his relationship with
his mother and draws a sketch of her life, desires and anguish as he reads
out a letter she writes to him, her gay son, when he leaves for the US.
3.20 pm: 'For Straights Only', Vismita Gupta Smith, 2001, USA & India, 22 mins
"All that is good in the Indian culture is for straights only", says the
filmmaker who makes this film after she finds out that her brother is gay.
The film traces what it was like for him and others like him to grow up
gay/lesbian in the 'perfect' Indian and Asian family, and brings out their
struggles of coming out to and be accepted in their families.
3.40 pm: 'Julpari', Swati & Leith Murgai 1996, USA, 21.36 mins
"Drag is not about life, but being larger than life", says Faraz Ahmed or
Julpari, the protagonist of this film about drag queens in New York City. The
film presents members of SALGA, South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association of NYC
as they talk about how they live their lives and what it means for them to be
a part of a larger community. Interspersed with fun dance sequences to Hindi
film songs.
4.00 pm: 'Tom, Dick & Haresh', Mathew Parsons, India, 13.30 mins
A group of men who have sex with men (MSMs) in Chennai talk about the men they
love and how their lives are affected as a result of their life styles and
AIDS. Some of them are field workers in the Community Action Network working
for AIDS prevention.
4.15 pm: 'Apoornathakal' (The Incomplete), Bala Murali, India, 2001, 23 mins
Apoornathakal is the story of a young man trying to come to terms with the
death of his childhood friend - a friend with whom he shared intense love. It
is the memory of moments spent together, of shared conversations and hints of
intrigue surrounding the death that continue to haunt the living.
Apoornathakal is based on a true story.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmaker and followed by
a discussion with him.)
5.00 pm: Break
5.20 pm: 'Tedhi Lakeer - The Broken Line', Amrit Sharma, Aparna Sanyal,
Arunima Shankar, 2003, India, 27 mins
Made as part of a final project under the Masters programme at MCRC. The young
filmmakers seek to tell the stories of two ordinary non-English speaking gay
men living in conservative middle class India in a hope to 'shatter the
Indian perception of homosexuality as a western import'.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmakers and followed
by a discussion with them.)
6.10 pm: 'Lakme Takes Flight', by Sheila James & Melina Young, Canada, 13 mins
Explores the fantasy of a woman, Lakme, as she takes a flight with a saucy,
young flight attendant and pilot.
6.25 pm: 'Beauty Parlour', Mehreen Jabbar, India, 2000, 18 mins
4 faces, 4 masks: 4 short sketches of the lives and loves of 3 women and a
eunuch as they talk about their desires traced through their visits to the
beauty parlour and other everyday events.
6.45 pm: 'Unmapping Desire', Sheila James, Canada, 1999, 7 mins
A short poetic piece for a lover, using the body to map desire, relationships
and borders that separate nations and loves.
6.55 pm: 'Sum Total - A Matrimonial' & 'Barefeet', 'S', USA, 8 mins
2 short films. In the first one the filmmaker talks about what goes into
making of herself as a strong lesbian woman 'not fit for marriage'. The
second is a nostalgic piece about leaving and returning home, a place that
brings up many contradictions and emotions for her.
7.05: 'Kashish', Meenakshi Rai & Vinay Rai, 2003, India, 30 mins
2 women explore their attraction to each other.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmakers and followed
by a discussion with them.)
--------------------------------------
The programme is subject to last-minute changes.
Entry: There are no tickets or passes, but Friends of Siddhartha welcomes
contributions to help cover costs. Suggested contribution: Rs 50/- for
students Rs 100/- for others.
For further information contact:
Anuja (for Friends of Siddhartha) at 26238466 (o), 9811213316 (Mobile)
Ranita (for Sarai) at 23960040, 23951190
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday Films @ Sarai:
Films for February and March
ASIAN FILM CULTURES JAPANIME,
curated by Diya Mehra
The graphic form has a long and significant history in Japanese visual and textual
culture. Since the 1940's and 50's it has emerged in comic book form as 'Manga'
which has subsequently developed into the most highly read medium in the country
and is increasingly been used as the basis of animated films and television series -
some examples of which Sarai presents in its Japanime series.
Manga are akin to graphic novels, wherein stories are lengthy and serialized,
characters and plot lines complex yet discrete making the volume of Manga
produced extremely large. In its visual style, Manga is drawn in elongated narrow
cells, proliferating detail, visual vantage points and imaginative and thematic
possibilities only open to animation. Many genres of Manga have emerged - from
the pornograhic to Pokeman.
