Document Actions
January 2003
Newsletter- January 2003
CONTENTS:
EVENTS @ SARAI
9th, 10th, 11th City One Conference
15th Media Art Presentation - conVerge: where art and science meet
FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY
17th Tales from Planet Kolkata
24th Chingari Chumma, Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold
31th Fire Within
SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD
5th A Workshop on Information Politics & Media
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
February 28th Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies
March 3rd-5th Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
Sarai wishes all of you a very Happy New Year. The New Year at Sarai begins
with the City One Conference. Read on for more information on activities at
Sarai in the New Year.
EVENTS @ SARAI
January 9th-11th, 2003
City One
Sarai/CSDS
January 15th, 2003, 5:30 pm
ConVerge: where Art and Science Meet
Media Art Presentation
by Amanda McDonald Crowley
ConVerge, a project developed by The Art Gallery of South Australia and the
Adelaide Festival 2002 for the 2002 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art,
explored the nexus between art, science and technology and its creative
expression, and asked "what happens at these points of intersection?" By
bringing together divergent systems of knowledge, conVerge created a vista
into new ways of seeing and understanding the scientific, technological and
cultural developments of our 21 century.
Amanda McDonald Crowley, Associate Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002
will present this exhibition and share her experience of working with the
artists. Exhibiting artists include Justine Cooper, Rebecca Cummins, Jason
Hampton, Adam Donovan, Nigel Helyer, Joyce Hinterding, Ionat Zurr and Oron
Catts, Mangkaja Arts, Martin Walch, Patricia Piccinini, Lynne Sanderson,
Jon McCormack, Fiona Hall and Mari Velonaki.
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.
The presentation will be held at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054.
FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY
This month we focus again on documentary filmmakers.
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.
Friday, January 17th, 2003
Tales From Planet Kolkata
Directed by Ruchir Joshi, 1993, 38 minutes
A documentary film by Ruchir Joshi. Joshi finds fragments of tales in the
course of a journey that takes in old cars, old bars, the filming of the
'city of joy', the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay and the streets of
'planet' Kolkata.
Ruchir Joshi is a filmmaker and writer based in Delhi, where he lives, in
self imposed exile from Planet Kolkata.
Friday January 24th, 2003
Chingari Chumma
Directed by Tejal Shah & Anuj Vaidya, 2000, 9 minutes
"Chingari Chumma is a 'fairytale phantasy' which dives head first into the
spaces of desire that remain unaddressed in the popular culture that
Bollywood constructs. Here is a typical Hindi film climax: the heroine has
been abducted by the bandit and is taken to his den where he invariably
ties her up, or makes her dance; the hero comes just in time to save his
beloved, before the villain can commit the ultimate atrocity.
"Our use of heavily aestheticized music and high camp serves not to mask
desire in melodramatic overtones but to make them explicit - to unleash
desire, especially subversive desire. We take this setup to its logical
extreme, in order to locate and complicate the representations of desire,
and destabilize the archetypal relationships that are played out within
these films."
Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold
Directed by Anuj Vaidya, 2002, 60 minutes
"Meet Helen. Vamp and Vixen. Dancing girl and Diva. But the vamp in the
Hindi film is working against many odds. Her screen time is marginal -
hardly 20 minutes in a two and a half hour film. And the script is never in
her favour - the sympathies lie elsewhere where the moral certitude is.
Helen is corrupt, or rather has been corrupted. Her Indianness is
threatened by the 'western' characteristics she assumes - her blond hair,
her fishnet stockings, her independence, her aggressiveness and most
importantly her sexuality. She stands defiant in the face of the
'circumstances' she finds herself in and is unapologetic about her
lifestyle and the choices she makes. So she must be punished for her
insolence - she must die - which she does very gracefully in most of her
films, after performing her centerpiece cabaret.
"Dance and Die Helen! Helen's death is a moment of great cultural import,
apart from being a very convenient plot point. Her death is a rejection of
western values and the reaffirmation of, or search for, an authentic Indian
morality. She is the ultimate post-colonial subject. Unsure and unarmed.
She is camp, she is grotesque, and yet she is desired. Helen is the
sacrificial lamb -- the place where resistance traces its path. This film
is a search for that intangible narrative that is Helen."
Anuj Vaidya is an artist who works in video, performance and the cusp
between the two mediums.
Friday January 31st, 2003
Fire Within
Directed by Sriprakash, 2002, 57 minutes
A poignant story of the Indian Coal Industry and the people/environment of
Jharkhand spanning over 150 years.