In the complex and abundant world of Japanese popular culture,
genres have come to be associated with particular niche markets.
They are drawn by gender and age and use specific tropes and milieus to address
fundamental questions on technology, the media, the environment
and popular culture in Japanese contemporary society. The three films included
here represent three specific sub-genres of Manga. 'Ghost is the Shell' is "mecha"
anime concerned with technology in the form of robots,transformative armor,
cyborgs and more recently artificial intelligence. 'Perfect Blue' is a psychological
thriller about a pop star, her fans and the multi-mediated world. 'My Neighbor Totoro',
a children'sfilm directed by Hayao Miyazaki , emerges from an anime studio that is
unique in its production - producing mythical and allegorical tales that often draw
on Japanese folklore.
February 28, 2003, 4:30 pm
GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995),
120 minutes
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Set in 21st century Hong Kong, the film centres on anti-terrorist police
forces that fight the Puppet Master - a formless self-generated secret agent
who hacks his way into net-connected cyborgs and takes over their bodies. By
fighting the Puppet Master, the film's heroine, a cyborg herself, is forced
to question the origins of her own "ghost" or soul and the challenge the
technology presents to her own humanity. When the Puppet Master appears,
as a ghost in the shell of a female cyborg,he/she/it turns out to be something
new under the sun, an intelligence that has never been human. A fragment of
computer virus that replicated itself and acquired sentience, the Puppet Master has
commandeered a body in order to demand "political asylum," the rights that any
other "life form" would be entitled to."What if a cyber-brain could generate its own
'ghost'?"wonders the mostly cybernetic heroine -- with the "ghost" of the title
nderstood not just the sum total of a person's memories but the bedrock of her
self-awareness. If that essence can take up residence as easily in a mechanical as
in an organic system, "then what's the value of being human?"
March 21, 2003, 4:30 pm
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (1988),
87 minutes
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Set in the 1950's 'My Neighbour Totoro' tells the
story of Satsuki, aged ten, and Mei, aged four, and their father who move to the
Japanese countryside to provide a healthy environment for their mother when
she is able to leave the hospital. The children spend their days exploring their
new home and neighbourhood, which is when Mei discovers the existence of
Totoros - magical forest spirits which only children can see.
What follows are a series of delightful and often surreal adventures set among
Miyazaki's sublime summary landscape.Totoro is not based on any exact Japanese
mythological or folk character, but does spring from the idea of nature spirits
in Japanese culture. Miyazaki's vision encompasses both a nostalgia for a lost
lifestyle since most of these rural areas near Tokyo have been converted into
crowded suburbs by now and also an exploration of the natural world that is
central to his work. While his later works grapple more directly with questions of
ecology in 'My Neighbor Totoro', Miyazaki reveals through the enormous detail
and perceptive quality of his work a seamless interaction that appears to him to
be crucial to it.
March 28, 2003, 4:30 pm
PERFECT BLUE (1999),
80 minutes
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Mima abandons her pop star career to opt for a career in television soaps,
alienating the male fans of her sugar-candy past. When she accepts a part that
involves her being raped, her life begins to fall apart. She discovers internet
sites describing every detail of her life. Helpless and afraid, she watches as her
associates are threatened and killed by a mysterious stalker, who she sees
everywhere. When Mima's TV drama begins mimicking her everyday life, she
can no longer tell the difference between television, hallucination and real life.
The film develops a complex structure for Mima's psychosis, exaggerating elements
of pop and Manga as product and form, and interweaving elements from her different
realities to consider the relationships between media, celebrity and technology.
ANNUAL FILM FESTIVAL
celebrates 10 years with an evening of short films & discussion
A TRIBUTE TO SIDDHARTHA GAUTAM
on Sunday, February 16, 2003, 3 pm to 8 pm
at SARAI, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi
110054.
The Friends of Siddhartha is an informal group that comes together each year
to organise a day of films on Lesbian & Gay Sexuality. This event is held in
the memory of Siddhartha Gautam who died of cancer in 1992.