Circa 1774 - the first coal mine was blasted in in the Raniganj Area. The
indigenous people owned this coal rich land till the British dispossessed
them. Come 19th century. The railways were introduced and the extraction of
coal began in a big way. The mines passed into private ownership and the
owners engaged in ruthless exploitation of natural/human resources. Several
committees & commissions diligently worked out technical aspects - how to
extract more coal safely! Environmental & Human aspects of mining were
never a central concern for any one. Then came our tryst with destiny. And
the story continues without any twist.
Twenty five years after the independence - the coal industry was
nationalised and the situation worsened as mafia and corrupt bureaucrats
ushered in an era of violent culture. Today, while approximately Rs. 1000
crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to
five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry.
And the people who owned these mines are left to languish as no one talks
about their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. River
Damodar is the most polluted river today, as a bonus! The open mines are
literally on fire, there is no water and the land has turned totally
infertile. From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to
turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law.
Fire Within draws the painful portrait of the transformation of the land of
the 'Tana Bhagats' a sect of the Oraon Tribe who were believers of
non-violence and Gandhian philosophy to the land witnessing violent
Naxalite movement today.
Sriprakash is an independent filmmaker and activist based in Jharkhand.
SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD
January 5th, 2003, 2:30-6:30 pm
A Workshop on the Information Politics & Media
Venue : Methodist School Room No.19 (Opposite Nizam's College), Hyderabad
The Asian Social Forum, a follow up of the two successful World Social
Forum events organised in Porto Alegre, is being held in Hyderabad from
January 2nd-7th, 2003.
This workshop is organized by Sarai/CSDS, in collaboration with Mahiti
(Bangalore), Indymedia Mumbai (Mumbai),PUKAR (Mumbai) and Aman - Autonomous
Media Network (Delhi)
Themes :
Introducing Tactical Media
Free Speech, Info-Politics and Surveillance
Challenging Online Language Hegemonies
Radio as a Tool for Activism
What Activists can do with the Internet/Building a Website in a Day
Video as a Means of Reflection
Speakers : Aditya Nigam (Aman), Arun Mehta (Radio, Internet and Telecom
Activist), Ravikant (Sarai/CSDS), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai/CSDS),
Sanjay Bhangar (Indymedia Mumbai), Sanjay Kak (Independent Filmmaker),
Shekhar Krishnan (PUKAR), Sunil Abraham (Mahiti)
For details, see - http://www.wsfindia.org/event_manager_list.php?page=9
FORTHCOMING EVENTS: FEBRUARY & MARCH
February 28th, 2003
Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies
3rd Anniversary of Sarai
March 3rd-5th, 2003
Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage
Sarai-Waag Workshop
at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi
Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together media professionals,
activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media, and the crisis of
the media today.
Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday events and
have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisis becomes
commonplace? How can media tell the stories behind/beneath the crisis? How
are the tensions between local/global, mainstream /alternative,
event/representation unfolding? In thinking about these and other
questions, the conference will try to focus on both the ways in which media
cover/create/manage spectacular crisis events, and on the crisis that this
reportage has produced for media itself.
Key Issues:
* Are the Crises in the Media, the Crises of the Media? Where do the lines
between reporting in the mainstream and the alternative media harden, and
where do they blur?
* Has the "broadcast" model, which was the mainstay of the big media
business, proved to be too bulky and too conservative in a world in which
things change by the minute?
* Has the internet really made it possible for correspondents to be
co-respondents to the realties of a changing world?
Panels on:
* South Asia : Bearing Witness to the Truth in Difficult Times
* Correspondents in the Crossfire : Reporting Situations of Conflict
* The Crisis of Everyday Life : Dispatches from Global Cities
* Stories of Earth and Water : Reporting Ecological Crises
* The Future of Global Independent Media Activism
Special focus and reports from South Asia, Argentina, Australia, the Balkans
Activities: Plenaries, Discussions, Open Sessions, Screenings
Pre-Registration:
If you are not presenting a paper but wish to attend the conference, you
can pre-register by sending an email to crisis-media at sarai.net
For details contact rachel at sarai.net
For more information click on
http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm
Watch this space for more details. That's all that we have this January. We
look forward to a sustained and stimulating interaction with you in the
year ahead, at Sarai and online.
Warm Wishes,
Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net
CONTENTS:
EVENTS @ SARAI
9th, 10th, 11th City One Conference
15th Media Art Presentation - conVerge: where art and science meet
FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY
17th Tales from Planet Kolkata
24th Chingari Chumma, Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold
31th Fire Within
SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD
5th A Workshop on Information Politics & Media
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
February 28th Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies
March 3rd-5th Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
Sarai wishes all of you a very Happy New Year. The New Year at Sarai begins
with the City One Conference. Read on for more information on activities at
Sarai in the New Year.