Siddhartha was a lawyer and well-known human rights activist. He was intensely
involved in challenging discrimination against sexual minorities and people
with HIV/AIDS and was instrumental in bringing out a path-breaking report
called 'Less than Gay' on the status of homosexuality in India just before he
died. The festival has been held since 1993. With this event, we seek to
continue Siddhartha's engagement with these issues, and through it, pay our
tribute to the vision and spirit of Siddhartha. Over the years the event has
provided a safe space for people to dialogue on issues relating to lesbian,
gay and other alternate sexualities, and also provided a forum for members of
the community.
Schedule
3.00 pm: Introduction to the Festival
3.05 pm: 'A Letter from Home', David Kalal & Gita Reddy, 1996, USA. Written &
Performed by Shaffiq Essajee, 12 mins
A humourous and touching piece where Essajee brings out his relationship with
his mother and draws a sketch of her life, desires and anguish as he reads
out a letter she writes to him, her gay son, when he leaves for the US.
3.20 pm: 'For Straights Only', Vismita Gupta Smith, 2001, USA & India, 22 mins
"All that is good in the Indian culture is for straights only", says the
filmmaker who makes this film after she finds out that her brother is gay.
The film traces what it was like for him and others like him to grow up
gay/lesbian in the 'perfect' Indian and Asian family, and brings out their
struggles of coming out to and be accepted in their families.
3.40 pm: 'Julpari', Swati & Leith Murgai 1996, USA, 21.36 mins
"Drag is not about life, but being larger than life", says Faraz Ahmed or
Julpari, the protagonist of this film about drag queens in New York City. The
film presents members of SALGA, South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association of NYC
as they talk about how they live their lives and what it means for them to be
a part of a larger community. Interspersed with fun dance sequences to Hindi
film songs.
4.00 pm: 'Tom, Dick & Haresh', Mathew Parsons, India, 13.30 mins
A group of men who have sex with men (MSMs) in Chennai talk about the men they
love and how their lives are affected as a result of their life styles and
AIDS. Some of them are field workers in the Community Action Network working
for AIDS prevention.
4.15 pm: 'Apoornathakal' (The Incomplete), Bala Murali, India, 2001, 23 mins
Apoornathakal is the story of a young man trying to come to terms with the
death of his childhood friend - a friend with whom he shared intense love. It
is the memory of moments spent together, of shared conversations and hints of
intrigue surrounding the death that continue to haunt the living.
Apoornathakal is based on a true story.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmaker and followed by
a discussion with him.)
5.00 pm: Break
5.20 pm: 'Tedhi Lakeer - The Broken Line', Amrit Sharma, Aparna Sanyal,
Arunima Shankar, 2003, India, 27 mins
Made as part of a final project under the Masters programme at MCRC. The young
filmmakers seek to tell the stories of two ordinary non-English speaking gay
men living in conservative middle class India in a hope to 'shatter the
Indian perception of homosexuality as a western import'.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmakers and followed
by a discussion with them.)
6.10 pm: 'Lakme Takes Flight', by Sheila James & Melina Young, Canada, 13 mins
Explores the fantasy of a woman, Lakme, as she takes a flight with a saucy,
young flight attendant and pilot.
6.25 pm: 'Beauty Parlour', Mehreen Jabbar, India, 2000, 18 mins
4 faces, 4 masks: 4 short sketches of the lives and loves of 3 women and a
eunuch as they talk about their desires traced through their visits to the
beauty parlour and other everyday events.
6.45 pm: 'Unmapping Desire', Sheila James, Canada, 1999, 7 mins
A short poetic piece for a lover, using the body to map desire, relationships
and borders that separate nations and loves.
6.55 pm: 'Sum Total - A Matrimonial' & 'Barefeet', 'S', USA, 8 mins
2 short films. In the first one the filmmaker talks about what goes into
making of herself as a strong lesbian woman 'not fit for marriage'. The
second is a nostalgic piece about leaving and returning home, a place that
brings up many contradictions and emotions for her.
7.05: 'Kashish', Meenakshi Rai & Vinay Rai, 2003, India, 30 mins
2 women explore their attraction to each other.
(The film will be preceded by an introduction by the filmmakers and followed
by a discussion with them.)
--------------------------------------
The programme is subject to last-minute changes.
Entry: There are no tickets or passes, but Friends of Siddhartha welcomes
contributions to help cover costs. Suggested contribution: Rs 50/- for
students Rs 100/- for others.