EVENTS @ SARAI
January 9th-11th, 2003
City One
Sarai/CSDS
City One , a cross-disciplinary conference on the urban experience in South
Asia, will be a significant gathering of scholars and practitioners from
different fields and we hope it will open up new agendas for urban research
on South Asian cities. The conference is organized by the Sarai programme
of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
The response to the conference has been overwhelming , and we have been
forced to close registrations. We regret to say that we are unable to
accommodate any last minute requests for registrations, however, you can
still participate by clicking on to
http://www.sarai.net/cityone/cityone.htm on all three days and listen to
live webcasts of all the panels and plenaries. Detailed programmes will
soon be up on our website. Do keep a lookout.
Asia, will be a significant gathering of scholars and practitioners from
different fields and we hope it will open up new agendas for urban research
on South Asian cities. The conference is organized by the Sarai programme
of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
The response to the conference has been overwhelming , and we have been
forced to close registrations. We regret to say that we are unable to
accommodate any last minute requests for registrations, however, you can
still participate by clicking on to
http://www.sarai.net/cityone/cityone.htm on all three days and listen to
live webcasts of all the panels and plenaries. Detailed programmes will
soon be up on our website. Do keep a lookout.
January 15th, 2003, 5:30 pm
ConVerge: where Art and Science Meet
Media Art Presentation
by Amanda McDonald Crowley
ConVerge, a project developed by The Art Gallery of South Australia and the
Adelaide Festival 2002 for the 2002 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art,
explored the nexus between art, science and technology and its creative
expression, and asked "what happens at these points of intersection?" By
bringing together divergent systems of knowledge, conVerge created a vista
into new ways of seeing and understanding the scientific, technological and
cultural developments of our 21 century.
Amanda McDonald Crowley, Associate Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002
will present this exhibition and share her experience of working with the
artists. Exhibiting artists include Justine Cooper, Rebecca Cummins, Jason
Hampton, Adam Donovan, Nigel Helyer, Joyce Hinterding, Ionat Zurr and Oron
Catts, Mangkaja Arts, Martin Walch, Patricia Piccinini, Lynne Sanderson,
Jon McCormack, Fiona Hall and Mari Velonaki.
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.
The presentation will be held at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054.
FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY
This month we focus again on documentary filmmakers.
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.
Friday, January 17th, 2003
Tales From Planet Kolkata
Directed by Ruchir Joshi, 1993, 38 minutes
A documentary film by Ruchir Joshi. Joshi finds fragments of tales in the
course of a journey that takes in old cars, old bars, the filming of the
'city of joy', the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay and the streets of
'planet' Kolkata.
Ruchir Joshi is a filmmaker and writer based in Delhi, where he lives, in
self imposed exile from Planet Kolkata.
Friday January 24th, 2003
Chingari Chumma
Directed by Tejal Shah & Anuj Vaidya, 2000, 9 minutes
"Chingari Chumma is a 'fairytale phantasy' which dives head first into the
spaces of desire that remain unaddressed in the popular culture that
Bollywood constructs. Here is a typical Hindi film climax: the heroine has
been abducted by the bandit and is taken to his den where he invariably
ties her up, or makes her dance; the hero comes just in time to save his
beloved, before the villain can commit the ultimate atrocity.
"Our use of heavily aestheticized music and high camp serves not to mask
desire in melodramatic overtones but to make them explicit - to unleash
desire, especially subversive desire. We take this setup to its logical
extreme, in order to locate and complicate the representations of desire,
and destabilize the archetypal relationships that are played out within
these films."
Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold
Directed by Anuj Vaidya, 2002, 60 minutes
"Meet Helen. Vamp and Vixen. Dancing girl and Diva. But the vamp in the
Hindi film is working against many odds. Her screen time is marginal -
hardly 20 minutes in a two and a half hour film. And the script is never in
her favour - the sympathies lie elsewhere where the moral certitude is.
Helen is corrupt, or rather has been corrupted. Her Indianness is
threatened by the 'western' characteristics she assumes - her blond hair,
her fishnet stockings, her independence, her aggressiveness and most
importantly her sexuality. She stands defiant in the face of the
'circumstances' she finds herself in and is unapologetic about her
lifestyle and the choices she makes. So she must be punished for her
insolence - she must die - which she does very gracefully in most of her
films, after performing her centerpiece cabaret.
"Dance and Die Helen! Helen's death is a moment of great cultural import,
apart from being a very convenient plot point. Her death is a rejection of
western values and the reaffirmation of, or search for, an authentic Indian
morality. She is the ultimate post-colonial subject. Unsure and unarmed.