For further information contact:
Anuja (for Friends of Siddhartha) at 26238466 (o), 9811213316 (Mobile)
Ranita (for Sarai) at 23960040, 23951190
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday Films @ Sarai:
Films for February and March
ASIAN FILM CULTURES JAPANIME,
curated by Diya Mehra
The graphic form has a long and significant history in Japanese visual and textual
culture. Since the 1940's and 50's it has emerged in comic book form as 'Manga'
which has subsequently developed into the most highly read medium in the country
and is increasingly been used as the basis of animated films and television series -
some examples of which Sarai presents in its Japanime series.
Manga are akin to graphic novels, wherein stories are lengthy and serialized,
characters and plot lines complex yet discrete making the volume of Manga
produced extremely large. In its visual style, Manga is drawn in elongated narrow
cells, proliferating detail, visual vantage points and imaginative and thematic
possibilities only open to animation. Many genres of Manga have emerged - from
the pornograhic to Pokeman.
In the complex and abundant world of Japanese popular culture,
genres have come to be associated with particular niche markets.
They are drawn by gender and age and use specific tropes and milieus to address
fundamental questions on technology, the media, the environment
and popular culture in Japanese contemporary society. The three films included
here represent three specific sub-genres of Manga. 'Ghost is the Shell' is "mecha"
anime concerned with technology in the form of robots,transformative armor,
cyborgs and more recently artificial intelligence. 'Perfect Blue' is a psychological
thriller about a pop star, her fans and the multi-mediated world. 'My Neighbor Totoro',
a children'sfilm directed by Hayao Miyazaki , emerges from an anime studio that is
unique in its production - producing mythical and allegorical tales that often draw
on Japanese folklore.
February 28, 2003, 4:30 pm
GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995),
120 minutes
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Set in 21st century Hong Kong, the film centres on anti-terrorist police
forces that fight the Puppet Master - a formless self-generated secret agent
who hacks his way into net-connected cyborgs and takes over their bodies. By
fighting the Puppet Master, the film's heroine, a cyborg herself, is forced
to question the origins of her own "ghost" or soul and the challenge the
technology presents to her own humanity. When the Puppet Master appears,
as a ghost in the shell of a female cyborg,he/she/it turns out to be something
new under the sun, an intelligence that has never been human. A fragment of
computer virus that replicated itself and acquired sentience, the Puppet Master has
commandeered a body in order to demand "political asylum," the rights that any
other "life form" would be entitled to."What if a cyber-brain could generate its own
'ghost'?"wonders the mostly cybernetic heroine -- with the "ghost" of the title
nderstood not just the sum total of a person's memories but the bedrock of her
self-awareness. If that essence can take up residence as easily in a mechanical as
in an organic system, "then what's the value of being human?"
March 21, 2003, 4:30 pm
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (1988),
87 minutes
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Set in the 1950's 'My Neighbour Totoro' tells the
story of Satsuki, aged ten, and Mei, aged four, and their father who move to the
Japanese countryside to provide a healthy environment for their mother when
she is able to leave the hospital. The children spend their days exploring their
new home and neighbourhood, which is when Mei discovers the existence of
Totoros - magical forest spirits which only children can see.
What follows are a series of delightful and often surreal adventures set among
Miyazaki's sublime summary landscape.Totoro is not based on any exact Japanese
mythological or folk character, but does spring from the idea of nature spirits
in Japanese culture. Miyazaki's vision encompasses both a nostalgia for a lost
lifestyle since most of these rural areas near Tokyo have been converted into
crowded suburbs by now and also an exploration of the natural world that is
central to his work. While his later works grapple more directly with questions of
ecology in 'My Neighbor Totoro', Miyazaki reveals through the enormous detail
and perceptive quality of his work a seamless interaction that appears to him to
be crucial to it.
March 28, 2003, 4:30 pm
PERFECT BLUE (1999),
80 minutes
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Mima abandons her pop star career to opt for a career in television soaps,
alienating the male fans of her sugar-candy past. When she accepts a part that
involves her being raped, her life begins to fall apart. She discovers internet
sites describing every detail of her life. Helpless and afraid, she watches as her
associates are threatened and killed by a mysterious stalker, who she sees
everywhere. When Mima's TV drama begins mimicking her everyday life, she
can no longer tell the difference between television, hallucination and real life.
The film develops a complex structure for Mima's psychosis, exaggerating elements
of pop and Manga as product and form, and interweaving elements from her different
realities to consider the relationships between media, celebrity and technology.
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Warm Wishes,
Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net