She is camp, she is grotesque, and yet she is desired. Helen is the
sacrificial lamb -- the place where resistance traces its path. This film
is a search for that intangible narrative that is Helen."
Anuj Vaidya is an artist who works in video, performance and the cusp
between the two mediums.
Friday January 31st, 2003
Fire Within
Directed by Sriprakash, 2002, 57 minutes
A poignant story of the Indian Coal Industry and the people/environment of
Jharkhand spanning over 150 years.
Circa 1774 - the first coal mine was blasted in in the Raniganj Area. The
indigenous people owned this coal rich land till the British dispossessed
them. Come 19th century. The railways were introduced and the extraction of
coal began in a big way. The mines passed into private ownership and the
owners engaged in ruthless exploitation of natural/human resources. Several
committees & commissions diligently worked out technical aspects - how to
extract more coal safely! Environmental & Human aspects of mining were
never a central concern for any one. Then came our tryst with destiny. And
the story continues without any twist.
Twenty five years after the independence - the coal industry was
nationalised and the situation worsened as mafia and corrupt bureaucrats
ushered in an era of violent culture. Today, while approximately Rs. 1000
crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to
five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry.
And the people who owned these mines are left to languish as no one talks
about their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. River
Damodar is the most polluted river today, as a bonus! The open mines are
literally on fire, there is no water and the land has turned totally
infertile. From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to
turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law.
Fire Within draws the painful portrait of the transformation of the land of
the 'Tana Bhagats' a sect of the Oraon Tribe who were believers of
non-violence and Gandhian philosophy to the land witnessing violent
Naxalite movement today.
Sriprakash is an independent filmmaker and activist based in Jharkhand.
SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD
January 5th, 2003, 2:30-6:30 pm
A Workshop on the Information Politics & Media
Venue : Methodist School Room No.19 (Opposite Nizam's College), Hyderabad
The Asian Social Forum, a follow up of the two successful World Social
Forum events organised in Porto Alegre, is being held in Hyderabad from
January 2nd-7th, 2003.
This workshop is organized by Sarai/CSDS, in collaboration with Mahiti
(Bangalore), Indymedia Mumbai (Mumbai),PUKAR (Mumbai) and Aman - Autonomous
Media Network (Delhi)
Themes :
Introducing Tactical Media
Free Speech, Info-Politics and Surveillance
Challenging Online Language Hegemonies
Radio as a Tool for Activism
What Activists can do with the Internet/Building a Website in a Day
Video as a Means of Reflection
Speakers : Aditya Nigam (Aman), Arun Mehta (Radio, Internet and Telecom
Activist), Ravikant (Sarai/CSDS), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai/CSDS),
Sanjay Bhangar (Indymedia Mumbai), Sanjay Kak (Independent Filmmaker),
Shekhar Krishnan (PUKAR), Sunil Abraham (Mahiti)
For details, see - http://www.wsfindia.org/event_manager_list.php?page=9
FORTHCOMING EVENTS: FEBRUARY & MARCH
February 28th, 2003
Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies
3rd Anniversary of Sarai
March 3rd-5th, 2003
Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage
Sarai-Waag Workshop
at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi
Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together media professionals,
activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media, and the crisis of
the media today.
Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday events and
have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisis becomes
commonplace? How can media tell the stories behind/beneath the crisis? How
are the tensions between local/global, mainstream /alternative,
event/representation unfolding? In thinking about these and other
questions, the conference will try to focus on both the ways in which media
cover/create/manage spectacular crisis events, and on the crisis that this
reportage has produced for media itself.
Key Issues:
* Are the Crises in the Media, the Crises of the Media? Where do the lines
between reporting in the mainstream and the alternative media harden, and
where do they blur?
* Has the "broadcast" model, which was the mainstay of the big media
business, proved to be too bulky and too conservative in a world in which
things change by the minute?
* Has the internet really made it possible for correspondents to be
co-respondents to the realties of a changing world?
Panels on:
* South Asia : Bearing Witness to the Truth in Difficult Times
* Correspondents in the Crossfire : Reporting Situations of Conflict
* The Crisis of Everyday Life : Dispatches from Global Cities
* Stories of Earth and Water : Reporting Ecological Crises
* The Future of Global Independent Media Activism
Special focus and reports from South Asia, Argentina, Australia, the Balkans
Activities: Plenaries, Discussions, Open Sessions, Screenings
Pre-Registration:
If you are not presenting a paper but wish to attend the conference, you
can pre-register by sending an email to crisis-media at sarai.net
For details contact rachel at sarai.net
For more information click on
http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm
Watch this space for more details. That's all that we have this January. We
look forward to a sustained and stimulating interaction with you in the
year ahead, at Sarai and online.
Warm Wishes,
Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net